I find it interesting that people talk so much about City’s “stronger starting point” when people were very open about them being not that good in Vangle’s last season.
Sterling was a joke around here, people were saying De Bruyne wasn’t that good, Silva and Aguero we’re finished etc. I’m not going to go and dig up posts, but that was the overwhelming feeling around here.
Now all of a sudden these same players have gone up several levels and it’s because “city had a better starting point”. With all this talk about transfer spend I feel like people forget that another big facet of being a manager is actual coaching and improving the players at your disposal, not just throwing money at every single position on the field.
Let’s for example look at Jose’s two biggest signings. Pogba was a necessity in my opinion. One of the best in the world and we needed that creative spark in midfield. There was no one within our own ranks who provided what he provided. Next up there’s Lukaku. As has been said by another
@JPRouve in this thread, José didn’t need to sign Lukaku. I’m willing to stick my neck out and say had we played either of them as the CF this season, and had an adequate wide player signed instead, they would be performing just as well or even better than Lukaku. There is also the option of a stop gap signing, while waiting for a better player to become available. Instead we signed Lukaku, and he isn’t performing up to standard. Everyone knew what type of player he is. If he needs a specific set up to perform then surely it would make sense to have the set up in place before signing him, rather than getting the player then hoping to sign the proper supporting cast?
There’s no doubt we have improved. For the outlay that has been made, it can be debated just how proportional the improvement has been, but there has been improvement. With that being said, you can’t blame everything on the “lack of money spent by United” (an absolutely ridiculous notion imo) and “the amount of money city spent”.