Manchester United will spend heavily again this summer after admitting it will take more than the signing of Bruno Fernandes to turn them into title contenders.
Fernandes moved to Old Trafford last month in a deal worth up to £67.8million after United paid £145m for Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Dan James last summer.
United chief Ed Woodward accepts that more investment will be needed to revive Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad, and acknowledged that this summer will be a key period in the process.
In his introductory remarks to a recent fans’ forum, Woodward said:
‘The signing of Bruno Fernandes and return of key players from injury will be a boost to Ole and the squad as we head into the second half of the season.
‘We remain in contention in the Europa League and the FA Cup, as well as for Champions League qualification, so there is still lots to play for.
‘However, as a club and a board, we do recognise that we are not yet where we want to be.
It is the overwhelming priority of everyone at the club to get us back to regularly challenging for Premier League and Champions League titles.
‘As part of the rebuild we see this coming summer as an important opportunity.
‘There has been no shortage of investment in players over the past few years, with over £200m spent since Ole became manager. Our aim is to ensure that we continue to achieve consistency in quality of recruitment.
‘Bruno Fernandes and the players we brought last summer are evidence that our process is the right one.’
It’s a story that Manchester United fans have heard over and over from Woodward, with little results for the transfer spending under his direction. I don’t see that changing as long as he is in charge.