At least with benefit of hindsight Woodward should be blamed too. Make no mistake, the coaches we hired were all wrong ones and the way they set up the team was just wrong. We didn't look like a 11 players playing as a team since SAF retired, always looked like individuals who are playing for the first time (except very few games), so all the blame on that is surely on the managers and coaching staff.
Apart from that Woodward should have improved the recruitment adding more experts instead of relying on his failed buddies. He said it's hard to complete 3 deals in a summer and we have DoF at other clubs who had no problem completing 6-10 deals in a summer. That's why we should have dedicated individual who plans the recruitment and with proven track record. Woodward believes the system he is following is working fine, so obviously Woodward should be blamed for wasting so much money on transfers.
Instead of pointing fingers at Individuals I would say coaching staff + Recruitment staff have failed in last 6-7 years.
We have expanded and rebuilt the recruitment side completely over the last 5 years though. Including the youth setup.
It was severely neglected the last years under Gill and Sir Alex, something that both Moyes and LvG reacted on.
The club has tried to remedy it, and its probably one of the major reason that the club wants to keep faith in what its has been doing by promoting youth more than before even.
Still: one cant judge if that overhaul should be deemed a success or not for another couple of years.
The scouting and recruitment system focuses on players in their teens and maybe even lower. This takes time to settle and to be effective. A lot of the recruitment of younger players depends on our recruitment teams personal contact with those young players and their families. Which is where we were lagging behind Chelsea, City and others when Sir Alex left. Those relationships take time to build.
The recruitment for players immidiately destined for the first team will always pretty much be down to the manager, even if the heads of recruitment will have their inputs.
The idea that Woodward has any input here except for wage-budget concerns is still one of the most weird narratives ever. And somehow it seems to have been widely accepted.
As been said earlier in this thread, Wan-Bissaka and Maguire were always obvious targets for the first team.
As will Sancho and Maddison be next summer plus at least/hopefully two world class midfielders.
Here; the recruitment department will not have had a big final say, its probably been very clear for a long time which targets we have for nxt summer. And like Wan-Bissaka or Maguire it will be clear choices.
Then secondly it will be a financial question and if the player wants to come himself enough (see Dybala).
And thirdly; and maybe most essentially what we do if our first/second targets are not available for any of those reasons. Do we buy number 5 on the list like we did with Fred just to buy someone during that window or do we sit still in the boat and wait for our primary targets, like we seem to have done last summer?
The last question is extremely important and not an easy one to answer.
I tend to believe OGS and Woodward when they indicate that they rather will put faith in youth until the right player is available. They might have overdone it last summer, especially in midfield where it would have been a good idea IMO to bring in at least one "lower-ranked" player or why not a Matuidi to bridge the gap. I dont buy at all that this was due to financial constraints though. Its not supported by evidence over the years since Sir Alex left.
