I think the summer signings were a bit of a mess to be honest. Cavani is a misfit in this squad. VDB is a player in one of the few positions we already have quality in, and Telles although he might turn out to be a good signing wasn't really someone I'd have thought would be a priority. I don't think any of them leave us significantly better off than last year although I obviously want all three to do well.
Nothing wrong with singing academy players either but you'll be lucky to get one top player out of any group of academy players, and even then half the time they have to go elsewhere before they will reach that level. If a manager replaced Ole now, they wouldn't be winning or competing for leagues with our academy players in 2-3 years time, and you wouldn't find fans suddenly willing to be more patient with them either.
The front four is something I would actually give Ole the credit for since he was brave enough to back Greenwood, has overseen significant improvements in Rashford and Martial, and signed Fernandes. You can argue Rashford and Martial might have naturally improved anyway but Ole has backed them where Jose for example wouldn't have.
Every manager will have their plus points and their down sides, but the problem at United just very clearly runs deeper than that. Every year we are back having the same discussions about Woodward. Every manager we have he seems to end up working against rather than for. We see a clear pattern with United where the goal is short term revenue gain rather than long term success. If I was a Klopp or Pep for example I know I would probably avoid United because it's quite clear that the club wouldn't have the same priorities as me, which would make succeeding very difficult, and one of the biggest parts of being succesful is being smart and determined enough not to work with people who make it harder for you.
I don't like the term deadwood as I think it's a stupid way to talk about your own players, but the reason it's banded around here so much is because we do not manage or recruit players effectively, and we do not have consistent or acceptable standards on the pitch that we hold them to, or even allow our managers to hold them to. There's no incentive for a player at United to push themselves. There's no consistency with the standards players are held to. Pogba, and this isn't meant as an attack on him, is an example of everything that is wrong with this club. One player can get frozen out for misplacing a few passes, while another can fumble around misplacing passes, costing the team games, engaging in open warfare with their manager on and off the pitch, treading all over the club's status in press conferences and there are no consequences whatsoever. Presumably because it might hurt the marketing.
From the outside at this point I'm pretty sure we look like a bit of a joke. I'm amazed when we sign a decent player never mind manager...and I'm convinced that someone like Fernandes for example would just not hang around at United for long, because they will just realise they are better than that and that the club isn't interested enough in reaching the levels they want to reach.
We appointed Jose, signed a bunch of players for him, and then when he wanted to build a Jose Mourinho team we decided this is not what we wanted. That's not really backing him. We wouldn't even let him manage his own players. He wanted, quite rightly, to hold Pogba to the standards you'd expect and need from a top level player, and the club wouldn't let him do it, and wouldn't let him get rid of Pogba either.
He certainly had to go but even then we kept him around for another 6 months letting him sabotage things, because he knew as well as everyone else that the club were not interested in doing things his way.
You've completely lost me with the Lampard comparison. When he took over Chelsea were in a much better position than United. Last season United have then finished above Chelsea and through the course of the season been a better side than them. Neither team has won anything. Then this summer Chelsea have literally more or less signed a new team while Woodward ponced around pretending to sign Sancho. This is another weird thing with our fans. Some of you are SO determined to criticise our manager or particular players that it is like you just completely blind yourselves to anything that can't be used as a criticism, or just use it anyway in the hope no one notices that it makes no sense.
And if you are moaning about the standards the club applies to the manager and it's team, then surely you are admitting that the club does not back it's manager to be succesful? In your words "standards are truly like a midtable club with money"...Our manager doesn't decide what standards the club holds itself to unless the club allows them to.
I'm not sure what there is or isn't to buy into. Klopp's story makes a lot of sense particularly where he's talked about Woodward....no one would "never break a contract" if the opportunity was too good to turn down.
If you were one of the best managers in the world and could choose whether to work with United/Woodward or not, would you?
Pochettino is the tier below for me. A good manager but he's shown at Spurs that he's happy to make do, and at United all that will do is get the fans and media on his back within a couple of years when we're back to trying to paint 3rd place as a success and then not being able to push on from there.
That's a separate issue. The thread is if Poch is the answer to our prayer.