I think, you are pretty generous towards AWB. When we bought him for 50, that wasn't what it is today. It was a good amount of money and what we get for it, wasn't a hit. Granted, I wouldn't call him an outright fail but when we are honest, those things shouldn't just be binary. All in all - I would agree with your assessment. It makes the heart bleed. And while the trend has been getting more positive with ETH, I think, there is still so much room for improvement that to me, it is borderline unheard of, that the owners aren't having their guys making overhours to pay for external expertise to finally close the distance to the better teams.Maguire great in his first season but consistency hasn’t applied to all his time here. Fail
Sancho - weak mentally. Bought for right but better on left. Fail
Bruno - really? His goals and assists alone worth every penny. Hit. whether we can build a new side with him is a different question
AWB - most improved under ETH. He’s a good fullback. Hit
DvB - just can’t adjust to PL and now injury prone. Miss. Oh and I don’t think ole picked this one.
Dialo - too soon to tell. Huge potential
James - we got our money back so what’s wasted?
Ronaldo - forced on ole by the club and was the catalyst for it all falling. Fail
Telles - overhyped. Fail
Ighalo - short term loan. Not the worst.
pellestri - too soon
The bolded part: no, it isn't logical. Because the league position depends not only on your own decisions but also on the decisions of the other teams, luck and coincidence. Buying Maguire for 80 million would have been a mistake even if all the other PL teams would have spent double the amount for equally good CBs. Paying 90 million for Antony would have been a mistake even if we win the league as long as Antony isn't taking a lead role in it.Let me.preface this by saying it's not a hill I'm going to die on but add a bit of background.
We aren't the only football club buying players.
We aren't the only team spending hundreds of millions.
We aren't the only side who signs duds.
So if your club finishes 2nd, 3rd and second again, that means that some of those players were good enough to be better than at least another 17 teams in the league. That's logical, right? If all those players you've just mentioned were really as bad as Redcafe seems to think they are, we'd be finishing dead last every season on the fumes of the moaning alone.
Now as to whether that means they're successful because they didn't win titles I don't know. But it's my personal opinion that the players we signed under Solskjaer are better than the players we signed under Jose, van Gaal and Ten Hag, generally speaking. Yes we've had some absolute disasters on the recruitment side but here we are again under Ten Hag saying the same things as always.
I'm open to the idea that I'm wrong, like I said I'm obviously not HAPPY with any of the names you've mentioned but there'd a longer term context to think about too.
I would agree with you, some of the players aren't as outright bad as they are described by frustrated fans but that doesn't make them good automatically. Not being bad doesn't mean you are good. If you pay 50 million for a fullback, that kind of does a job and is to a degree usable 5 years later, than that can be worse than paying 50 million for a fullback who really contributes to on-the-pitch success.