Manchester United aim Premier League top three this season with Louis Van Gaal in charge

Louis van Gaal is expected to take Manchester United back into the top three in the Premier League this season — and he will have to do it without any major signings in January.

The target was revealed by executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward as he detailed the club’s accounts for last season and made forecasts for this campaign.

Figures published show United had record income of £433.2million for the 2013-14 season, but that is expected to plunge to £395m because the club are not in the Champions League, from which they made about £55m last season.

Getting back into Europe is an urgent priority for United and Woodward confirmed Van Gaal’s target when he said: ‘We assume third in our budgets.’

Another consequence of David Moyes’ miserable year in charge was £5.2m in ‘exceptional costs’, most of which represented compensation payments to the former manager and his staff.

Woodward gave the strongest indication yet that there will not be a further splurge in January to follow the £153.1m spent on Angel Di Maria, Daley Blind, Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo and Radamel Falcao. ‘We don’t intend to significantly increase capital expenditure [by buying players] in January,’ he said during a conference call aimed at investors in the 10 per cent of the club that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

‘We will continue to monitor in association with Louis his view of the squad and which areas we want to strengthen and which areas we want to sell. I wouldn’t have expectations for January but if there is a willingness from the manager, we will engage with him and if there is an opportunity, we will try and take that as we did last January.’

Woodward said the club was ‘very proud’ of the record income figures and added: ‘With Louis van Gaal at the helm as manager, and the recent signing of some of the world’s leading players to further strengthen our squad, we are very excited about the future and believe it’s the start of a new chapter in the club’s history.

‘Louis’ footballing philosophy fits very well with Manchester United and he has an impressive track record of success throughout his career, winning league titles with every club he has managed.’