To be fair, I don't think he even knows how to give anyone favors...
I was highly questionable about the Falcao signing (even though I rated the player) at the time of the loan deal, mainly due to the fact he has just recovered from an ACL as well as the whole circumstances of the deal itself (in that Monaco seemd to be quite keen on the loan deal, surely if he had fully recovered they would be doing anything to keeep him at the club).
Schweinsteiger on the other hand I pretty ecstatic on the basis that I didn't think he would have such a free-fall of the decline that he did despite being only 30-31 at the time (Whereas both Lampard and Gerrard only started to have those sorts of declines at 35-36).
Regardless even if you counted Schweinsteiger, that is still only 8 players across 6 years and only 3 of them came during the LvG era (when the "big" spending began to happen), likewise even of the 5 that joined under Mourinho, one of them came on a free (Zlatan) while the other came as part of a swap deal (Sanchez). So in reality we only "spent money" on 3 players in the form of Pogba, Lukaku & Matic under Mourinho
In comparison to that, between the 2013-2014 to 2017-2018 seasons, Real Madrid brought in Bale, Rodriguez, Kroos (during a relatively dry period in terms of signing "Talented Big Name Players") while Barcelona brought in Neymar, Suarez, Rakitic, Coutinho & Vidal (when they already had a much stronger squad than we did during this time), City brought in Gundogan, Walker & Mahrez (despite a policy in recent years of generally signing potential "Talented Big Name Players" rather than established ones, players like Rodri, Laporte, Mendy, B.Silva, Ederson, Stones, Sane, Jesus, KDB & Sterling) & Chelsea brought in Costa, Fabrigas, Luis, Pedro, Kante & Luiz.
So considering how many "Talented Big Name Players" we actually signed, its really not that many compared to what other clubs have signed, not good when our squad at the time was far worse than any of those teams at the time of Fergies retirement.
I wouldn't count Depay (or Martial for that matter) since they where potential stars at the time they where signed to the club rather than big names at the time they where signed. Otherwise I would agree with your statement.
That I agree with.
If we had signed lets say Oblak, Marcelo, F.Luis, Ramos, Hummels, Boating, Godin, Chiellini, Bonucci, Carvajal, Alves, Kroos, X.Alonso, Modric, Rodriguez, Vidal, Reus, D.Silva, Neymar, Robben, CR7, Bale, Lewandowski & Costa into the team (alongside the players we had signed) during the LvG/Mourinho and still struggled to qualify for the CL (and still fail to win either the Premier League & Champions League during this time). Then I would fully agree with you on that.
But the fact is, having a "Wannabe Galactico" policy in itself is not the issue in these continuing "wilderness years". Rather the real problems are instead repeatingly signing players (be it "Talented Big Names" or not) that did not fit with the kind of football that either LvG & Mourinho wanted to play, not signing enough talented players (Big Name or otherwise) to build a side that can win major trophies, appointing managers who seemed hell bent on playing Stoke-Like Football (despite the fact we didn't have the CB's for such a system) at all costs & of course the complete and utter lack both of ambition & incompetence from both Woodwood and especially the Glazers when it comes to owning & running this club.
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