'No d---heads' policy: The man driving change at Man Utd

Manchester United had just been beaten by Brighton when the club’s key football decision-makers assembled in their Carrington nerve centre, unaware at that stage there would be an even more bruising defeat to Brentford to follow.

After manager Erik ten Hag finally agreed to abandon their 14-week pursuit of Frenkie de Jong, the greenlight was given to sign Casemiro, whom they had been keeping warm as far back as late June.

United’s senior scouts, Simon Wells, Mick Court and Jose Mayorga, who had effectively moved into the club’s training base in August, were present along with head of recruitment operations Steve Brown, transfer consultant Tom Keane, football director John Murtough and his deputy, Andy O’Boyle. In the background sat Richard Arnold.

The United chief executive was not there to interfere. “Richard never inputted on football decisions like that but wanted to make sure he understood why they were being made,” one source with knowledge of the process said.

Or, in this specific case, why United were ready to commit £60 million to sign a 30-year-old midfielder from Real Madrid, not least as he was the one who would be going to the Glazer family to request the club’s owners significantly loosen the purse strings.

“Richard exerted just the right level of accountability, which is a CEO’s job,” another source said. “What he didn’t sit there asking is, ‘Has the player got an engine, can he knit defence and attack?’”

'No d---heads' policy

Tired of seeing the club at the mercy of troublemakers and problem players, Arnold had only one edict on transfers to Murtough and Ten Hag as part of their moves to reshape the dressing room: “No d---heads,” he would tell them.

He was central to convincing the Glazers to allow United to spend around £75m more than they had budgeted for last summer but he is also a man of principle. Extra money was coughed up on the understanding that there would be little if anything to spend this month and it is Arnold who was the one reminding Ten Hag of that when the manager was privately angling for more funds to sign the Netherlands forward Cody Gakpo, who ended up joining Liverpool from PSV Eindhoven for £44m. “He’s pretty good at managing those tensions,” a source said.

Indeed, the most fundamental change in the 12 months since Arnold replaced Ed Woodward at Old Trafford has been the sharp shift in power away from the club’s swanky Stratton Street offices in Mayfair back to the Manchester heartland and the empowerment of key department heads, notably those running football. Murtough, Ten Hag and their teams now have autonomy to dictate football matters, free of the influence of a small posse of corporate financiers, and the results have been clear for all to see, on and off the pitch.

At the same time, Arnold – who bases himself out of Old Trafford and lives a short drive away in Cheshire, from where his family hail – became the visible presence on the ground in Manchester that Woodward never was. “The biggest single change is Manchester United is now run on an axis between Old Trafford and Carrington where previously it was a triangle with the most powerful element in Mayfair,” said one insider. Or, as another source put it less charitably: “It’s a silly CEO who puts himself in an ivory tower away from his people”.

Arnold’s appointment was not without controversy. There was scrutiny around the Glazers’ reluctance to run a thorough external process and questions about Arnold’s inexperience in such a role, even though he had been the brains behind the club’s successful commercial arm and run day-to-day operations at Old Trafford. “Richard Arnold might end up being the best football club CEO in the world but he’s a learner – he’s never done it before,” one figure who has worked at the club said.

Concerns were also aired, albeit misguidedly, in some quarters about his perceived closeness with and similarities to Woodward, whose resignation followed the collapse of the reviled European Super League (ESL) plot in April 2021 that the former executive vice-chairman strived to distance himself from. Such suggestions have always been a source of bemusement for those who know Arnold, his character and the way he works.

“There was some kind of perception that Richard was Woodward’s side-kick but he was terribly careful about where and how he honed his particular attributes,” one insider said. Another added: “The friendship was overstated. They are very different personalities.”

A lack of ego

Although an “Alpha male” in some regards, Arnold is not a shouter or someone prone to losing his temper. Outside perceptions of an “obnoxious” figurehead tend to be hastily redrawn once people have met him. Numerous United staff have commented to Telegraph Sport on how he always listens, runs a genuine open-door policy and “will take the mickey out of himself or hold his hands up when he’s wrong”.

His lack of ego has also been noted and he believes he will only ever be as good as the team around him.

Others have come to appreciate his personal touch and accessibility. Arnold, for example, was serving food in the Old Trafford canteen the other week and is fond of mixing with all staff. If he does not like something, though, he will be sure to tell people and it was Arnold who enlisted the organisational consulting giants, Korn Ferry, to review where in their workforce they were weak, strong or deficient as part of his drive to create a “best in class” culture.

Those familiar with Arnold say he does not believe they have achieved anything yet and that any praise will only be warranted if and when the club are back winning things and competing consistently again in the Champions League.

Arnold – who declined to be interviewed for this article – has reopened the channels of communication with Sir Alex Ferguson and the club’s former chief executive David Gill and enjoys a strong relationship with both. His determination to empower colleagues has also been revealed in the responsibilities afforded the club’s general counsel, Patrick Stewart, now a director. Stewart is on many of the stakeholder working groups and a key figure alongside Arnold in rebuilding the club’s relationship with Uefa and the Premier League in the wake of the ESL debacle.

Arnold is also believed to have been influential in the Glazers opting not take the latest dividend payment. Since buying the club in 2005, more than £160m has been paid out in dividends, one of many cash drains that has infuriated supporters. But, for the first time for six years, it emerged last month that the six Glazer siblings did not approve the latest semi-annual payment to shareholders.

Joel Glazer, the United co-chairman who had been taken to task over the divisive issue by the club’s fan advisory board at one meeting in the wake of the ESL collapse, aligned with Arnold in concluding that continuation of the dividend was hard to justify with cash reserves heavily depleted following the Covid pandemic and the big capital investment needs ahead. The rest of the Glazer family then fell into line on the matter.

The move freed up around £20m to be reinvested in the club, slim pickings in the context of the money sucked out of Old Trafford in debt and interest repayments under Glazer rule but a small step forward all the same.

Many of the fans’ groups credit Arnold with being the driving force behind supporter re-engagement and heavily responsible for dragging relations out of the mire while appreciating his honest, upfront approach. Arnold’s first senior appointment as chief executive was that of Rick McGagh as fan engagement officer, which reflected his belief that supporters needed to be listened to far more on an array of issues.

Going forward, Arnold now faces a challenge to ensure United’s plans are not undermined or distracted by the potential sale process, particularly if it becomes drawn out and the squeeze on spending more pronounced. He must also do that knowing there are no guarantees over his own position should the Glazers sell. “This is one of the biggest underlying issues for Richard now,” one source said. “Stitching the fabric of the business together while the owners are uncertain about how they are going to take it forward”.