The club is badly run and we just look to be a poor side. Missing out on CL is a result of this.
Players don’t want to join in to instability, they want to be part of something great. We look more likely to slide backwards than get back on top, why would anybody want to sign up for that?
Become a total neutral for a second and look at it from a purely objective standpoint. If you were a world class young professional footballer coveted by multiple top clubs around Europe, what exactly would make you want to pick Manchester United ahead of another team? It’s not going to be to play under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer I can tell you that. It’s a really hard sell when we have to cross our fingers that every player we go for is a United fan or has a soft spot for us already. The alternative is offering a massive salary.
Also we’re reaching a point where the best young players will only have been reading about our glory days in history books. A 19 year old hot prospect wouldn’t even have been born when we did the treble, and most of his formative footballing memories would have been after the age of 10+, seeing us lose a CL final, win the league a couple of times, then become almost an embarrassment post-Fergie.
Sorry, just back from hols and hit the wrong key.
Anyway, I agree with most of what you say but I can point out things have been worse than this before. We were always able to sign players when we were no where near winning tiltles ( thanks to Liverpool ) constant swapping and changing of managers and relegation. Even when we got Fergie the change was not dramatic but we happened to have a very talented crop of kids coming through and we amazingly acquired Cantona, which I believe was the greatest single thing we did to start winning titles. I believe Utd still has a certain magic for a lot of people and this is also the cause of the almost universal hatred of us by supporters of almost all clubs. Which team do supporters look at as soon as the fixture come out? Why Utd of course.
At the end of the day footballers are a mercenary bunch and will go where the riches are with the hope of winning titles a secondary concern. There are always exceptions to the rule and not all players are good enough to walk into teams like Real, Barca and even City where winning is more probable.
We need to sit tight right now and hope to hit on the right combination of players, manager etc. and that the hierarchy of the club come to realise that the club could be better run in terms of structure and planning. However, do not think things will ever change in regards to the fact we will always pay premium fees for players and higher wages.
Once again apologies for initially sending your message unanswered.