Man Utd WILL spend in transfer window to help Ole Gunnar Solskjaer land silverware

Seven weeks on from the Europa League win against LASK in Austria, United are waiting to hear when they can return to action amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Executive vice-chairman Woodward last Friday told supporters that continuing speculation around big-money transfers “ignore the realities that face the sport” right now.

The United chief underlined that stance in the Q&A session that followed that fans’ forum and made clear his continued backing of manager Solskjaer.

“It’s always a top priority for us to strengthen the team and build on what Ole is very clearly achieving in terms of bringing us back to the top,” Woodward said. “But we’ve got to have clarity on what the future holds.

“What will happen with the remainder of this season? What is the impact on next season? Is it behind closed doors or in front of fans? What’s the impact on broadcast deals, sponsorship deals? What’s the impact on domestic cups? Etc, etc.

“There are many, many moving parts.

“It is not necessarily going to be business-as-usual for clubs this summer.

“It feels somewhat inappropriate to see speculation about transfers for hundreds of millions in current circumstances.

“There’s a big disconnect between those stories and the economic realities facing football clubs in general.

“Clearly it’s true we are fortunate to be in a strong financial position compared to many clubs, but we are not immune from 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 coming out of the other side to relative normality, then of course we aim to remain highly competitive in the market.

“As I said before and I’ve said this many times – we remain committed to backing Ole to win trophies. That’s our core objective as a club.”

United remain in the hunt for two cups as well as Champions League qualification through the Premier League, with ‘Project Restart’ targeting a June resumption.