I understand where you're coming from regarding Frenkie de Jong. But for me we made improvements by bringing in Eriksen and Casemiro who are better than Fred and McTominay imo. And it's a work in progress to develop a playing style at a club like United that has for almost a decade been signing players for a reactive brand of football rather than a proactive brand of football, which has meant we fell behind clubs like Liverpool and City when it comes to developing a playing style that befits a club of our stature. We have too many players that have been signed by previous managers who simply aren't good enough on the ball when it comes to building up play from the back. And whenever we play against any team that is technically strong in possession and are adept at pressing high collectively, we have problems. And our starting goalkeeper is the biggest issue, and he's a goalkeeper that has been deemed to be not good enough by the Spanish national team via their former head Coach, Luis Enrique for the same reasons.
Nothing to add, couldn't have said it any better. One note to make my point in regards to FDJ a bit more clear: I thought that the club would be trying to bring in a longterm player. Someone who is in or close to his prime, offering exactly what we need in a certain position, is proven on the highest level and physically ready to contribute from day one. Eriksen and Casemira don't check all the boxes (obviously they check a lot of them) - FDJ would have checked all of them (even though personally I am not a huge fan of him). Actually I am happy we ended up with Casemiro instead as I thought, a midfield player who is very capable against the ball would be more useful than a progressor. Not because one role trumps the other, but because I thought maybe a DM could "unlock" progressing skills with Fred, Bruno, McTom or DVB. To me it seemed more likely those guys would be able to find something in terms of progressing the ball than that they would find something in terms of defensive skills.
Antony isn't the problem imo eventhough we overpaid for him due to the Glazers making additional funds available near the end of the window. And they likely did provide next seasons transfer budget but they had no choice due to how poorly we had finished the season under Rangnick after things imploded with Solskjaer and a budget of £120m was never enough with even Spurs spending £170m, via their DoF Paratici.
I think, in this situation overpaying to such a degree is a problem. Not to beat anyone with it. But I really hope the club isn't going to repeat something like this.
I don't believe we will only sign ten Hag affiliated players in the coming season because there is a new team in place that has replaced the outgoing head scouts from last season with the extra addition of a data science lead. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't sign certain players from Holland, due to Holland historically producing some of the best players in the world. Liverpool have signed plenty of players that Klopp pushed for.
I think I know what you mean. I am not particularly against Dutch players or ones from that league. On the contrary. Buy whoever you feel can be useful to you. Issue is solely the price and that (to me) it kind of made it evident, that we didn't really had a plan prepared.
I expect a much better transfer window due to the stability within the recruitment structure after the dismissal of Bout and Lawlor on the eve of last summers transfer window. So I'm looking forward to seeing what Jose Mayorga, Simon Wells (Head scouts) and Mick Court and Dominic Jordan (data science) will provide as options now that they've had a full season to compile and collate scout reports. And hopefully Matt Hargreaves who has joined as the head of transfer negotiations, will also be good at his job. Bayern have also raided Adidas for people to join their football structure.
Yeah will be interesting to see, how much of an effect a new team and a new approach will have and how it will be "visible" from the outside.
I wish someone would give me a job in recruitment because I dont believe it's difficult to sign players for a particular play style. Especially if I've also got the support of the rest of the scouts and data scientists.
I'd be happy to recommend you to them. Have you ever thought about offering your skills to them? Maybe they're happy to bring in expertise, maybe in form of freelance first. Imagine the story the club could promote - from fan to exec. I'm sure you'd have the backing of everybody here.