Ed Woodward insists that Manchester United will remain highly competitive in the transfer market

Ed Woodward says Manchester United’s primary goal remains to support Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to win trophies as the club continues to grapple with the coronavirus crisis.

Seven weeks after the Europa League victory against LASK in Austria, United is waiting to know when they will be able to return to action amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Executive Vice President Woodward last Friday told supporters that continued speculation about the transfer of large amounts of money “ignores the realities facing the sport” at this time.

Ed Woodward insists that Manchester United will remain ‘highly competitive’ in the transfer market

The United boss highlighted that stance in the question-and-answer session that followed that fan forum and made clear his continued support for manager Solskjaer.

“It is always a priority for us to strengthen the team and build on what Ole is clearly achieving in terms of bringing us back to the top,” Woodward said. ‘But we have to be clear about what the future holds.

What will happen to the rest of this season? What is the impact in the next season? Is it behind closed doors or in front of fans? What is the impact on broadcast deals, sponsorship deals? What is the impact on household cups? Etcetera etcetera.

‘There are many, many moving parts.

“It won’t necessarily be normal for clubs this summer.”

Woodward was eager to describe his continued support for United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

‘It feels inappropriate to see speculation about transfers of hundreds of millions in the current circumstances.

“There is a great disconnect between those stories and the economic realities facing football clubs in general.

“It is clearly true that we are fortunate to be in a strong financial position compared to many clubs, but we are not immune to the financial impact of what this virus is doing.

“I would say that once we have that visibility of a path through the crisis and it comes out on the other side to relative normalcy, then of course our goal is to remain highly competitive in the market.”

‘As I said before and have said many times, we remain committed to supporting Ole to win trophies. That is our main goal as a club. ‘

United continues to search for two cups, as well as the Champions League qualification through the Premier League, with ‘Project Restart’ pointing to a June restart.

Woodward was unaware of speaking that the high-level flight in English might end up abroad and is still waiting for a clear path forward.

“I think we all agree that we want fans to get back to watching football at Old Trafford as soon as possible,” he said, speaking before the curtain fell in France and some Premier League players returned to restricted activity in training camps.

Woodward says planning ahead is difficult since there is so much uncertainty today

“That can only happen when we are informed that it is safe to do so, and clearly the government has an important voice in that.”

“No decisions have been made yet, but we believe that the opening games, particularly those related to finishing or trying to complete this season, will probably have to be played behind closed doors, but that has not yet been confirmed.”

“We are not necessarily happy with that, clearly football requires our fans at the stadium to be complete, but public health must come first, and as I said, this depends on the government.”

“It is important to play football again and complete this season once it is safe to do so.” We are beginning to see that other countries are taking positive steps in this direction, such as Germany.

‘You may have seen in the press (last week) that they are training the players, although they are not yet together as a team, but that is the next stage of the protocol and they aim to restart their season from, I think, El second weekend of May.

“From the UK perspective, there is still great uncertainty, so we will keep fans informed as soon as decisions are made, including consultation through this forum.”