Ed Woodward was talking to a Manchester United club official when TV cameras appeared to catch him telling off Phil Jones, it has emerged.
Sky Sports cameras picked out United centre-back Jones - who was sitting behind Woodward - appearing to mutter something under his breath during United's 2-0 defeat to West Ham at London Stadium on Sunday.
United's executive vice-chairman could be seen immediately turning around and uttering something, looking clearly irritated.
It prompting speculation he was giving Jones a ticking off , perhaps conscious that they were on camera.
However, it seems Woodward was actually talking to a woman sitting next to Jones, who appeared to be a club official.
Phil Jones, who sat next to back-up keeper Lee Grant, wasn't even in the squad for the clash with West Ham, despite not being injured.
The centre-back has fallen down the pecking order at an alarming rate at Old Trafford with United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer preferring Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof to him on the pitch, while Axel Tuanzebe and Marcos Rojo were on the bench.
The Red Devils fell behind moments before half time thanks to an Andriy Yarmolenko effort.
West Ham were much the better team in the second half and were in complete control before Aaron Cresswell doubled their advantage with a stunning free-kick with five minutes to go.
Solskjaer after the game: "It's always a difficult ground to go to and we hoped to do better than we did.
"We hoped for better. But the key moments they grasped and we didn't. They had two fantastic finishes from two left feet, we just didn't take the chances when we had them."
United host Rochdale in the EFL Cup on Wednesday before welcoming Arsenal to Old Trafford for their next Premier League clash on September 30.
