Ed Woodward, Manchester United’s chief executive, has predicted that Louis van Gaal will re-establish the club as realistic challengers for the major honours next season after what promises to be another extensive recruitment programme in the summer.
Memphis Depay, the Holland international, has already signed for a fee of around £25m from PSV Eindhoven and United confidently expect their transfer business will not be as complicated as in the previous two seasons. On those occasions, the changes of manager have meant David Moyes abandoning plans to sign Thiago Alcântara, a target of Sir Alex Ferguson, and then Van Gaal not going through with the work Moyes had put in place for Cesc Fàbregas and Toni Kroos.
For the first time in three seasons United will have the same manager working on transfer plans that started to be put into place towards the end of the previous campaign. “We are delighted with the progress made so far under Louis in his first season as manager,” Woodward said. “With only two games remaining, we’re well positioned to achieve a top-four finish in the Premier League and therefore return to European football next season.
“Is the squad deep enough to challenge? The squad will be absolutely deep enough and ready to challenge on all fronts, all competitions next year. That, as ever, does involve some ins and outs in the summer, which we’re not going to guide on in terms of number.
“Regarding this summer’s transfer activity, we have already started implementing our plans and announced that Memphis Depay, one of the most exciting young players in Europe, will be joining our first team. We expect to be active again during the window, but it is too early to give guidance on transfers or wages at this point.”
Paul Scholes struck a less confident note. “I think it’s probably a bit early to challenge for the league,” he said. “We know Chelsea will buy two or three players and you have to say they have been a long way ahead this year. Arsenal look good apart from Monday night and if they buy a couple I don’t think they will be far away. And you have to say City will spend a lot of money as well so there’s a lot of catching up to be done.”
The danger for United is that Real Madrid are pushing through with plans behind the scenes to arrange a deal for David de Gea, whose outstanding goalkeeping this season put him on the shortlist for the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Player of the Year award. Gareth Bale is strongly being linked with a move to Old Trafford but Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, views the Welshman as a long-term asset at the Bernabéu and is reluctant to sell. Intriguingly, there is also a sense in Manchester and Madrid that Van Gaal is not entirely certain Bale would fit seamlessly into the structure of the team he is building.
United have offered De Gea a considerable pay rise as well as handing new contracts to Chris Smalling, Michael Carrick and Andreas Pereira, with talks going on to do the same with Ashley Young and Phil Jones. “There are several players out of our 30 first-team players – maybe around eight or nine – who are out of contract next season [in 2016],” Woodward said. “Obviously a number of those who have one year left will be offered new contracts and negotiations are under way [with certain players].”
