Gill Reflects On Busy Summer

David Gill took time out from United's busy pre-season schedule to chat to MUTV about the many changes at Old Trafford over the summer, and his excitement about the campaign ahead. Here's what United's chief executive had to say...

David, it was an eventful Asia Tour; was it ultimately a success?
Definitely. Of course, when we landed in Kuala Lumpur the first text message I got was about the Jakarta bombings, so we had to make a quick decision to cancel the Indonesia leg of the tour. It was disappointing, but it was the right decision and we settled in Malaysia with everyone pulling together to arrange a second game. Asia is a key region for us, and these tours are a combination of working with our commercial partners and seeing our many fans. In that sense, it was a great success.

Another headline-grabbing summer story was the surprise arrival of Michael Owen. How have you assessed his impact so far?
Sir Alex is the best person to measure that, but watching from the sidelines I’ve been delighted. He’s enthusiastic and very happy to be here. We’d discussed signing him for a while – we were aware that he was out of contract at the end of the season, so he was someone we kept an eye on. I hope he’ll prove to be a great signing for us.

What are your thoughts on Cristiano Ronaldo's departure to Real Madrid?
Well, I think Alex said it all: he gave us six wonderful years of service, he was a great player and played a big part in our success. We’re disappointed he’s gone – he’s the best player in the world – and we’ll miss him. But we’ll make amends: we’ve brought in good players and other players will respond. Hopefully we play against him and Real Madrid this season... and beat them easily!

Is it unprecedented for a fee of that magnitude to be paid as a one-off lump sum?
It is, yes, but we insisted on that and we felt it was appropriate, especially given that we didn’t want to sell Cristiano – he wanted to go. So we felt we had a strong negotiating position. And given what was going on in the financial world at the time I much preferred getting the money up front as opposed to worrying about bank guarantees.

Were you also disappointed to see Carlos Tevez leave, and then join City?
I’m disappointed he left, but we move on. In the end we decided to pay the asking price and made Carlos a very good offer. He chose not to accept that and felt his opportunities lay elsewhere. He did well for us for two years and was a key player, but Alex is confident we’ve replaced him well. We’ll see what happens when we play City in September, which will be an interesting game with plenty of media attention. I hope he gets a good reception at Old Trafford, and that we win, of course.

The manager says he won’t make any more signings. Is that how you see things?
Very much so. We’re not in the market for paying a lot of money for players who are 27, 28 or 29. We don’t think it’s good value. That would be their last contract and at the end of that contract they won’t be worth a lot of money. We’re happy to pay significant sums of money for players up to the age of about 25. We’re pleased at the moment with the squad we have and a number of young boys are coming through – we have high hopes for Federico Macheda and Danny Welbeck. We’ve also bought in Valencia, Obertan and Diouf from Molde. He’ll join up with us in January. That’s where we’re at, although it’s worth reiterating that people should trust Sir Alex when it comes to what the squad needs. Just because we have a lot of money in the bank, it doesn’t mean we have to spend it.

Finally, are you looking forward to the new season?
Absolutely. The intensity’s building all the time and everyone is raring to go on the field. Off it, season ticket sales have gone well – I’m very happy with that – as have executive sales in a difficult market, and we’re bringing in new partners. I’m looking forward to the new season and I’m sure the fans will get behind us for another great campaign.