It won't be, because without signing Ronaldo this season would have been even more of a catastrophe. Cavani injured. Rashford injured then abysmal. Martial downing tools completely. Bruno in the worst form of his life. We'd be out of the CL already without signing Ronaldo, and that's just for starters.
Whereas Maguire is the most expensive CB in history, prematurely made club captain, and so undroppable for 4-5 seasons in a row where he is and will prove to be shite for the level we want to get to. Him and AWB has set out defence back 5 years.
I know what you mean, but the bolded part is speculation. Who knows if Martial might have kickstarted his carreer (I wouldn't have bet some money on it) or what would have happened to Brunos form without Ronaldo. Lets face it, he was erratic the year before as well. And he had quite a lot of shitty performances as well, but his confidence was fine - maybe because him collecting goals was good for him. I also don't think, anybody will care about a group stage we passed one way or the other if the journey ends in some unspectacular end with a loss after a great game or a win of the cup.
Plus we don't know, how Ronaldo will effect the striker purchases that might be done in the close future so while Ronaldo obviously has lots of chances to increase his stock, there is just as much potential for it to fall even lower. I think, as long as the special treatment continues, the atmosphere will stay very tense.
You are still talking about opinions though mate.
All I'm saying is in the league over 38 games last season we were the 2nd best side. We've actually finished ahead of Chelsea the last 2 seasons.
Are they better than us right now, yeah. Will they still be better than us a year from now I honestly don't know as I don't think Chelsea are way ahead of us in terms of talent. Liverpool have looked much better this season than last and seem to be back to close their best form. But things can change quickly in football, this time last year we were flirting with a title challenge now we're struggling to make top 4. This time last year Liverpool and Chelsea were struggling now they're are both up there challenging.
But we were better than both of those teams over 38 games, yes?
If Chlesea and Liverpool both finish ahead of us this season which seems likely. Will it only be because we've had a terrible season?
I think, if we want to be literal, you can't say, we were the second best team just because of a league position. The league position is based on results, not performances. Apart from that, I don't think there is much to discussing semantics about what somebody considers good or bad or the best or 2nd best. If we really were the 2nd best team of the league, what happened this season then? Nobody outside of United fanbase would call United the 2nd best team of the country based on last season. We exited the CL in the group stage, we lost to some of the worst sides of the league, we finished more or less on the same points we did the year before and we managed to not manage to score more than one goal about fecking Villareal. The "7th best team from Spain".
This isn't just on Ole. Of course not. But he played a role and he was the easiest piece to exchange.