Few things….
first of all, players are not fans. This is their job so they do not have to love that club the moment they sing to It. That comes later….
There are many players whom played for different clubs and did well. Do you think that Brazilian Ronaldo loved PSV and Eredivisie when they signed him ?
Frankie is 25 he has less then 10 years playing at the highest level, we are a mess similar amount of time.
As a club we are as big as it gets but as a football team we are so far behind that it is very high risk we can stay trophyless for the next decade.
we as fans have our whole Life with that club and can wait for better times so we can be patient but players want trophies and their time is much shorter so they need to make smart decisions.
I love that club but if I was fantastic player and right now other clubs were interested i would consider signing somewhere else to have my trophy cabinet full after i retire. Then i can buy season ticket at OT and enjoy United, players think differently. Its here right now not in the future.
So if you do not want player who already is at his beloved club because he has second thoughts about quitting and coming to a club in a big mess without trophies and with uncertain future that is strange. Its like i do not want that girl cause she prefer that other handsome guy and i am not her first choice. Like i said the love comes later. You were not United biggest fans from the first day, Rio and Evra were not United fans before joining. Give a lad a chance.
About Champions League Club i do not think is about next season, the players in general want to play in CL so if the club has potential to be in 8/10 season in CL they would not mind to miss first season playing in Europe League. Especially if they have a chance to help a team getting that spot.
its more about going to a clublike Leicester or Wolves that will have slim chance to play there on regular basic.
Di Maria…. It turn bad. But at the beggining he was playing fantastic and everything was great. Later Van Gaal was moving him around the whole pitch playing in the centre midfield, as a winger and as a striker.
Di Maria was our best player at the time but because he was so creative like Bruno he was wastefull and LvG was not having that. Thats why even though Di Maria was playing good he was being slammed by our manager for not fitting our system and then all the problem begins…
i do not think that would be the same problem with Ten Hag and Frankie.