Ed Woodward era ends: Five decisions that made the Manchester United CEO unpopular

On January 6, Manchester United confirmed that their executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward would leave the club on February 1. Group managing director of the club Richard Arnold will be the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Woodward joined the Red Devils in 2013 as the club CEO, after the club's legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson parted ways with the club after 26 years. The new CEO had a very difficult job in his hand. He was taking charge of a team that had won 13 Premier League titles in the last three decades and had set a very high standard for themselves. Living up to that success was always going to be tough. In fact, Woodward acknowledged that the shock departure of Ferguson made the start of his tenure incredibly challenging and he was devastated he didn’t get to work alongside a man he believes to be "a genius".

The start wasn't ideal for the new CEO as he could manage to sign only one player in the summer of 2013, Marouane Fellaini from Everton, that too on the transfer deadline day.

Now, nine years and over £1 billion spent on transfers, the club won a Europa League, a FA Cup and a League cup. They did not win a single Premier League during Woodward's time. And there were multiple times when Woodward was the target of fans' ire after perceived underperformance in the transfer market.

The English club gained a reputation for overpaying players and for not signing the right players at the right time, leaving the United managers unsatisfied at times. And Woodward was blamed in many quarters for this.

As the Englishman's stint comes to an end at Old Trafford, we take a look at five instances when Woodward was accused to have let down the fans and the club.