United are in deeper shit than most people realise. For years they have had a sticking plaster approach to their transfer policy. It hasn't been because of the lack of money, they've spent as much as, if not more than, most other clubs. Where they have been lacking is in direction. For years they dominated by buying all the top talent for top money because they could afford it and most other clubs couldn't. Just as importantly they had a manager who knew how to put a team together. Combined, these two things gave them an edge that they exploited ruthlessly with the help of officialdom and the media that had bought into the hype and crawled up their arse. Because of their largely unopposed dominance and their brilliant manager they got rather complacent. So when the Glazers started to tighten the purse strings, they still had enough quality to carry on winning by buying below par players without a full rebuild as was Ferguson's way, and the squad was allowed to run down while maintaining the veneer of success. Then Ferguson retired and the ship was with left without the one force that had been keeping it all ticking over and because Ferguson had so dominated the whole running of the club from top to bottom there was no structure to speak of, only yes men and flunkies whose only function was to do as Ferguson told them without having a creative input into the playing side of the club. It is for this reason the playing side of the club has become dysfunctional. There is no one there that has the knowhow to put a footballing infrastructure on place and progress it. This is why they have started to lurch from manager to manager and from failure to failure. If they think they are in trouble now, they ain't seen nothing yet. They need a total overhaul of the playing side infrastructure of the club from top to bottom. If they started now they are looking at 5-10 years and a shit load of money and the right people to spend it to sort this mess out and things are going to get far worse before they get better.
