Ole gambled on changing the squad as quickly as possible. I think he wanted to drop the deadwood because he thought it was inhibiting our long term development. So we dropped them - 9 senior players have left I think since the end of last season - and focussed on long term options only. If that meant playing a young player for now, or even playing with an obvious gap in the squad, like at RW, then so be it. Better for the long term to do that than to keep buying mediocrity.
There was always a risk of going backwards before we went forwards with that strategy, but it definitely backfired at first. Injuries to our thin squad before Xmas left us bereft of talent, and letting Lukaku go in particular looked damaging until the new year. But it turned around in the second half of the season and I think his strategy is starting to pay dividends. Would Martial have flourished as a number 9 had Lukaku been knocking around? Would Greenwood have developed post-lockdown if we'd ponied up for Willian or some other short term option on the RW? Would we have seen McTominay develop so much if we could have relied on Herrera? Those older players might have gained us a few more points this year, but in the end, they weren't going to help us win the league and would have stunted the development of players who might.
Winning the title looks to be out of our reach next year, but given that we've barely made the top 4 twice in six seasons, that was never realistic anyway. Key thing is that our foundations look set, finally. The first team looks great, the attacking play is good and the age profile is perfectly set for the next 4 or 5 seasons together. There's clarity in our recruitment again, we look like we know what we need to bring in. The group looks happy and like they enjoy their football together. These may only be the basics, but the basics have been missing since Moyes started tinkering all those years ago. They won't bring success by themselves, but you can't have success without them. So despite the topsy turvey season, I do think we're heading the right way.