Louis van Gaal has been told to carry on spending in his bid to make Manchester United great again.
Despite the club having already spent almost £60million this summer on Southampton left back Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera of Athletic Bilbao, Old Trafford executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward insists there is no limit on the funds available to the Dutchman, who is with his squad in Los Angeles.
‘There is no fixed budget,’ Woodward told MUTV. ‘Financially we are extremely strong, funds are available. Louis is assessing what’s been going on, we’ve been in dialogue for some time about targets, so there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes. Watch this space.’
Woodward also confirmed that there are likely to be departures as well as arrivals before the start of the season.
Asked if players would be leaving, Woodward said: ‘Yes, the manager makes that decision. A few have already gone, there may be a few others that go.
‘It’s also worth commenting we’re not in Europe this year, there are less games, maybe the manager takes the view he wants a tighter squad to bed in. Last year, Liverpool performed extremely well with a smaller number of players, but that’s a decision for the manager.’
Liverpool have no such limitations now, and Loic Remy is set to become their fifth signing of the summer when he joins the squad in Boston this week.
Liverpool’s £8.5million bid for the France forward was accepted by Queens Park Rangers over the weekend and Remy will complete the formalities of a medical when he links up with Brendan Rodgers’s squad.
There is increasing confidence Remy will be joined by Southampton’s Dejan Lovren, who has been Rodgers’s top central defensive target all summer.
Liverpool had a £20m bid rebuffed in early June. Yet he is keen on a Merseyside move, and Southampton look set to grant Lovren his wish and take the fees they have received from Liverpool in this window to £47.6m, having sold them Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert.
Southampton are in danger of losing another player with Morgan Schneiderlin, 24, keen to join his former manager Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham, who he prefers to their rivals Arsenal, for around £16m.
Pochettino has signed left back Ben Davies and goalkeeper Michel Vorm after a £15m deal was agreed with Swansea that will see Gylfi Sigurdsson go the other way. Sigurdsson, 24, was pulled out of Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Seattle Sounders after his move was agreed.
Lewis Holtby opened the scoring for Tottenham and penalties from substitutes Roberto Soldado and Iago Falque secured the draw in a game that marked the return of Andros Townsend after long-term injury. – Daily Mail