According to the Manchester Evening News, Ed Woodward has a list of four ‘fantasy’ signings that he would like to make at Manchester United before he leaves the club.
Woodward was appointed as the club’s executive vice-chairman in 2012, and was placed in charge of transfers at Old Trafford the following summer.
His initial attempts at signing players were embarrassing as United failed to sign Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara and Gareth Bale in Woodward’s first year. When United ended up over-paying for Marouane Fellaini, Woodward and United were ridiculed by fans across Europe.
There was more derision by United’s rival fans in 2014, when the Manchester United executive vice-chairman said:
“We can do things in the transfer market that other clubs can only dream of.”
But five years after taking over Manchester United’s transfers it looks like Ed Woodward has finally grown into the roie. Last summer’s signings of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all played important role in United winning the Europa League for the first time in the club’s history.
So far this summer Woodward has defender Victor Lindelof, but it is a Galáctico signing that gets Woodward’s heart pounding.
Atop Woodward’s wish list is Cristiano Ronaldo, who is now potentially available after reports claimed that he was ‘sad’ at Real Madrid and looking to leave.
Woodward pursued a move to re-sign Ronaldo in 2013, but the 32-year-old stayed in Spain, one of a number of player who have used Manchester United’s interest to drive up the value of a new contract at their existing club.
In addition to Ronaldo, Woodward also dreams of delivering to investors on the New York Stock Exchange Gareth Bale, Neymar and Thomas Muller.
The fact that these four have all been linked with a move to Old Trafford in the past three years, indicates that Ed Woodward is not giving up on signing a Galáctico every year for Manchester United.
