The players absolved of blame? The players get away Scott free again? Seriously?
The players have got huge blame and criticism, far more than the managers in both the media and the fanbase. We've sold and replaced players many times over. Each manager has been allowed to rebuild the squad significantly, to the point that there's only a handful of players that have played under more than two managers (and at least half of them are probably in their last season now). ETH had something like two thirds of the squad as his own players by the end.
Meanwhile, we change managers less often than the likes of Real, Barca, Bayern and PSG, despite them all having far more success than we do.
Jose is an incredibly toxic manager that falls out with every team he's been at after a few seasons and causes huge problems. That's not unique to his time with us. That's half of the reason he will never work at a top club again. The other half is that he was already on the downward slide when he got here, something that has continued as he's had to drop to a lower tier team at every stage and he's now in Turkey. Ole has never once shown that he's good enough to manage a top club, and once he tried to move to a more front-foot style it all fell apart. ETH was the first time since Fergie that we hired the right profile of manager, but hiring the upcoming manager that has it all to prove is always a risk. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Other top clubs do it all the time, and when it doesn't work they quickly sack them and try again.
Are the players blameless? Hell no. But pretending that it was their fault and that the managers are hard done by is ridiculous and something that only Man Utd fans seem to do. Indeed, a strong argument could be had that hanging on to failing managers too long is what's done the most damage. If we'd sacked Jose, Ole or ETH a bit earlier and replaced them with the next guy, that next manager then has an easier job. Instead we wait too long, let the previous managers limitations and incompetence drag us down which destroys the belief and confidence in the squad and breeds negativity in the players, fans and media. Each new manager then has to come into a broken team. The same would happen anywhere if a club leaves a manager who isn't good enough in place for too long. Other clubs simply don't wait that long.
