Back when I was young, AC Milan was the team to beat. That team was pretty much invincible. Imagine Pep's team but with a world class defence as well. While EPL teams were still struggling with long ball football, a pub club mentality and defenders who looked more like thugs then players AC Milan had the likes of Baresi, Maldini, Rijkaard, Van Basten, Gullit and Evani. Yet, when investment dried up, so did the players' quality. Once that happened the team nosedived to oblivion, expectations were lowered to the ridiculous and these days they are happy to dig deep in any top team trash to pick leftovers. Its not the brand name that make the team but the people on the pitch and unfortunately I am noticing that United have taken that route. Players are being not replaced, we're taking ages to hire a DOF and the people being employed are simply nowhere as experienced for the task at hand. The same happened about expectations. I mean can you imagine someone targeting 4th place when Sir Alex was around? These days 4th place is our holy grail.
Returning to the subject. Its not about Sanchez. If United had bothered bringing in a much needed RW and a striker to replace Lukaku then no one would have complained about Sanchez leaving. What's concerning is that several people had left the club and had not been replaced. Herrera is gone, Fellaini is gone and Lukaku is gone. If Sanchez leaves as well, then we'll be relying on players like Martial and Rashford who had been inconsistent throughout the past years + a bunch of kids whom while having talent, can't even top their own division. The U23 is in shambles while the U18 ended 4th last season and had a real beating by Shitty in the league cup semi final. We need all hands on deck to make it to top 4 and Id rather have Sanchez as an option in the unlikely event of him returning to his former best (or even at 50%, he's a way better player then most of our players even on those terms), then not having any options at all. And for what? So that Woodward's spreadsheet can look better?
Even if our kids are the best in United's history I am still uncomfortable giving them such responsibility at such early stage of their career. The reason being is that kids need time to develop physically and mentally. If we rely on them too much then the risk of them picking an injury or suffering a burn out early in their career is reasonably high. And lets be clear here. We will be relying on this kids. The EPL is just too long and too physical for Martial, Rashford and co not to need rest and when that happens they will be thrown in the deep end because we really have no choice. Our backup is really dire. Lingard is Everton's level at best, Mata is meah, James has pace but I've yet to see him dribble past a player. There's really little option there.