It's the club spending it on marketable players not for the footballing ability, it's the club undermining managers and giving players too much power, it's the club backing a manager financially up to a point of top 4 and then it receding quickly, it's the club turning Old Trafford into a shithole, it's the club more interested in sponsors than success on the pitch, it's the richest club in the world who will always spend less than City, Chelsea etc, it's an accountant making decisions on keeping/buying/selling players.
Mourinho getting us to 2nd was above our station in my opinion, we spent the 2nd most the summer previous which gave us some ground for finishing there but we were rightly nowhere near 1st. And then we pulled the plug and allowed Liverpool and Chelsea to overtake us again. Now morale is so low and the players know they can get the manager sacked, it would be a miracle if Spurs and Arsenal don't overtake us.
Both your assertions are wrong. Ed has done a terrible job, but not in the way you describe. If anything, the chief problem with Ed is giving managers too much power, not the players.
The myth that Ed dictates who is to be bought can be put to rest. Take a look at the signings:
Moyes - Mata and Fellaini. Definitely Fellaini was a Moyes buy. Mata was probably so as well, as there is no evidence to indicate Moyes didn't want him. Woodward didn't get Fabregas etc because they weren't interested and he himself was a rookie then at negotiating deals.
LvG - Blind was an LvG signing. Shaw and Herrera were scouted by the club, but LvG reserved the right to green light their signings (he vetoed Kroos). Di Maria was an LvG signing too -- he became available and Ed probably recommended him to LvG, who said yes (even name-dropped ADM in the press as a player he would like), Rojo was an LvG signing, based on his WC performances. So were Darmian, Depay, Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin. The only signing who may have been Ed's personal galactico was Falcao, IMO. But one out of many does not mean Ed is imposing on the manager.
LvG moaned that he didn't get the players he wanted. Well, they were Muller, Ramos and Neymar, how the feck was anyone going to get them for him?
Mourinho - Mkhi, Bailly, Zlatan and Pogba were all Jose signings. Remember Jose saying wanting Pogba was like wanting the Eiffel Tower when he was at Chelsea. Lindelof, Lukaku, Matic, Dalot, Fred, Alexis -- these were all Jose signings too. It was after Alexis flopping that Ed got cold feet and vetoed the signings of Willian etc.
So in conclusion, Ed does not dictate managers in terms of buying players. He also does not promote undermining of managers by players -- as seen when ADM was sold immediately when LvG wanted it. Regarding the name-dropping of Varane, that was an example of the type of young defender target Ed wanted, as he felt Toby etc were too old or too inconsistent.
The only time he has interfered in a manager's decision is when he decided to keep Martial against Jose's wishes -- which was the result of seeing Jose chase old players and watching Alexis flop. And that decision may not be so bad after all.
But that doesn't mean Ed is a good CEO. He's done a terrible job as follows:
1) Blindly following the whims of manager with no transfer structure.
2) Vetoing Jose's targets without having said structure in place to recommend alternatives to the manager. It is criminal to not spend anything because you feel the manager's targets are bad -- atleast fecking recommend alternatives.
3) Favoring a slow "churn of players" -- in his own words -- when the squad still has several average/mediocre players.
4) Too slow to make any decision -- took ages to sack LvG and is going to do something similar with Jose, thus wasting away the season.
5) Not spending any money in the summer -- so, so atrocious that I had to mention it twice.
