Manchester United CEO Berrada was interviewed by United We Stand, the first time Berrada has been interviewed since taking over Manchester United in July last year. The magazine editor Andy Mitten streamlined the 70-minute conversation with Bellada and posted a summary at The Athletic.
When talking about this summer window, Berrada said that Manchester United will "stay active" for the rest of the summer transfer window. However, he made little promises about how much money he could spend and who he spent.
Bellada said that Amorin and technical director Wilcox have a consistent opinion and are also clear about the team's "long-term plan". But he admitted that in order to achieve a "break-even balance", there will be "some players leaving".
Berada added: "With all the efforts we have done to reduce costs this year, we have created the best conditions for ourselves. I am confident that after the transfer window we will have a much stronger team than we are now."
For the newly introduced Cunya, Berada said: "I think he will become a favorite player for fans. We can talk about his technical ability, he can compete in three different positions on the court. He is an organized offensive midfielder; he can score goals and assists. I think he will make the audience jump out of the seat and cheer. He has a confident aura that people will love very much. I dare say he has a Cantona style.
"He is an important signing that we need to focus on. We will do our best to complete more signings as soon as possible. But sometimes it’s not fast because it’s still negotiating and working hard to make sure it’s worth the money. So fast speed is not necessarily the best choice for the club. ”
When talking about Manchester United's massive layoffs, Berrada promised at a staff meeting in September that there would be only one round of layoffs, but in the end there were two rounds. Berrada admitted that he broke his promise and apologized to the staff for it.
Berrada explained: "At that time, we were unable to foresee the club's financial situation so bad, plus there were many things to deal with. It’s not just a matter of the Fiscal Fairness Act, but also cash flow and the ability to rely on our own funds to maintain operations.
"We are a huge club; we should be able to operate on a profitable basis, just as the club has done for a long time in the past and are winning trophys. The club is fully capable of continuing to achieve great success on and off the court."
Another controversial decision was the cancellation of the discounted ticket policy in the middle of last season, which meant that young and senior fans would have to pay up to £66 for tickets, while relocating long-term season ticket holders from the South Stand seats at Old Trafford Stadium in order to resell those positions as high-end business seats.
When the interviewer pointed out to Bellada that the £66 policy was a failure and the harm outweighed the benefits, Bellada responded:
"I admit that the way the policy was implemented is indeed inappropriate. I assume the responsibility, and I am responsible for this decision.
"If we go back to the policy decision itself and the proportion of people it affects, this proportion is actually very low. Very low. But our communication work was not done well. And we implemented it hastily in the middle of the season. This is a lesson and a situation we will strive to avoid in the future.
"What we did since then was to vigorously strengthen communication with the fan advisory committee, and their feedback was very good. We had some heated discussions and they objected to many of the ideas we put forward and the measures we wanted to implement."
Regarding the protests of the Southwest Billiards fans, Bellada said that the club "understands their frustration", but Bellada insisted that no matter how much dissatisfaction it caused, these decisions were for the "whole benefit of the club."