United Sets Eye on Third Place Finish

Man United Gambling on 3rd Place Finish But Ed Woodward Believes "Something Special" is Happening.

Manchester United executive vice chairman Ed Woodward has announced "something special" is brewing at Old Trafford, but admitted that the club has budgeted for a minimum third place Premier League finish.

Then, shortly after United announced record revenue for the year, Woodward spoke to investors via a conference call, where he lamented, "The 2013/14 season was a very challenging and disappointing one." However he continued to say, "Under Louis [van Gaal] there is a real feeling at the training ground that we are at the start of something special. I'm confident with Louis as our manager, with a clear philosophy and a reinvigorated squad, we will get back to challenging for the title and trophies. "His track record for delivering top level teams speaks for itself. We've had an excellent summer having signed Angel Di Maria, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo and Radamel Falcao on a one-year loan."

Summarising the club's healthy position he added, "Commercially we continue to go from strength to strength. The record deal with adidas underpinned our attempts to compete for the next decade. The £750m adidas deal is a record, not just in football, but in all sports. This is the culmination of four years of hard work. We had offers from more than 20 companies around the world. "We had a major refresh of our squad, with 13 players coming in - including six from our academy - and 17 going out, including Ryan Giggs, who joined the coaching staff." But despite the spending power visibly demonstrated in the summer, Woodward has warned that players will only arrive in

January if the manager sees fit. "We will continue to monitor in association with Louis his view of the squad and which areas we want to strength and which areas we want to sell. I wouldn’t have expectations for January but if there is a willingness from the manager, we will engage with him and if there an opportunity, we will try and take that as we did last year with January."