Ed Woodward apparently shot down Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's transfer request before the Manchester United boss even made his plea.
The Red Devils have signed just one player so far this summer in £35million Holland international Donny van de Beek from Ajax.
But United looked short of quality in their opening match of the Premier League campaign against Crystal Palace, who beat them 3-1 at Old Trafford.
After the match Solskjaer admitted his side weren't at the races and that the London club fully deserved to take three points from the match.
He added that United are on the lookout for new recruits, suggesting he is keen to improve his side before the transfer window slams shut next month.
"You can see we are short and [Palace] deserved the points," Solskjaer said.
"They were sharper than us in challenges, tackles. We had a long season last season and we didn't finish until August 16 and we have not had enough preparation time to be sharper."
He added: "Then again, we're always, always looking to improve if there's something out there that's available to the right price. We always want to strengthen but I think we can all look ourselves in the mirror today instead."
Woodward has not yet responded to Solskjaer's plea.
But the United chief did reference the club's stance in regards to new signings in his programme notes, where he suggested huge sums of money won't be made avaiable.
Woodward wrote: "Disruption from the pandemic is continuing to create huge economic pressure from the top to the bottom of the football pyramid and while we are fortunate to be in a more resilient position than most clubs, we are not immune from impact."
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