Poor season not damaging sales, say Reds chiefs
MANCHESTER United chiefs have confirmed they are planning a summer of big spending and brushed off fears that a season of extreme turbulence will affect their financial might.
United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said the club were prepared to sign more than three players in the summer and were not “afraid of moving in the market in a way perhaps we haven’t seen in recent years”.
“We’re focused on strengthening the squad,” Woodward added. “Historically we have had roughly three sales and three purchases each year and it’s possible that we we’d do more than that.”
Midfielder Marouane Fellaini was the only major arrival of last summer, despite efforts to sign his former Everton colleague Leighton Baines, Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas and Athletic Bilbao’s Ander Herrera. United boss David Moyes spent a club record £37m on prising Juan Mata from Chelsea last month, and Woodward told investors on a conference call yesterday that such deals were the beginning of a squad overhaul.
“On player transfer fees and salaries, over the medium term we would expect annual net player capital expenditure to track higher than our historical average as we will invest in our squad as needed in order to ensure we’re competing at the highest level,” he said.
Woodward, who announced an 11.6 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to £122.9m for the last three months of 2013, insisted a poor season and a likely absence of Champions League next term had not had “any impact on the wider business”. He said: “The feedback from our sales team is there is as much interest from potential partners as in recent years.”