The warning signs were there all the way back in that 4-0 defeat at Brentford, he just looked like a fish out of water. He got a lucky run going in the cups and the PL and Rashford playing out of his skin, he even looked to do reasonable business in January with the Sabitzer loan, Casemiro was voted in the FIFPRO team, Varane and Martinez looked solid and Shaw had a great season, Garnaucho came through and looked a game changer from the bench and Casemiro/Eriksen/Bruno midfield for a period of about 6 weeks looked elite, then Eriksen got an injury, Casemiro got sent off in big games, Bruno became more petulant and the decline started from Feb 2023.
This summer we had the worst window any club that just finished 3rd could have, it was obvious the positions the squad needed improving.
If you are getting rid of the two midfield players who have legs like Fred and Sabitzer, you have to replace them with younger like for like midfield players, you needed a pacey young CB, Two mobile versatile midfield players and a right back to replace AWB, we had De Gea and Henderson and we could have kept both of them and saved £47m on A Onana, personally we could have kept Fred and Sabitzer for £15m which is £6m more than Amrabat’s loan Fee. Mason Mount wasn’t needed and could have been signed this summer on a free!
Not Signing Mount, Amrabat and Onana would have freed up £95m after we made the Sabitzer deal permanent.
We could have signed J C Todibo £35m and used the £60m to bid for O Watkins, offered £25m less for Hojlund at £40m which is his value and bought a creative right back like Frimpong for £30m then.
The current squad is not fit for purpose just like the Manager and if any fan thinks 5 players in will help the cause their insane, this club needs £300-400m spent in the next two windows on absolute sure things but also a coach that understands you cannot lose more than 8 or 9 PL games at Man United, come bottom of your CL group, consistently get outplayed by teams who have 1/10th of your resources and expect to be coach the following season?
I don’t like Tuchel, however he’s too much of a winner to put up with stats that ETH seems to have no problems with, ETH will never win the CL or the PL, even if he had the current City Squad, he just ain’t all that so it’s time to do the right thing and sack him asap.