Our spending has been pretty high ever since Moyes was fired, arguably before, the 35mllion paid for Mata, may not seem like a lot of money now but it was then. Of course there are going to be summers were clubs spend less because it hasn't invested heavily the previous years, every club in the world has that you can' break transfer records every summer. But over the past 5 years, we have paid 3 of the top 5 fees ever paid by a British club and gave the biggest contract in premier league history to Sanchez and a net spend that is up near the top of any list you care to look at. We spend spend spend spend, and still, fans say it isn't enough and try to find reasons why we needed to spend more as if that has been the issue.
I would also argue I don't think we have ever been 1 or two players away from winning the title, all of the managers have been given an absolute sh*t storm of money that has been more than enough to build an awesome squad. It has just been squandered, so fans demand more. Like this summer people are going crazy for Sancho, do we really think we will win the league if we get Sancho? No, we still have very clear problems at centre back despite the fact we have 7 central defenders, none of the midfielders we have to seem comfortable in the holding role apart from Matic, who while had a great second half of the season a year ago we all thought he was over the hill do we really expect him to keep that form up for a full year (never mind the 3 years of the contract we mentally gave him). So what are fans suggesting we do pay 120million for Sancho, another 40 mil + for a quality holding midfielder and sign an 8th first-team centre back? United literally doesn't have enough money in the bank to do that, What should we do borrow more when our debt is rising, we are likely going to have no fans in the stadium possibly all year, and you can count on the fact that sponsorship money will be down at the next contract renewal stage due to the economic crisis. So we would be bonkers to do that! But fans don't want to hear about that they just want signings, and then more signings and then to complain that their hasn't been enough signings.
The Glazers and Woodward are 100% an issue, but not because of the lack of spending, its the incompetence of the spending.