I'm not liking the dynamic that's playing out right now...
After watching footy for decades you start to learn the subtle ways of communication from managers/board/players etc, and right now, it's clear that Mourinho is politely nudging the board and also letting us know as fans that he wants to sign players and isn't being backed as he'd hoped.
It's a World Cup year - we all know what it'll be like in the Summer with Woodward and a World Cup year, he drags transfers on at the best of times and the World Cup will be too much for him to deal with smoothly I reckon.
So why wait? Go in for Ozil now (20m) and a wide attacker for up to 50-60m now and we'll obviously improve, and if we wait til Summer, with Woodward, we'll only end up paying more anyway for pretty much any player barring free agents.
Just fecking get it going now - back Mourinho or sack him. Don't hang him out to dry mid-way through a rebuilding job when we need to invest.
If the board don't back him, this squad will continue to sag, you can see it already, and it'll end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy - 'we didn't back him cuz we think he'll fail... see, he failed'.
This squad needs investment if you expect him to compete with the best PL teams, let alone in Europe.
Think about the talent available to other managers in the PL...
City - Aguero, Sterling, de Bruyne, Silva, Sane, Jesus, Walker
Liverpool - Coutinho, Salah, Mané, Firmino, and just dropped a hulking 75m on VVD
Spurs - Kane, Dele Alli, Eriksen, Son
Chelsea - Hazard, Morata, Fabregas, Willian, Kante
Even Arsenal with Ozil and Sanchez have two better players than we have in our whole squad.
You can't expect him to compete with citeh with what's there, and you can't expect him to turn the corner on a massive rebuilding job without backing him now.
As stated above, Woodward and a World Cup Summer would make ANY manager (or fan) nervous, so back him now, or let him go, don't hang him out to dry.