I guess so, but when you’re going after players familiar to the manager then there has to be some level of challenge as a check at the very least. We have been partially guilty of it ourselves, especially under Rodgers.
Externally, it looks like that’s been pushed to one side because EtH has said so.
Player recruitment is too big a job these days. The days of a manager being able to scout players by just playing other teams in your league twice a year is gone so now not only do you have to have someone lead it for whom it is their full time job, they need a team working under them.
Utd have tried to walk a fine line between putting that team in place and letting it do its thing vs supporting a new manager they rate highly to help him get started at a new club by bringing in some players he had specifically identified. The latter approach is not necessarily at odds with the former if they are players the team had identified and its part of a coherent plan, but by all accounts (the reporting and the eye test) it does not appear to be. The result is a manager now weighed down by the lack of success of the players he demanded, which puts even more pressure on him personally for their lack of success.
That is the English model, but it is far from the only one. English football managers perform two functions that across all sport are far more commonly split into two distinct roles.
Looking at this from the other side… It is easier for the manager to state ‘categorically’, who he doesn’t want at the club… and that is unlikely to be up for any further debate beyond that in-house, while agreeing to a select few that he could work with…!
This then surely offers the confinement of a framework for recruitment, and other staff to work within…!
Problem is it’s buying the right player not just any.
There has a been a clamber from some of our fan base for signings and for lots of money spent on those but look at what we did and what they did even this summer.
Also compare it with Chelsea, they don’t seem to have a plan for Lavia even before he was injured.
And what are we hearing already? Going back in the market, something will potentially work at some point but it’s not a long term solution.
No, I think the biggest mistake would have to be the one that they made to allow that statement to even be a logical possibility. Presumably that someone they were buying would constitute an upgrade that would render Fred redundant.
The fans love blaming everyone but they themselves are equal culprits in this. Expecting everyone and everything to fall in place immediately just because they are Manchester United is why they are here. Equally responsible are people like Neville who are as stupid as your online fans are. You need patience to build a squad. It doesn’t happen overnight especially if your last successful manager leaves you and your squad in a disastrous state.