I wonder if the Glazers, perhaps Woodward too, completely underestimated the market's development over the past year. They've spent nearly 100m on 3 players during the past 6 months - did they think this would be enough? Should it be enough? When losing 3-4 experienced players due to retirement/age etc, then obviously not. But the fees have gone mad (thanks Real and Barca) and in a world cup year they are further infalted. Given our apparent obvious problems/weaknesses, you'd have thought this was something we'd address quite quickly. That said, a new manager deserves his say of course. He also deserves time to evaluate the players himself.
But perhaps the Glazers and Woodward misjudged the Moyes episode? Is the squad is in worse "shape" than first thought? Was it not all down to Moyes after all?
I definitely think the malaise and the lack of CL is likely to make it harder to attract the big names, but I do wonder if the owners hadn't really appraised the situation realistically and were not prepared for the outlay that is clearly needed (i.e. another 100m at least plus higher wages to compensate the lack of CL football).