I think the resignation of his new deal forced me to try and seek positives. And then the football started.
Said before, but he’s the worst signing we have made post Fergie for me. Not the worst player, but by far the worst signing we’ve made. The players we have signed that have been worse players have simply been judged and had to own their failures personally. Nobody has driven the football team off course/down the wrong road the way Bruno has. Our biggest transfer mistake, and the opportunity cost has been huge. By the time he’s gone, we’ll have spent 6 or 7 years heading down a dead end road trying to build a successful team on quicksand that gets the best out of his strengths/one strength which was a mission doomed to failure from our first scouting reports. His football has largely dictated our approach and it would be 7 years wasted.
I see your point. I think, I'd take some shame off of Bruno because at the same time, we witnessed how Rashford developed (or didnt), we witnessed how all our RW options completely failed, apart from Antony even for off field stuff and most importantly we witnessed a club that didn't have directions on where to go. Desperate for somebody to come in to tell the existing people in the room what to do only for them to keep their seats after the (temp) leader had to leave.
It is a perfect storm and while most of it is due to us being badly directed for way too long, some of it is bad luck. Because seeing how from Greenwood, Amad, Sancho and Antony it is now Amad who has his turn at instilling hope into fans must be some sort of statistical conspicuousness. And all that piled onto the issue where only Bruno seemed to be able to do anything about. Surely can't be easy for him as well, which is why I actually respect his showing up every time - because I think he is intelligent enough to know where he is lacking in terms of footballing abilities.
Even now, I'd still maintain my stance that having him and Rashford around the team is something that really could help us to edge the most important games in football. The issue, as you said, was to double down on that axis while other teams continued their journeys to collective football ideas while we looked as if we were out to recreate a team for 2010 again... The conundrum of being able to win games but not being able to win comps I guess.
I'd be so interested in ETHs actual honest thoughts about the team, I really am. What he considers issues and what not. I guess, his days with us are limited, he still could do us a favor and do his bit to take away some of the aura that still surrounds some players. I don't want him to axe them, thats unrealistic I guess, but they shouldn't get any special treatment anymore. Pick the lineup solely based on performance (while obviously taking availability and age into account) - it should help the squad developing a new order, new roles for players within the social group and so on. We badly need a spine to form.