Why has this happened 4 times in a row?
The Fergie Factor - SAF left us with a title winning team, but it was over performing because of the Fergie factor. He really was that good and there is nobody in world football who has that same X-factor that he had. These sorts of managers come by every now and then, I don't there has ever been one who had that sustained success in the way he did. Even during his reign we saw a lot of very successful managers, Mourinho, Pep, Wenger, Ancelloti,, Capello etc, but nobody has been as sustained and flawless as Fergie. We cannot replace that so we need to re-build around that, and we've failed to do so.
We need proper reform in the way our club is run. Take Chelsea and Manchester City. In recent times why have they been able to throw away managers and still get pretty regular success?
1. Mismanagement of Money - we don't lack in that department. We didn't spend enough in the latter years of the SAF era and although he left us with a title winning team, it was over performing and needed re-building. Since then we've not out-spent our rivals by enough to make up the difference, when we have spent it's been haphazard.
2. Continuity. Our rebuild suffered because we don't have a DoF. Each manager who came in had a different style, spunked a load of money on players to fit into those styles, every 2-3 years we're re-building and our squad was full of bloat (now a Shaw joke). Woodward is the problem here, he's not appointing a DoF and he's not doing the job properly himself. We need a footballing brain to oversea our transitions and re-builds, the manager should be key component of that, not the sole architect.
3. Lowering standards. Roman gets rid if you miss the targets he sets, he's ruthless. Managers who come to our club get all the spiel about a re-build. Instantly they get the idea that success is not something they need to deliver today, it's for the future. How many times have Chelsea re-built the squad since he took over - yet they're winning the league every 3-4 years. We have the resources to be much more consistent than them, people say City have set the standard, yet if you think about it - they've not really reached our standard under SAF. Under Fergie regardless of who we played I expected us to win. It was not often we were outclassed. winning and losing is part of the game, but we set the standard. Today we've lowered our own understanding of what the standards are by trying to achieve what City have, rather than our own former elite level.