Manchester United: Ed Woodward must show negotiation skills again this summer

Manchester United’s Ed Woodward outsmarted Jorge Mendes and Florentino Perez in the David de Gea transfer saga. Woodward now needs to keep up the pace while dealing with Zlatan Ibrahimovic this summer.

In case your memory faded, Ed Woodward pulled off the heist of the 2015 summer transfer window. The executive vice-chairman of Manchester United somehow prevented his number one goalkeeper from defecting to Real Madrid, despite the transfer speculation for the entire summer.

De Gea, whose contract would expire a summer later, refused to sign a contract extension, leaving Woodward in a lose-lose situation. Either he had to let go his goalkeeper or losing him for free the following summer – which in either case de Gea would have gone to the capital of Spain.

Woodward’s plan played out to a perfection. He exiled the Spanish from the squad and was smart enough to defer any transfer talks until the final hours of transfer deadline Day. Real Madrid ran out of time, the transfer failed because of a “broken fax machine”, and de Gea had no choice but agreeing with an extension of his contract.

Woodward will need much of the same to deal with Zlatan Ibrahimovic this summer. The Swedish tore his ACL after an awkward landing in the game against Anderlecht, and is expected to miss the remainder of the calendar year.

Ibrahimovic’s contract will expire this June. Considering his age and his severe injury, not so many teams will be interested in gambling for the pricey Swede, who reportedly expects to receive no less than $300,000 per week.

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Manchester United has an option to extend the deal for a further 12 months, and Woodward must weigh all the pros and cons of keeping the Swedish on his payroll.

There’s no doubt that Ibrahimovic has played a huge role in United’s turbulent season so far. He has scored 28 goals in all competitions, single-handedly keeping United on track for a spot in the UEFA Champions League next season.

However, at times Ibrahimovic is a burden because of his lack of pace and poor finishing. Per whoscored, his conversion rate of 14.6 percent puts Ibrahimovic among one of the most wasteful strikers in Premier League.

In addition, his presence comes at the expense of two promising stars, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial. Both have done well in the absence of the 35-years-old in the past two games, and will be asked for more the same for the rest of the season.

Rashford and Martial need playing time to develop their skills, but Ibrahimovic has been a major impact this season. To make matters worse, Ibrahimovic is represented by Mino Raiola, an agent who directed his client’s spectacular escape from Juventus and Barcelona.

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Raiola will do everything to make sure his client won’t be unemployed at the start of the season. Meanwhile, United needs the Swede’s service for at least one more season, but the team isn’t willing to pay $300,000 per week to a player who will be on the sidelines for much of the first half of the season.

Woodward walked out victorious in the battle against Jorge Mendes and Florentino Perez. This mind game is expected to be even more challenging, with Woodward having to find a compromise with a troublemaker agent and a more egotistical player.

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