It's really not such a bad position that we're in; it all depends on the role of players such as Kagawa. A front six of
------Carrick-----Fellaini
Nani--------Rooney------Kagawa
-----------Van Persie
is by no means a dreadful front six (as has been pointed out before). Some people are unhappy to have signed Fellaini because of his supposed lack of technique, but even the mighty Barcelona have Busquets to do their dirty work. Even then, Fellaini scored twice as many as our top scoring midfielder last year. With Vidic getting older and starting to lose the pace required to get back from attacking corners (or simply playing fewer games), it's important to retain something of an aerial threat from attacking set plays. He might not be pinging 50 yard passes onto a penny coin, but he's defensively sound, able to chip in with more than a few goals and has a nasty streak that will let opposition team know that we will not be bullied. Sound like a certain Irishman we all know?
The lack of a creative midfielder's signing has been bandied around a lot, especially in the aftermath of the Liverpool and Chelsea games. What hasn't been fully acknowledged is Kagawa's lack of game time; he's at least as good right now as any of the number 8's we were really linked with (Thiago hasn't broken through yet, Fabregas has gone off the boil, Modric is widely considered the worst La Liga signing of last summer) and will have a lot more to offer the first team this year, having had the benefit of a full year to settle in the Premier League. Signing another player in the number 8/10 position would just limit the chances of a phenomenally talented player whom we already have on the books.
The one thing I do understand people being vexed about is how many times we were linked with big name players and failing to land any of them. In defence of Woodward and Moyes, I'm going to put this down to a desperation to get the fans on board with them as soon as possible. Which inspires more confidence:
"Hey, look, we're still able to sign big name players like Fabregas!"
or
"We're happy with the squad right now."
Fergie/Gill had earned the confidence and the right to say the latter; Moyes/Woodward are some way off this yet. The only problem was the naïveté to come out and say this before concluding the deal - we've had worst executive decisions (passing up the opportunity to sign Ronaldinho for the sake of €2million) but this comes close. We'll get by for now - it's still Fergie's squad with Fergie's mentality - but the time for messing around needs to be considered passed. If Moyes/Woodward have learned lessons from this window and come back all the stronger in 10 months time, so be it. If we repeat all this in 2014, then the reactions we've seen might be more justifiable.
I have nothing against Fellaini but comparing him to Busquets is way off.
The problem was we were stupid enough to think we could get him for less than his release clause and our insistence on him not being worth that hints at us making idiots of oursleves yet again in January: Bilbao won't let him go for less than the release clause, they just sat on an unhappy player for a year and let him go on a free just because they would not entertain lower than release clause offers, it's a matter of principle, why can't our people get that into their thick skulls?