Man United chief Ed Woodward On hot seat

The Red Devils have spent £250million under Louis van Gaal but still find themselves 12 points behind Claudio Ranieri's surprise leaders

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has defended the club's £250million transfer spend under Louis van Gaal.

United are floundering in fifth place, 12 points behind Premier League leadersLeicester, who have spent a fraction of the vast sums the Reds have on their squad.

Woodward, speaking to market analysts following the announcement of United's quarterly figures, hailed Leicester's remarkable run on such a relatively small budget.

But the United chief tried to defend his club's poor display this season, when set against their lavish spend, by claiming they are operating in a different buying market to Leicester.

"Leicester is a fantastic reference point for everybody this year,” said Woodward. “I think the philosophy we have is to target quality players, based on a huge amount of scouting we do and analysis within the training ground, then we do our best to do the best deal we can.

“Some players are bought by other clubs with an idea to them developing into something special in a few years' time, where there's a bit more pressure on some of the bigger clubs to bring in players who are going to be hitting the ground running and verging on being world-class players almost immediately, so there is a slightly different market in which people are buying.”

The United chief executive also claimed the clubs' Academy remains integral to its future success and said a thorough review of the structure would lead to more players young coming through in the future.

Woodward said: “The Academy continues to be the heart of the club. Giving youth a chance is part of our philosophy, part of our DNA.

“We took the departure of Brian McClair last summer as the chance to do a root and branch review of the Academy. That is now complete and changes are under way, and announcements will follow in the coming days.

“I think in terms of the future, our key competitive advantages are still very strong, and the two I would call out are an unmatched record of player development, compared to any other team, particularly in England.

“Secondly, the runway of first-team opportunities we deliver to those players coming through, again very different to some of our competitors."

Despite spending a quarter of a billion pounds since taking charge of United, Van Gaal has given first-team chances to Academy graduates including Jesse Lingard, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Paddy McNair.