I can't say I'm any kind of youth expert, you'd need Mr Mujac (is he still on the board?),
@oskarutd ,
@jb8521 , or I think
@khoazany is also pretty clued up if I remember rightly.
But yeah in terms of Fergie's cheap punts, I think he just wanted to try to make superstars without paying for them. I think he was making those punts for a combination of commercial reasons and maybe also because the youth system went through quite a lull between the Pique, Evans, Gibson, Rossi side up until Butt came really, albeit with clear exceptions such as that excellent year where Pogba, Morrison, Lingard, Keane etc all came through. But even with them, you'd look at their mentalities and question whether they ever really had the right leadership and coaching, I don't feel like they've really fulfilled their potential in many cases.
I'm sure Fergie did watch those left field players before signing them, and they all had something (Mame Biram Diouf went on to have a decent time at Stoke for example), but don't forget he wasn't beyond doing favours for agents and things like that, I certainly question the motives around that Bebe transfer, even if the lad wasn't quite as rubbish as was made out.
I think we revamped the scouting network for sure under Ed, particularly at youth level, and now that we've finally got a structure in place that they seem to have made work in terms of who to target (get Woodward and his mates well away from it!), we're probably starting to see the benefits. Don't be surprised though if another Dong turns up in time, they're low odds signings but sometimes the potential upsides are worth the gamble. Obertan for example was one of the best youth players around but never kicked on. Fergie was gambling on getting something out of him that others hadn't. Unfortunately at United you can't just give runs of games out to see what happens though, it's always going to be a difficult club to do that.
as you say...and he doesn't pull out after a booking either...he's 110% aggression at all times 