for me the biggest frustration is the over reliance on some to boil this down to Onana vs DDG, like we were stuck with only choosing from those two GKs in the entire world. Seems like very few can understand that it can be both true that it was time to move on from DDG (which it really was), and at the same time onana can be not good enough (which jury is definitely still out on)
You’ve fallen into buying the myth that replacing De Gea was a top priority. It really wasn’t. What were the higher priorities?
A CB, a CDM, a true 8 and a second striker.
We brought in Evans, who overall has been great but in truth we’re wobbly in central defense. We did not bring in a CDM to cover for Casemiro. We did not bring in an 8. And we have no cover for Hojlund.
Despite it all, our goals conceded record in the PL was outstanding. Where we fell apart was in finishing, part of which can be blamed on the midfield for not creating better chances but primary responsibility for that failure lay with our front line. Hojlund was a great addition but we all knew it would take time for him to adapt to the PL and it in fact did. But we have no other goal scorers.
De Gea was poor in key games for us last season but Onana has been worse for us this season. The right move would have been to bring in a promising young keeper, such as Vicario, to cover for and when he was ready to take over for De Gea, who would have made an outstanding backup keeper. As it is now, opponents lick their lips at the sight of Onana and know that if they can hit the target that they’ll beat him. De Gea had his howlers, but he was always a keeper capable of making the saves you expect any keeper to make as well as saves only a few keepers on the planet are capable of making.
The 47m did not need to be spent on what is undeniably an average keeper.