Woodward Honoured To Be In Charge Of Reds

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has spoken of his pride at running at the "biggest sports team in the world" and says he enjoys everything about the job.

Woodward has been with the club since 2005 and took over the reins from former chief executive David Gill last summer.

In an exclusive interview with MUTV, the Reds chief spoke of the great honour he feels in his role and is aiming to ensure the club continues to flourish on and off the pitch.

"It’s a huge honour to be in this role. This is the biggest sports team in the world, not just the biggest football team. So by definition it’s a massive job and I’m loving it," he declared. "Every day is different, which is the fantastic thing about this job. You can’t switch off at all – it’s all-consuming but I love it. It’s addictive.

"I can’t say there isn’t pressure – that’s what you’d expect. The pressure comes from lots of different directions but I’m thriving on it. I’m a very competitive individual and the pressure is driven away by my competitiveness and focusing on us winning."

While Louis van Gaal is the man entrusted with helping the Reds get back to their best on the pitch, it's fair to say the club is going from strength to strength off it. But Woodward insists there is still plenty more hard work to be done and he is excited about what the future holds.

"There is still growth there and a lot of work being done," he says. "[Group managing director] Richard Arnold has built something incredible with his team of people, developing the commercial side of the business, and it’s incredibly important because we have financial strength and that allows us to do things in the transfer market, which a lot of other clubs can’t do. If Louis turns round in August and says 'actually, I’ve changed my mind about player X and I want player Y', we have the financial strength to respond to that."

Asked about his ambitions for United going forward, Woodward says simply: "To win. It’s what we do. I want us to win. I want to stop seeing the best players going to other clubs in Spain, I want us to stand out as the best club in the world. We’ll do absolutely everything we can to achieve that," he insisted.

"As the person in control of this club, I have to make sure I hand it on to the next person in a better state than I received it and, if you look at the state I received it in, it was pretty astonishing.

"We want to look at last season as a blip. That's passed now and all the staff who work with me around the club are looking to move forward as well, so there is a lot of hard work going into the future."