Ogden isn't a good source but it could easily be true. When Rangnick came in, in our staff's mind we had Rashford, Martial, Fernandes, VDB, Sancho and Greenwood plus Elanga, Amad and Pellistri. They probably let it be known internally not to look at the 7, 10 and 11 positions and to concentrate elsewhere such as DM and a 9 to replace Cavani. Most likely Rice and Kane and went home. Since then:
Rashford poor season
Martial out the door and can't be bothered
VDB on loan
Sancho slowly getting better but looks a 30m player not a 90m
Greenwood.... Enough said
Amad awful loan
Pellistri awful loan
The decision looks amazingly stupid now but 6 months ago I bet people on our staff rated six of them higher than Nkunku. Our staffs standards are so odd I don't even know what they see when looking at player or even what they think is good football. Its all about clicks on social media for them and we have the best squad of players for that.
If we bring in EtH, keep RR to find players for him, release all the out of contract players and start selling players like Martial, Maguire and AWB, I will start to hope we are on the right track again this summer but its the hope that kills you.