Bottom line. Pep inherited better players but shipped out the dross in ruthless fashion got players in who fit his profile and most importantly put his stamp on everything.
Took him a year to sort it out.
We are regressing in our third year.......
We still haven’t sold Darmian ffs. How long do you think he would have lasted under pep?
We can only ship out the dross if we bring in replacements. It's been 3 years and we still don't have a new LB or RB, all while we needed signings in other areas more urgently I.E CM and striker.
Just go back and read what people were writing about David Silva at the time. The Rooney tangent is completely pointless if you don't acknowledge the role bad managers might have played in his decline. I've given two players off the top of my head just to illustrate the banal fact that it's not a given that a player will continue to be world class into his thirties even if he previously was. If you're gonna construct an a priori It was always gonna turn out that way, then no amount of individual cases can persuade you. It's an exercise in futility, because it's just an unfalsifiable stance. You're impervious to the concept of contingency.
What you wrote about De Bruyne is errant nonsense. You can google what was said about him at the time and what the fans thought, and you'll realise (if you're honest) that he was hot property and highly sought after. Everyone seemed to have been aware of it but Mourinho.
I was around 2 seasons ago and fully aware of what was being said about David Silva, no one was saying he was falling off a cliff and making that claim it nonsense, he won premier league player of the month twice in the season before Pep arrived.
No manager in the world could have stopped Rooney's decline, it's not as if he was awful for United and great for England, he was a disaster under Moyes/LVG/Mourinho and every manager since leaving United.
Yes it's not a given you will continue to be world class into your thirties but it's also a banal fact that when a player who has been world class for his entire career under basically every manager then continues to perform at a world class level in his early 30's it probably just because he has the ability to do so and not because the new guy putting down cones on a monday morning has solved football for 30+ year olds. Zidane had nothing to do with Ronaldo continuing to do what he did the same way Valderde isn't responsible for Messi. David Silva would be performing at a world class level regardless who was City manager because he's that good. Just like Ronaldo/Messi/Aguero etc
I do enjoy the irony in claiming that my stance on David Silva is somehow unfalsifiable but yours isn't.
Again your argument is resorting to "just go back and read what people said" when some basic logic would do. If KDB was such a hot property and highly sought after then how did Wolfsburg get him? They're not even a 2nd tier of European clubs and could easily be outspent by 20+ teams. Just utter nonsense.