Yeah, just thinking about our squad now and off the top of my head: since EtH joined we've lost/let go of DDG, Matic, Pogba, Ronaldo/Cavani, MG all for free, without a recognized LCB in the squad.
That's essentially the core/spine of our team right there, meaning we've needed to spend big money on replacing players who we've sold for nothing, and yet i see one or 2 mentions in here about "net spend" like that is on him. That's absolutely insane.
I feel most football fans are really poor at understanding that assembling a squad is often a game of opportunity cost.
What I mean by that is, fans think about the game in some kind of idealistic way, based on their experience playing computer games like FIFA or Football Manager. In those games, you can sign 10 players in one window, you have perfect information about a players' abilities and you can complete a transfer and salary negotiation with a few clicks of a controller.
Translate that into the real World and fans get frustrated because they think they have spotted problems that the manager somehow hasn't. Look at this thread alone. How many examples of "ETH should have bought/sold/not bought player xyz last Summer/this Summer".
What they forget is, we went into last Summer with a squad that I think 90% of us would agree was horribly unbalanced and short of quality. In that respect, ETHs hand was forced.
"Why spend £60m on an ageing Casemiro?"...because otherwise it was another season of Fred and McTominay in CM.
"Why spend £89m on Antony?"...because, with Greenwood suspended, we had no left-footed right forward, and ETH felt that was integral to us being a more balanced side. For all the criticism of Antony, I believe we were a much better team overall for having him in it last season. Yeah, we overpaid, but that's the cost of having to do things last minute or in a reactive manner.
"Why spend £45m on Martinez?"...again, because we had no left-footed CB. So again, ETH felt we completely lacked balance.
So there we go. £200m spent net on players ETH felt were absolutely essential. So what about the goalkeeper? What about a centre forward? What about depth in midfield?
For fans, it's all so easy isn't it. What a moron ETH is! I knew DDG was finished last season, why did ETH persevere? I knew Ronaldo was finished and Martial was unreliable, why didn't that idiot ETH sign a CF?!
Answer is very obvious when you engage your brain....this is real life, real money! The reality is the opportunity cost of buying the players we bought is that we then can't buy a CF or a GK. Same again this Summer. I'm sure ETH would have loved to sign 10 players...but it's not possible with our current finances...which brings me to my last point...
The reason I call City a "cheat code team" is because, continuing with the video game analogy, they don't have "opportunity cost". When Pep wants to do something, he's done it. When he walked into City and took over a team that had won the title 12 months previously, he went about relentlessly spending, spending and spending again - 6 or 7 players at a time, until he found the right combination eventually.
The point is ETH doesn't have that luxury and Pep wouldn't have had at United either (or most teams) so you have to make do. Imagine Pep had had to stick with Joe Hart for another season. Imagine he couldn't replace both full backs and purchase a spare in one window. Imagine he couldn't sign basically half of Europe's CBs before eventually landing on a combo that worked for him.
We have to get real and understand the difficulties ETH faces in trying to implement a modern style of football on a rag-tag bunch of misfits, assembled by three or four different managers, whilst at the same time under constant pressure to deliver results.
As fans, we do have a role to play in this actually. We can help by being patience, supporting ETH, stop being so results-orientated in the short-term and let him get on with the job. For me, we shouldn't even be thinking too much about his results until next season at a minimum. We should be focusing on how effectively he is rebuilding the squad and how effectively he is coaching his ideas into that squad.