Tbh I'm not 100℅ sold on this yet. The season with Jose there were valid reasons for the board to slap an embargo on him. And this season it's Covid.
But the biggest reason is if this is true, imo the strategy is just too dumb. Failing CL means we lose money. Good players would be more reluctant to join us due to the lack of CL football. And selling clubs know we're in dire needs to strengthen with good cash. All that would lead to us overpaying or panic buying. Or both. Which is really stupid. Also after a bad season many of our players would be considered deadwoods, manager changing, squad rebuilding etc. Which all would cost a lot of money to fix.
If we spend big and wise enough for 2-3 consecutive seasons we should be able to build a good squad. Which would result in CL football or even title contender on a regular basis. Which make us much more attractive to players and sponsors. Selling clubs would not abuse us as well.
Building a good squad then improving from that is actually much more cost effective than the spend until we get top 4 then stop, rinse and repeat. If that's true then whoever comes with that idea, Ed or the Glazers is just completely dumb imo.