Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward insists manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has the board’s full backing despite their ordinary start to the season.
United sit ninth in the Premier League table, albeit with a game in hand, five points behind joint leaders Tottenham and Liverpool.
On Wednesday, their Champions League hopes suffered a major blow when they were beaten 3-1 by Paris Saint-Germain.
The result means a point next week against RB Leipzig will be enough to qualify for the knockout stages but the Bundesliga side are likely to be difficult opponents.
Failure to reach the last 16 would create serious doubts about Solskjaer’s position as manager, especially with Mauricio Pochettino waiting in the wings.
But Woodward has lent his support to Solskjaer and believes that progress is being made by the Norweigan and the backroom staff.
“What happens on the field is clearly our top priority, and while it’s not the same without fans in the stadium, we’ve seen lots of highs since our last meeting in April, with that 14-game unbeaten run to finish third in last season’s Premier League run and great wins against PSG and RB Leipzig on our return to the Champions League this season,” Woodward told a fans forum in November.
“Of course, we recognise there’s more hard work ahead to achieve the consistency needed to win trophies.
“But we see positive signs on the pitch and the training ground that reinforce our belief in the progress being made by Ole, his coaching team and the players
“I told this forum back in April that we remained committed to strengthening the squad, while being disciplined in our spending during the pandemic.
“I believe we’ve delivered on that, with the additions we made during the summer taking our total net spending to over €200m (£180m) since summer 2019 – more than any other major European club over that period.
“We will continue to support Ole with a planned, long-term approach to recruitment, focused on the summer windows.”
Meanwhile, Solskjaer says he is unsure whether Marcus Rashford will be fit enough to play against West Ham on Saturday night after coming off in the defeat to PSG with a shoulder issue.
The injury prevented Rashford from playing for England in the recent international break and it flared up again on Wednesday.
“It’s just niggling him, that shoulder injury,” Solskjaer told BT Sport. “Let’s see how quickly he can recover.
“Let’s hope he can be ready for the West Ham game. But we don’t know.”
