Man United have clear vision on transfers philosophy - Woodward

Manchester United's failure to qualify for the Champions League is beginning to erode the club's finances, but increased commercial income helped the English giants post revenues of £135.4 million for the first quarter of the 2019-2020 season on Monday.

United's latest figures also reveal that wages are down by £6.8m (8.8 per cent) year on year - thanks to the club not having to pay Champions League bonuses - while debt has shot up by up by £137.3m to £384.5m, which is largely down to buying players.

"We have a clear vision in terms of football philosophy and recruitment", Executive Vice Chairman Ed Woodward said. As well as live pre-season fixtures, MUTV's in-season content includes over 50 live and exclusive academy matches, full replays and highlights of every first team and Women's Team game just hours after full time, live Manager's Press Conference coverage, exclusive player interviews, award-winning original shows and documentaries and much more.

He also spoke of a commitment to "attacking football" and specifically praised the recruitment department for the summer captures of Daniel James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire.

"We have a clear vision in terms of football philosophy and recruitment", Woodward said.

"The significant investments that we have made in recent years in areas such as transfers, recruitment infrastructure, analytics and our academy are already beginning to bear fruit".

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"We fielded the youngest team in the Premier League this season against Brighton and Hove Albion". We know this will not be achieved overnight; however, we feel we have made investments that set us on the right path.

"This is demonstrated by the signing of Maguire, James and Wan-Bissaka, who have all settled in well". We are approaching a milestone 4000th competitive game with an academy player in the squad.

Should City hit that amount, it will be fascinating to see where in the £560m to £580m bracket United finish.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side now sit seventh in the Premier League, a point and two places behind newly-promoted Sheffield United, and Woodward was keen to draw together the club's on and off-field goals.

"I want to reiterate that our ability to make the investments we need to be successful on the pitch is underpinned by our continued strong financial performance".