No Van Gaal questions as Woodward hints at spending

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has hinted that there could be plenty of transfer activity in and out of Old Trafford in the summer.

United spent big in the summer, which included the arrivals of Anthony Martial (£35million), Memphis Depay £25million) and Morgan Schneiderlin (£24million), but they did not add to their squad in January.

However, with Louis van Gaal’s men currently well adrift in the Premier League title race and finding themselves out of the Champions League, the squad will need to be analysed in the summer and Woodward hinted there will be big changes.

Speaking at a conference call with investors Woodward said: “So far I think this is the biggest window in preparation for the next season, I do think there’ll be more activity in the summer.”

Woodward was also asked about his impression of the money being pumped into the Chinese league and claimed it could be a “useful market” to sell players to.

“It is very difficult to predict the impact it will have; it’s a useful market if we are looking to sell any players,” added Woodward.

Woodward did not have to negotiate any questions on the future of Van Gaal, but whether investors were briefed not to ask anything relating to the Dutchman, his future or Jose Mourinho is not known.

However the United supremo was asked about the club’s transfer policy and why United cannot follow the Leicester model.

“Leicester is a fantastic reference point for everybody this year,” said Woodward. “I think the philosophy that we have is to target quality of players based on the huge amount of scouting that we do and analysis within the training ground. Then we try to do the best deal that we can.

“Some players are bought by other clubs with an eye to them developing into something special in a few years’ time, whereas there’s a bit more pressure perhaps on the bigger clubs to bring in players that are going to be hitting the ground running, and top players verging on world class almost immediately.

“So there is a slightly different market perhaps in which people are buying.”

United announced a record second-quarter revenue total of £133.8million, up 26.6 per cent on last year.

Commercial revenue for the second quarter was £66.1million – an increase of 42.5 per cent on the previous year.

Broadcasting revenues were also up 31.3 per cent and sponsorship revenue for the second quarter was up £1.6million to £37.4million.