It was interesting to hear Ole use the word "gimmicky" in the presser today. I suspect that was entirely down to SAF using that word in the recent United pod, where it was actually appropriate.
I think there have been a lot of gimmicks over the last three years. Both from Ole and from the board. The DNA and the cultural reboot. With regards to the latter, I wonder now, when I see players not really fighting as it appeared against Leicester (apart from the lack of organisation) whether the same problems aren't still here. The players are bigger than the manager. When Pogba criticised our form and performances after the match I thought it was rich. What he said wasn't wrong, but he looked devoid of fight against Leicester, reminiscent of when he downed tools under Mourinho. Has the culture really been altered? We're still dishing out huge contracts to average players, so average in fact that the manager decides to play an injured player instead of one of those lottery winners. It also seems whatever plan - if any - Ole and his excellent "United through and through" coaches have had seems to have been shelved to fit all the important players into the team. And he says maybe it's an issue of balance, which is staggering to hear.
Anyhow, I'm not sure a cultural reboot has been achieved in any way really. I thought maybe it had to do with not spending tonnes on players' contracts, as evidenced by Bruno's relatively low deal, and Maguire's not too outlandish deal (given the outlandish outlay), but de Gea was quickly made the highest paid player in the league post-Bruno and now there's talk of doubling Maguire's contract for absolutely no reason whatsoever, while Lingard is being offered a deal when he could have been booted out in the summer to make room for balance.
I guess the tell tale sign of a cultural change will be what sort of succession is in place for when Ole is sacked and how his sacking will be handled. The cultural reboot has to be a top down process. And this recent managerial reign will be best described as the many false dawns, part 43583420.