Of course, he is way more qualified than me. But again, I stated, I don't believe Perisic has ever played a prominent wing-back role. So I don't know if his arrival would have made much difference. Mourinho is more qualified than anyone on this forum, but he is not perfect with his transfers.
De Bruyne was very good in the Bundesliga, but he was inconsistent in his 1st Prem season. Sterling did star in that Pool team that was firing, but his 1st season at City, he was labeled a waste of money. He was made a mockery of.
No denying Van Gaal bought some garbage, but let's not change the script and say that City had a FAR better starting point. There was no "gulf" imo. Maybe they had a better starting point, and I'll concede that, because of their far superior GD in 2015-2016. Jose came in and wanted 4 players for the title. Got all 4 and the squad didn't perform up to standard.