United have lacked direction ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. Both Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho were backed in the transfer market, but without a long-term strategy in place, neither manager achieved more than fleeting short-term success.
The arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last season has seen another reset since the start of the summer, but the club, which continues to perform well commercially, now appears determined not to repeat the same old mistakes yet again.
“We have a clear vision in terms of football philosophy and recruitment,” Woodward commented in United’s first quarter financial report for the 2019/20 season.
“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.
“Our ultimate goal is to win trophies by playing exciting football with a team that fuses graduates from our academy with world-class acquisitions.”
Later, in the usual conference call with investors, Woodward repeated similar sentiments. 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.
The financial report itself reveals United had total revenue of £135.4m for the three months ending 30 September 2019. That is marginally up by £400,000 on the same period last season, but commercial revenue is up to £80.4m and matchday revenue has grown by 35.6%.
The reason behind such a minor overall increase on last season is the 23% fall in broadcasting revenue. That is down to not competing in the Champions League, with revenues for the elite competition far superior to those in the Europa League. The hit to broadcasting revenue will also be felt in the next financial report for quarter two that covers until the end of December 2019.
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