Just after half-time at this year's FA Cup final, there was a commotion among the Aston Villa fans. A wave of applause broke out as a beaming Villa chairman, Doug Ellis, made his way past them on Wembley's cinder track.

It is hard to imagine Martin Edwards in the same circumstances. Among United fans, Edwards is a figure of loathing. Besides, strolling along the touchline engaging with his customers has never been the United chief executive's way.

He has always preferred to draw as little attention as possible to himself. And this week, he is making an equally unobtrusive withdrawal from the corridors of power at Old Trafford, standing down as chief executive after nearly 20 years in charge without fuss or flurry, depriving his critics of the opportunity to revel in a forced departure.

In many ways, it ought to be the other way round: Edwards glowing in his fans' admiration, while Ellis steals in through the back door. While Ellis presides over a club that has consistently underachieved during his tenure, Edwards can point to an astonishing history of success on and off the field.

"What more do they want?" he has been known to observe to colleagues. "We've given them everything from the treble to the best stadium in the country and still they hate me."

Tellingly, though, there appear to have been no behind-the-scenes deals desperately trying to keep Edwards in charge. Nor is the queue of other major companies wishing to tap into his expertise by offering him a directorship forming up along Sir Matt Busby Way.

The news that he is to step down has been greeted at the club with a sigh of relief, as if an embarrassing relative has finally gone home, allowing everyone else to get on with the party.

The reason Edwards is now quietly being allowed to relinquish power is the same as the root cause of his loathing among the fans. Worries have been growing within the organisation for some time that the way in which Edwards prefers to take business decisions to protect existing holdings is no longer compatible with the requirements of one of the country's biggest plcs.

His 20 years in control have been characterised by extreme monetary caution. It could be said that much of the team's success on the field has been achieved in spite of Edwards.

For the past year the chairman of Manchester United plc, Sir Roland Smith, has been manoeuvring an alternative to Edwards into place, sensing that in the new era of the football business, clubs require dynamic leadership.

Edwards's fellow board members might have overlooked many things - trouble with prostitutes, appalling public relations, even a corrosive rift with the company's two most significant employees, Ferguson and Roy Keane - but they could not ignore his inability to seize the broader picture.