As I recall the discussion at the time, Ole wanted Haaland but for whatever we either weren't able, or willing, to spend what it would have taken to bring him in when he was there for the bringing. The rest is history and of course he's lifting multiple trophies for a squad that's deeper at every position than ours is. I can't think of a single regular starter for us who would walk into their starting XI.
I can see I'm not making my points very well. United's squad is incredibly thin and some of that does have to do with poor judgment, and some of that has to do with bad luck, and some of that has to do with missing out on top players who other clubs outbid us for. It would not be fair to suggest, which I am not, that a lack of spending explains everything that has gone wrong for us over the last decade (signing "big name" managers like Van Gaal and Mourinho and then a club legend had a lot to do with it), but we have missed out on top players because partly because we are no longer seen as a proper footballing enterprise committed to success on the pitch above all else. Instead, we are seen as a branding operation that brings in top names like Sanchez, Ronaldo and Pogba off of whose names merchandise can be hawked and social media clicked. "Good business" by the Glazers no doubt-- who on a purely business level have been wildly successful -- but the quality of our performances on the pitch have suffered as a result of subordinating pitch performance to spreadsheet performance. It is the maniacal pursuit of generating revenue, which the Glazers have mastered and Sir Jim seeks to capitalize on, that have been our doom. There is nothing about Sir Jim's resume that suggests in any way a significant departure from how the Glazers have run the club over the last decade that concerns me. Nice's captain has flogged Sir Jim for not having a clue how to run a football club and that concerns me as well.
It's not enough to hope that Sir Jim runs the club better than the Glazers have. The point is that there in fact is no reason to believe he will run it any differently than how the club has been run. The club will continue to be, above all, a cash how for the new ownership structure of the club, which will still have the Glazers leeching off it, which is great for them but not so great for rubes like us who only want to see trophies lifted. The future has yet to be written, but based on the past and based on what we know right now, there is no reason to believe that Sir Jim will run the club differently than how the Glazers have run it, with bankers and other yes men, we can hope for the best...but we should expect more of the same for years to come.
