It feels like the "deadwood" thing has been a theme on here for about 10 years now.
What actually happens is players get older, or don't react well to the manager changing every 2 years, where they might not fit or be able to adjust to the new one's ideals. Or their mate might get dropped, sold, they might not adapt to the environment or cope well with being criticised every single week, etc.
Deadwood to me is someone who sits on the bench all season or makes about 8 appearances in 2 years. We've had a few of those but even then it's generally been injuries rather than anything else.
When someone's making 30+ appearances a year like most of those names in the opening post, it means they aren't dead wood, and if they leave someone needs to replace them and fill the gap...and if you look at how we seem to get progressively worse every time this happens, we clearly aren't replacing them very well.
Just from the OP list. Mctominay would significantly improve our current squad, yet was mocked on here as a United player. Rashford had multiple seasons where he'd get 20-30 goals. Constantly slated for it. No one in our current squad is capable of that. Bissaka despite the caf thinking he was the worst fullback ever, was a better right back than anyone we've picked either there or as wing back since (I rate Amad highly but he's not a defender). Varane is better than any of our current defenders. Eriksen even with no legs is a better CM than playing a no10 there. Garnacho had more goal contributions than almost anyone else in our squad last year. So far this season we've played Mason Mount instead who will not get near the same numbers.
We aren't actually shipping out deadwood. We are just moving players on that were contributing to the team, and then not replacing them properly.
