“Are we happy with the roster? There is happiness from the manager in terms of where we are as a squad. We aren’t in a position necessarily where we have to churn a large number of players,” Ed Woodward, United’s Executive Vice Chairman, told club investors on conference call today.
Woodward indicated that there would be more signings this summer, but implied that transfer spending would be reduced.
He would not be drawn into any further discussion about transfers beyond that, but here’s a link to more on the summer transfer window.
He was also very coy when asked about where United would be going on the team’s 2017 preseason tour, saying just “it will be a larger tour than last year” when United had a very disastrous trip to China. We do already know that the club will be training in southern California, on the campus of the University of California-Los Angeles, but anywhere else beyond that remains to be announced.
The EVP also said that he expects United to maintain their dominance in world football leader shirt sales. He gave the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in 2009 as an example:
“When we sold Cristiano, we did not see a material impact on the number of shirt sales,” Woodward said. “A supporter will still buy a United shirt and then choose which name to have on the back of it.”
Woodward also said on the call that a mobile app based around the club’s official television station, MUTV, will be launched globally.
All in all, Woodward had a ton to say and it was a very eventful conference call.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, Bold and the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, appears regularly as a guest on CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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