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Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has suggested there will not be a repeat of the extravagant spending of the last two summers as the club said their wage bill is set to rise by almost 20 percent this season. United, who announced a £40 million drop in revenue on Thursday, spent over £100m this summer as they brought in Anthony Martial, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian and Sergio Romero. Last year, the club signed Angel Di Maria, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind, while also securing the services of Radamel Falcao on loan, for a total of around £150m. "We have seen a large number of ins and outs in the last two summer windows," Woodward said in a conference call to Wall Street analysts. "We were used to more modest numbers. Maybe we will go back to more normalised numbers." United paid out £203m in staff costs in the 2014-15 financial year but that will rise substantially after the addition of their new signings and with players due bonuses for playing in the Champions League, which the club did not compete in last year. Head of corporate finance Hemen Tseayo added: "We expect total staff costs to be up in the high teens in percentage as a result of Champions League participation." Tseayo said the club had a net spend of £97m on transfers in the last financial year and, if there are no more signings or sales, it will be £78m in the next set of accounts. "We incurred around £97m in net player cap ex [capital expenditure] and for fiscal 2016 we are committed to around £78m," he added. Manchester City, meanwhile, paid out almost £160m to bring in players such as Raheem Sterling, Nicolas Otamendi and Kevin De Bruyne this summer, but Woodward does not think they breached financial fair play (FFP) rules. City were ordered to play in last year's Champions League with only 21 players in their squad, while spending on new signings in last summer's transfer window was capped at £49m as punishment for previously breaching FFP rules. "I would expect they spent within the rules," he said. "The rules are very clear, everyone understands them and there are some big revenue increases down the path. "When you buy a player, it [the fee in the financial accounts] is spread over the length of a contract by amortisation. It doesn't surprise me there has been some material investment in players." UEFA relaxed its rules on FFP this summer, but Woodward said the governing body is still committed to the cause. "Is it still important? Yes, absolutely," he said. "There is still significant discussion in UEFA about financial fair play being important. There is still great belief in UEFA." Woodward also said United, who lost their first Champions League group game to PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday, have banked on reaching the last eight of the competition this season, as they did in the 2013-14 campaign.
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