Manchester United executive vice chairman Ed Woodward has suggested the club will not be very active in the January transfer window as he again outlined the board’s backing for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The club have had a mixed start to the season with some excellent results offset by a lack of consistency. However, despite three league defeats already this season they find themselves within touching distance of the leading pack.
The transfer window opens again in a matter of weeks and Solskjaer has so far refused to be drawn on whether or not the club will be bringing in additional players but, did say last week he didn’t expect many ins and outs.
“I don’t think it’s right to comment on the transfer window already,” Solskjaer said ahead of the clash against Paris Saint-Germain. “Let’s see where we’re at in January. Hopefully we keep on improving and I’ve got selection issues, I’m happy with what’s going on behind closed doors.”
Historically, United prefer to do their business in the summer windows but did bring in Bruno Fernandes, who was a target for last summer, in January after he became available. And, Woodward has suggested it will be a similar approach this time around with the club focusing on the summer window.
“We recognise there’s more hard work ahead to achieve the consistency needed to win trophies. But we see positive signs on the pitch and the training ground that reinforce our belief in the progress being made by Ole, his coaching team and the players,” Woodward said.
“I said back in April that we remained committed to strengthening the squad, while being disciplined in our spending during the pandemic.
“I believe we’ve delivered on that, with the additions we made during the summer taking our total net spending to over €200m since summer 2019 – more than any other major European club over that period. We will continue to support Ole with a planned, long-term approach to recruitment, focused on the summer windows.”
Woodward, who was speaking at a Fans’ Forum meeting held over Zoom, also spoke about why the club was backing the controversial Project Big Picture, which was thrown out by Premier League clubs in October.
“A strong Premier League and a financially sustainable and robust pyramid are both crucial to the health of the national game and that’s the principle we will continue to pursue within the strategic review recently launched by the Premier League,” Woodward said.
“Those objectives were at the heart of our involvement in Project Big Picture. It’s important to reflect that this was a work in progress. It was not a behind closed doors power grab; only draft proposals and a discussion document. The next step would have been to roll them out to all stakeholders in search of consensus.”
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