“Manchester United Fans should expect more new signings” – Ed Woodard
Opeyemi Oladunjoye
Manchester United executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward has told fans to expect new signings and several departures over the next few weeks.
New Manager, Louis van Gaal has already spent over £50m on Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera, but the new United boss looks set to add more faces before the season begins.
Woodward says there is plenty of cash available to Van Gaal if he decides he needs to strengthen further. “There is no fixed budget. Financially we are extremely strong, we have funds available,” he said.
“Louis is the boss and is assessing what’s going on but we have been in dialogue for some time about targets so there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes… we’re continuing to move forward on some of those targets… so watch this space.
“The time he (Van Gaal) spends here as well, he’ll be able to assess more what he’s got and continue to tweak the decisions if we need to. We want to do what it takes to win the title.”
Woodward also said he does not believe United’s exclusion from European football will discourage potential signings off a move to Old Trafford.
“I’ve experienced a lot of conversations with agents and players and we are still a huge attraction to top football stars around the world – there is no doubt about that. We’ve already invested in two new fantastic players.”
When asked whether players would leave, Woodward said: “Yes, I think so. The manager makes that decision and a few players have already gone and there may well be a few others that go.
“It’s also worth commenting that we’re not in Europe this year (so) there’s less games, maybe the manager takes the view that he wants a tighter squad to bed in. If you do the analysis over last year, Liverpool performed extremely well with a smaller number of players but that’s a decision for the manager.”