Just wrote a massive response to the now shut 'has-been club' thread, so it's going here:
@Ole's Wheel
Not even gonna lie, just skimmed through this as it seems like it's another meltdown post because we haven't landed a proper muppet signing, however..
A has-been club? Even in our post-Fergie slump we're one of if not
THE biggest club on the planet. In this slump we've won multiple trophies and finished
2nd. It's been really crap watching us the last few years after being so spoilt under Ferguson but you should bare in mind that other big clubs have fallen waaaay further than we have. We've obviously made big mistakes in transfer market, showing a lack of strategy and common sense and that's what ultimately has put us in our current predicament of needing yet another rebuild. Moyes, LvG and Mourinho were never the right sort of fit for United and have all contributed to our decline but their shortcomings were definitely helped along by the clusterf*ck above them. Woodward has a lot to answer for, but most of all Glazers who gave this under-qualified man so much power.
That being said we are entering a new era with a club legend at the helm bringing back the traditions that once made us great. Being so pessimistic for the season when we haven't even kicked a ball is stupid. Even with our shitty midfield options there's reasons to be optimistic for the future. We have a great crop of young talent coming through, our defense is finally looking decent and there's an effort being made to have a real identity and to play more a exciting brand of football.
Ole may be a success given time or he may not but crying about the fact we haven't signed Dybala/Eriksen isn't a good look. Especially considering both don't want to be here. You talk about us having a scattergun approach but overpaying to secure Dybala would be us repeating the same mistakes of previous years. We have no idea about the inner working of transfer deals or how difficult it is to bring in the quality needed. It seems like most clubs have struggled in the market this year. It's vastly different to how it used to be, smaller clubs are a lot richer and the money involved is incomprehensible. The rebuild was always going to take years, it was never getting done in one window. As guilty as Woodward and the Glazers have been in the past if Ole is backed over the next few years to rebuild the team properly, we can't have too many complaints. We have just signed the worlds most expensive defender and who knows, there is a day left to bring in a midfielder, right winger or no. 10.