Former Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has been left with egg on his face over rave reviews he gave Brandon Williams several years ago.
The 52-year-old was never able to deliver the level of success that he planned to oversee at Old Trafford and eventually resigned in January 2022.
Woodward made several costly mistakes during his time leading United’s recruitment, despite having good intentions of investing big money to take the club back to their glory days.
His struggles in identifying talent have now been underlined further.
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The former executive was keen to bring through young talent from the club's academy, though comments he made about Williams - whom he had a very favourable view of - suggest why things went so wrong for Woodward.
Williams came through the Red Devils’ academy and made his first-team debut against Rochdale in the League Cup in September 2019.
He remained on the fringes of the team for the remainder of the campaign, with his versatility proving useful as he could play on either side of defence.
However, The Athletic report that Woodward overestimated the importance of the defender in United’s 2-1 defeat to Astana in the Europa League. Williams did not feature despite Ole Gunnar Solskjaer fielding a youthful side full of academy graduates.
Whilst away on the trip, Woodward informed some individuals on the trip that Williams was now viewed as United’s first-choice left-back and he had overtaken Luke Shaw in the pecking order at Old Trafford.
Questions were raised at the time about that opinion and whether it was ‘too soon’ to be comparing the two given Williams had limited first-team minutes under his belt, and the viewpoint looks even more far-fetched in hindsight now.
Williams was released by United at the end of last season and has remained without a club since, having not made an appearance for any club in 2024.
Concerns about the attitude of the 24-year-old have been raised over the years following off-field matters reaching the public eye and underwhelming loan spells, but the defender is hoping to get his career back on track as he seeks for a new club to take him on.
