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Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward insists the club do not need to keep winning trophies to remain attractive to sponsors.

United's vastly reduced debt has been a direct consequence of their increasing number of sponsorship deals.

Their first-quarter results showed a 63% jump in sponsorship revenue, which has continued to rise recently, with even more deals being announced.

And Woodward is confident the trend will continue no matter what short-term difficulties United encounter on the pitch.

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Speaking to fanzine 'United We Stand', in an interview conducted in October but published ahead of Wednesday's shock 1-0 home defeat by Everton, Woodward outlined the reasons for his optimism.

"There's still a lot of affinity with the club and interest," he said.

"The reality is that you can't always win.

"Take Liverpool. They still sell an incredible number of shirts and have the second biggest shirt deal in the Premier League.

"They have one of the biggest technical partner deals - and they haven't won the league since 1990. And you can put the last bit underlined and in capitals.

"If we have a bad year we have the financial strength to change the team. We have so much deeper financial strength that instead of selling three players and buying three, we can do five."

And that financial strength also means the naming rights to Old Trafford will never be sold.

"It's important that Old Trafford is Old Trafford," he said.

" The Glazers are actually very traditional in their views.

"People have asked us the question, asked us if we would consider (selling the naming rights). We won't."