Spurs doesn’t have the same resources United has. Spurs are after players like Maddison, Lo Celso, Wilson, and Brooks, whereas United are after elite talent like De Ligt, Felix, Dybala, Sancho, Koulabaly and Jovic. Pochettino is not going to achieve what he doing this season at Spurs again when his competitors keeps bringing in more elite talent. Being in the finals would be a great send of for Pochettino to achieve bigger things at a bigger club. At United he can reach his goal easier and rebuild United the same way he did Spurs, but as a stronger team.
Spurs doesn’t have a better squad, he has an similar starting eleven with us and that is only assumed better because he gets the best out of average players and players who are elite talent. This team finished second before last season and we have some top talent here as showed during the honeymoon period. If Ajax and Spurs can get to the semi finals of the champions league with their squad, it is attainable for United as well who has a deeper talent pool to pick from.
I don’t see why we can’t challenge for the title with four-five new additions to this team. In ole table, we are in third place, so our team is much better than fans would give it credit for. All we need to challenge are good players in the right back position, ram/rm position, cdm position and cb position. With these additions and with our current players, if we don’t challenge, it will be a failure of a season. Liverpool was fourth last season before they accumulated 97 points. They made two good additions and now they are challenging. United just need similar type of signings.
Liverpool spent 4 years developing their style of football and steady building under Klopp. They couldn't just make every signing in one summer and compete. They also had a huge amount of luck throughout the season to get them to 97 points, and they still finished 2nd. Don't get me wrong, they're a brilliant team now, but 97 points isn't really representative of how they played over the season (probably were normal for close to 90, which is still really good). Anyway, it wasn't a sudden change. They were always growing and even last season when they finished 4th, they were capable of going toe to toe with the very best sides. They just had inconsistencies defensively which was holding them back with dumb mistakes, which they sorted out finally when they signed Allisson, Van Dijk and Fabinho. We're closer to where Liverpool was when Rodgers got sacked, i.e., take a few years of normal building to challenge in the best case scenario.
Also, yeah, we're 3rd in the Ole table, but well off the pace of the top 2, so it's not like we're just jumping up positions. It's that the top 2 are years ahead of us, so much so that even if one of those 2 managers took over at United (the top 2 managers in the world), it would still take a few years for us to get to that level.
As for Spurs, absolutely they have a better starting 11, depth not so much. It's nothing "assumed better" about it.
Kane > Rashford
Son > Martial
Lucas/Alli > any right sided player we put out
Eriksen = Pogba
Rose >= Shaw
Vertonghen > Lindelof
Alderweireld > Smalling
Trippier/Aurier > Young (though Trippier still shite)
Lloris < De Gea
Left out the midfield 2 that both sides play (behind erikson/pogba), but it's a shite area for both teams.
Basically, challenging for the title is impossible next season because the top 2 already have the top 2 managers in world football, both have big transfer spending power, both have been building their teams for years, both have quality all over the pitch with their key players at a prime age with quality players to back them up, and are among the top 2 teams in the world. United are at the start of a transition essentially, we have to rebuild a lot and it'll take a few years even if we do everything perfectly. We've just fallen so far off the pace while those 2 have gone from strength to strength so that's the reality. We aren't competing for the same top level as what it was between 2013 until 2017. It's a lot higher now.
