Manchester United’s vice chairman, Ed Woodward remains hopeful about the club’s start under Portuguese manager, Jose Mourinho despite an unimpressive start to their season.
Mourinho, since his arrival at the club, has spent around £145.3 million on purchasing the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba in the summer transfer window.
But despite the big money signings, Manchester United are 8 points off Premier League leaders, Liverpool in 6th place. The club hasn’t made an impression in the Europa League as well as they sit third in the group. Although Mourinho’s team did manage to keep their EFL Cup hopes alive, as they face West Ham at Old Trafford later this month.
Ed Woodward unravelled the clubs financial situation in a conference to clubs investors on Thursday, after the Manchester club’s first quarter accounts were publicised.
"On the pitch, it is still early in the season," he said in the club's quarterly conference call. "We have 27 more Premier League games to play and have advanced to the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup."
The club’s executive did not exactly disclose where the Red Devils would be touring next year but did ensure that the club would be playing more games than they previously did. Manchester United’s previous trip to China was not up to expectations.
Manchester United have already seen a massive drop in first quarter income with a dip of £3.4m which amounts to 2.8 percent. Brexit has played a big part along with the lack of Champions League football in respect to the financial aspect of the club. However, United did have some good news in the form of their Megastore.
"Our Megastore achieved record matchday sales - ever - around the game against Manchester City on Saturday, September 10," added Woodward.
"We've also seen huge demand for player printing due to the new signings and the Megastore shirts with players' names increased over 20 per cent on last year's quarter."
Manchester United have not been the same ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired from management. The appointment of David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal turned out to be unsuccessful as both managers missed out on Champions League qualification. Jose Mourinho’s challenge for this season will be to get the club back into the Champions League where it rightfully belongs.
The Premier League campaign restarts this weekend after the international break. Jose Mourinho’s Red Devils will face Arsenal at Old Trafford this Saturday and will be looking to grab all three points from Arsene Wenger’s team.
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