Anyone complaining about cost cutting or lack of spend, clearly hasn’t been paying attention. We have absolutely spunked money over the last 6 seasons. We have the second highest wage bill in the league, and in terms of quality we barely have the players for a top 6 finish. With a better manager we could scrape top 4.
I completely agree with the massive purge going on of playing staff. To change the culture, a lot of overpaid shit has to be moved on. It’s the only way to put the club back on a sustainable path and then recruit effectively. It’s literally the only area where Solskjær has performed well. Every transfer out and every transfer in has been good so far. We need some additions, but after the last 6 years we should ONLY be signing players that adhere to clearly defined recruitment parameters. There is evidence that these finally exist.
For the record, this is absolutely not an endorsement of the management/leadership on any level. But when something is being done right, you still have to acknowledge it.
Young, Jones, Rojo, Bailly, Matic, Lingard, Mata all have to go as they are not of the required quality to even be squad players.
Lindelof, Shaw, Pereira, Fred, James are squad player quality. Not starters. I would sell Shaw if a good offer came in.
The Pogba circus has to leave town. It’s detrimental to the club and culture.
Smalling has thrived under a new challenge and should be allowed to leave. People forget how poor he’s been the last 2 years. I’m delighted it’s working out for him elsewhere. But it didn’t work here.
Greenwood and Williams have earned spots challenging for first team places over the next couple of years. Tuanzebe is a player I highly rate, but has to stay injury free.
Martial is starting quality but is still on the fence between that and rotational roles due to his inconsistency and injury record.
We need a starting CB, LB, CDM, AM, and RW. We need another CF for depth. That’s 6 players, 5 of very high quality. This squad is desperately lacking leadership and experience of players in their prime. Lots of young, developing, high potential players, and a few over the hill (Mata, Matic, Young) Players in their peak years are mostly extremely mediocre at best (Rojo, Jones, Lingard etc). We need a few players in their peak years (Eriksen, Koulibaly for example) or about to enter their peak years (Van Dee Beek, Fernandes). This squad has the worst blend of experience since the 80s.