I really don't get this. If you give him credit for bringing in Maguire, AWB and James (three transfers that cumulatively rank a 6/10, IMO), then he also deserves blame for not properly replacing Lukaku and Sanchez (some seem to feel that getting rid of those two is some great victory in and of itself.) Furthermore, if he's getting the transfer credit, he also then bears the responsibility for us not bringing Bruno, or any other attacking mid, in over the summer, thereby leaving us with the likes of Pereira and Lingard playing regularly.
In short, I see very limited evidence to suggest he'd be much better in a DOF position than he is in a coaching one. One can't help but think that only fan nostalgia and affection for the player that Ole once was have lead people to think that he is a good fit in either a managerial or DOF capacity.
I have written about this a number of times already so I will be accused of repeating myself here. The first point we need to accept is that United is run like a business and a football club second. And you can blame the Glazers.
If you accept that, then there are a number of objectives the business has to maintain.
1) Sustainable financial model.
2) Fiduciary obligations to its shareholders of maximising shareholder value.
After fecking up the football side for near a decade, they can finally see some mid-term implications in terms of football performance from their lack of investments to the tail end of the Fergie era. There is also the recognition of the galacticos players and managers approach to building a team has failed badly.
Both of these two factors has led the United higher-ups to conclude that they need a more long term, less opportunistic/haphazard approach to building a sustainable footballing model.
Then the next question is now what? They also know that we will be in the shitter for the next couple of years in terms of CL revenues. (The EPL revenues have marginal difference based on positions for a club the size of United in reality unless we lose our sparkle and get fewer TV appearance bonus.)
They have taken the approach of doing a root/branch teardown of the previous model into one of the New, Old United. One that is based on youth, team-approach to success with the occasional sprinkle of a 'superstar'.
See what we have in-house, maximise the resources internally then get what we need to plug the gaps externally.
We are in the 1st phase of maximising the internal resources -- which will include clearing out the deadwood.
All this has to be done within a budget -- duties to the shareholders in maximising the stock value -- and in view of the projected fall in revenues for the next couple of years. Thus the corresponded cost cuts ie primarily off-loading the salaries of the deadwood and bulking it up with academy players.... for now.
If we are successful, then we will loosen the financial sprocket to go big. Otherwise, in this build-up period, we will have a pretty strict budget, not necessarily small but within acceptable levels to ensure shareholder value/price.
Its an incremental approach that's targeted for a long term outcome. So unless United falls off the cliff performance-wise, I see Ole being there for the next season and possibly more to carry through this plan.
