Called him to come to be a cheer leader? It's just BS.
Ole didnt want him. He wanted Grealish n Sancho. Our transfer business was a shambles and most of it left to deadline day. Ole isn't getting much say at all.
Jose n LVG have both made claims some players were bought for them rather than by them. I have no doubts it is true.
Just to clarify - even though the player and manager reiterated the story, you're simply choosing to believe the contrary? Ole wanted Donny and he convinced him to join - it's actually very smart, if very cold, management because VdB was excellent for Ajax, covers a range of midfield positions and strengthens our overall squad.
Re LVG/Mou: - can you provide some proof from a reputable source for that? From memory their criticisms are well documented in lengthy interviews and neither specifically said players were bought without their say-so. The criticisms were exactly the same for both, poor scouting, too commercial (long tours detrimental to time spent coaching and fatigue) and inability to attract top players. LVG/Mou would give Woodward a list of preferred players per position and their criticism was United could very rarely attract the 1st or 2nd names on that list - this then made them resort to signing their 3rd, 4th or even 5th choice player or players they knew already (LVG's Dutch contingent, ADM he'd tried to sign years back, BFS, Jose: Ibra, Matic, Lukaku and his Portuguese network referrals like Lindelof, Dalot, Fred probably through this channel as well). LVG was at the forefront of this and there's a lot of evidence about how poor our scouting team was (and he has openly criticized them) they recommended Schneiderlin for example who even said in interviews he didn't really have a good connection with LVG but just wanted to play for the club because of it's reputation.
There's even direct quotes from Woodward on our club website about how the club is run:
“There is a myth that we have non-football people making football decisions, and I think it’s insulting to the brilliant people who work on the football side in this club,” said the executive vice-chairman.“Many of the senior staff on the football side of the club have been in their roles for over 10 years. Some of our scouts have worked with us for more than 25 years.“We’ve expanded our recruitment department in recent years and we believe this now runs in an efficient and productive way. Player recommendations and decisions are worked on by this department and by the first-team manager and his staff, not by senior management.”