Woodward: United Buys Imminent

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has told the club's fans to expect new signings and several departures over the next few weeks.

New manager Louis van Gaal has already added England left-back Luke Shaw and Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera to last season's squad at a combined cost of about £56million, but the new United boss looks set to add more faces before the season begins.

The Dutchman has been linked with Arturo Vidal, Daley Blind, Kevin Strootman and Thomas Vermaelen since taking charge in May.

"There is no fixed budget. Financially we are extremely strong, we have funds available," Woodward told MUTV.

"Louis is the boss and is assessing what's going on but we have been in dialogue for some time about targets so there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes... we're continuing to move forward on some of those targets... so watch this space.

"The time he (Van Gaal) spends here as well (in America) he'll be able to assess more what he's got and continue to tweak the decisions if we need to.

"We want to do what it takes to win the title."

United finished seventh under former boss David Moyes last term, meaning they will be without European football this term for the first time in almost two decades.

Woodward does not believe that will put potential signings off a move to Old Trafford though.

He added: "I've experienced a lot of conversations with agents and players and we are still a huge attraction to top football stars around the world - there is no doubt about that.

"We've already invested in two new fantastic players."

Patrice Evra may follow Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic out of the door, despite only signing a new contract two months ago.

Brazilian midfielder Anderson, who was loaned to Fiorentina last season, and misfiring striker Bebe are free to leave.

The likes of Javier Hernandez, Wilfried Zaha, Marouane Fellaini, Anderson and Tom Cleverley all have question marks over their futures.

When asked whether players would leave, Woodward said: "Yes, I think so.

"The manager makes that decision and a few players have already gone and there may well be a few others that go.

"It's also worth commenting that we're not in Europe this year (so) there's less games, maybe the manager takes the view that he wants a tighter squad to bed in.

"If you do the analysis over last year, Liverpool performed extremely well with a smaller number of players but that's a decision for the manager."