Well, yes, if you go back that far you will see that plenty of posters were resigned to a pretty awful season as long as Ole was in charge and actually quite a-lot of posters believed he would be sacked by Christmas. Our form had turned to absolute shit midway through Ole's tenure last season and the majority felt that he just simply wasn't going to be a good enough manager, which seems correct.
Prioritising recruitment over league position? Ok, well let me start by saying this: I don't think our recruitment has been anything amazing and certainly not what it's hyped up to have been. I have huge expectations for Bruno Fernandes and I hope he can be that missing link between our midfield and forward line that has been sorely lacking for quite a long time now. I was never, ever a fan of Maguire and was pretty against the transfer. I found him to be mostly hype with little substance to back up the hype, and so far, he's been fairly meh. I mean, he will do, but considering he's the most expensive defender on the planet, I find him to be fairly average. Dan James? Not for me. Good price in today's market and hopefully he can be a decent squaddie as he's a likeable lad, but even to be a squad player, he needs drastic improvements. He shouldn't be a starter and we still need to sort out the right hand side. AWB? It seems to be en vogue to criticise him these days, but to be fair, I think he will come good however his attacking output needs a-lot of work. So, all in all, I would give our incoming transfers under Ole a 6/10. Could be 7/10 if Bruno really hits some good heights. As for Ighalo, well he's clearly just a short term backup, but I did like him at Watford.
Now to outgoings or as the Ole fans like call it, ‘clearing the deadwood’. Ok so yes, Ole got rid of some of the dross in the squad but failed to adequately replace them, much like what LvG done. He has tried to incorporate the likes of Pereira into the team as starters, however these players are simply nowhere near good enough. Selling Lukaku without a replacement was idiocy of the highest order, and to be honest, I don’t really see what’s so great about what he’s done here, he’s arguably sold players and made us a weaker side, even with the incoming transfers. Yes, I’m delighted some of these players are gone but I mean, I’m pretty sure any other competent manager would also have gotten rid of most of those players. I find this ‘clearing the deadwood’ rhetoric to be hugely overstated and a very poor rationale as to why we should keep a grossly under-performing manager.
So, would I prioritise recruitment over league position? Well I would to a degree if the signings had of been amazing and I could see huge progress in our style of play and a plan going forward. Unfortunately, I just don’t see any progress on the pitch only regression. Our results and style of play are honestly, the worst they’ve been post Fergie which is an absolutely damming indictment on Ole’s ability as a manager. That being said, other teams have often needed players/signed new players/gotten rid of players and still looked far better than we have this season. At the end of the day, Ole isn’t playing some bunch of Sunday league players, he has full internationals at his disposal who have cost an absolute fortune and are better players than that of teams ahead of us in the league. The fact is, Ole is totally and utterly out of his depth and every single damming stat and anyone with a pair of eyes can see that.
Finally, these lies about people thinking we will win the league with a new manager need to stop. Literally no one thinks that and it is an utter fallacy. However, most agree that a far more competent manager would be doing a far more competent job, which is bang on the money. With a better manager, we would have made a-lot more progress than Ole has made, I don’t see how that’s even debatable.