While echoing your sentiment I can’t agree with the spin.
Red Devil said:
I can remember the fans saying in 1991 that we had won the European Cup Winners Cup but needed to buy X Y and Z as well as A B and C in order to maintain the momentum.
We didn't. Fergie brought out the famous class of 92 who ran away with the Premiership for the next 12 years, near enough.
Not the best analogy, especially given we actually signed seven - albeit half as trainees - of our key 90s players over the next couple of months (okay, Kanchelskis technically arrived a week before Rotterdam, but few fans knew anything about him and very few of us had gone to Selhurst).
From what I remember of conversations on the Stretty fans were most bothered about our lack of goals, a long term goalkeeper as Bosnich work permit problems had come to light, a replacement for Robbo, a competent right sided midfielder and a left back, plus a bit of depth in light of the upcoming change to the foreigners rule in Europe. It was a long shopping list, but you can hardly claim it wasn’t required. Bar Robbo’s replacement it was all in place before we won the title, and that last piece was added that summer.
Look at our squad that season and count the members who were replaced/sidelined before we began our run: Sealey, Bosnich, Walsh, Donoghy, Blackmore, Anderson, Martin, Webb, Wallace, Phelan, Beardsmore, Ferguson, Robins... add to that McClair being converted to midfield and that is some pretty serious surgery, virtually all done in eighteen months post Rotterdam.
Sure the team of 92 came along and filled the gaping chasm in terms of squad depth, but given none of them were at the club when we went to Rotterdam it was hardly a factor on fan - or Fergie’s - opinion at the time.
Red Devil said:
We now are in the enviable position where we have a similar class in the youth team.
Are you joking, or have you seen something in some of the lads I’ve missed? The academy is patchy at best at the moment imo, and certainly nothing close to the absurd strength we had in 92. I'd be interested in exactly which of the lads you had in mind. For the record they didn’t do the treble last year, that was the reserves.
If you had the reserves in mind then I’ve agree there is at least some talent there with decent upside, but still nothing to compare to 92. Moreover development is the real concern. We are not taking them to the next level anymore, and Fergie’s constant refusal to actually play them is leaving us with a load of Liam Millers; very promising talents who reach their early/mid-twenties having barely kicked a ball in anger.
Loans are counter-productive in the long term. All they achieve is the initial blooding, but after that they can actually harm player development. The club taking a player have no interest in developing his weaknesses, they are just concerned with utilising his strengths. Half the reason our youth system is at its most unproductive since The Doc rebuilt it is how little actual coaching our youngsters receive. Instead we are letting them become one dimensional players with gaping holes in their game, making them pretty much useless to ourselves in the long term. I was pleased to see us send a full time coach to Antwerp to at least attempt to address this issue, but the standard of football there is currently way below our requirements.
I shot off on a tangent and forgot to make the point I originally intended... Oh well, blame it on age
I guess Red Devil and I have a somewhat different perspective thanks to our greater age. For us the regular big money signings every summer is very much a recent development. Historically we’ve spent big in splurges, but then have had many summers with little activity to balance the books. For example people refer to us as big spenders quoting transfers like the vast sum spent on Robson, but we didn’t spend another significant sum for the best part of three years! The only pick ups in the interim were bargain basement youngsters like Peter Beardsley and Paul McGrath and cheap out of contract veterans nearing retirement like Arthur Graham and the great Arnold Muhren.
It shows how radically the mindset has changed in recent years that fans are actually bemoaning that we’ve ‘just’ spent millions on an international midfielder and reserve keeper. Many summers have seen as little or less activity at first team level. It is only five years ago that we began to spend vast sums on multiple players every year following the capture of Ruud and Veron. By remarkable coincidence that just happens to be the same time our fortunes turned. Spending big regularly is no guarantee of success, in my opinion it is quite the opposite. A settled and balanced team is always the better option, and that is where fans should be attacking Fergie. We currently have massive player turnover and zero squad balance.
We need to let on-field relationships develop and fill holes in our team rather than make marquee signings year on year. Teams are always better than collections of talented individuals and given Chelsea’s economic power we are always going to be second best if we try and play them at their own game. Leave the uber-expensive marquee signings to the Chelsea’s of this world, and have United just buy what we
need. Sadly under Fergie we are doing neither.