But now you're arguing in hindsight about who United bought, and the prices paid, which I think is a very different question than who they have access to or rather who they could be buying. Are players in England more expensive? Yeah, but you're comparing players that were bought to hopefully improve the first eleven at some point, with players that Bayern brought in as squad options like Rode or Rudy.. In many transfer dealings Bayern has had the good fortune that in most positions they already have exceptional players, so players they sign don't always have to replace the established player (immediately). For the most part United haven't really had that many completely undisputed players in a lot of positions for a long time. Hence you see fewer signings that are obviously squad options from the start.
The fact that many of United's signings fail to deliver doesn't mean that mediocre players cost a fortune necessarily, it just means that the players they have bought turned out mediocre for whatever reason. None of the players you listed there were brought in under the expectation that they weren't good players, or even as squad options. Someone like Daniel James, or Telles fit that description better. Bayern are penny pinchers a lot of the time, so a lot of players they would probably like to have are immediately out of the question, even players like Dest for instance. That being said, nothing is stopping United from buying the players Bayern bought cheaply. They won't magically be twice as expensive. Bayern buys the players they do, because those are the ones affordable to them, in the same way that Juventus for instance frequently target free agent players. Some players may end up preferring Bayern, but you rarely read about United being interested in the same players as them.
From the list of players you had mentioned earlier, there isn't many players I see that wouldn't have been possible for United. I do see players that United would never be interested in in the first place, but that's a different matter.
I don't think United has the same level of chances of signing these players as Bayern due to multiple reasons:
1. Players preferring to move within the league.
2. German players considering BM more prestigious
3. BM having strong contact with the players agents and generally getting first dibs on the players
4. United scouting, understandably, not being as thorough in Germany than Bayern's.
I just wanted to point out that United have to spend multiples more than Bayern, which I agree have mostly been top signing. It's true that United haven't generally bought squad players since SAF left. United is perennially stuck in the cycle of buying a shiny new player, watch them turn into squaddies, then deadwood, and finally try to replace their previously top signings with more top signings.
Maybe United aren't the best example because of their boards incompetence, but even Pool have spent big money (compared to BM) for most of their players. Even having a German coach (and presumably a strong German scouting network with him), Pool don't generally compete with Bayern for these sort of players.
Where did I say they failed a lot of international transfers? I don't think that's really the case. They've had their share of duds, but overall I think they've done pretty well with international transfers. Even with the ones that didn't succeed, Bayern have had such continuity in their team that compensated for players that didn't perform. That's down to having fantastic coaches in that time frame, but also the unexpected longevity of some players. Players brought in to replace Ribery and Robben for instance failed to do so, but it didn't matter because they just kept going at such a high level.
In the past few years, Bayern have found themselves in the second place about the turn of the year, and yet they've won the league every time. Both Ribery and Robben were making decent impact right until they left. I put that down to the sheer gulf in quality between them and the rest of the league, moreso than their world class coaches and the stability of the club.
As for poor transfers leading to missing the CL in the PL.. not sure I agree, if you already have a good team to begin with. The inverse of that would be, that a team relies on good transfers to make top 4, which wouldn't really be as necessary if that club already had a very good team? And that's generally been the case for Bayern.
Look at how Chelsea, City and Pool have fared after winning the league recently, and the trend has been that a club needs to bring in new blood while replacing the poorer performers to have the motivation to be ahead of the chasing pack. So being able to refresh the squad and keep the performance levels higher than the rivals is definitely a big challenge in the PL, so a couple of wrong transfers in the summer and the club is quickly out of contention of any rewards within a few months.
I can't see a single season in which Bayern wouldn't have made the CL in the Premier League in the past decade.
Totally agree with that. Let's also note that 4-6 players are competing for any top PL transfer (within PL or without), but that's hardly the case for Bayern. While saying that, I'll also acknowledge that there are other factors like Bayern's financial success and excellent management which are also key contributors to them building a stronger squad..
