thedon5
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nah, that's not true. luke shaw was chased by chelsea, and yeah, they did offer way more but shaw could have easily rejected man u and forced through a chelsea move. similarly, Di Maria is one of the biggest signings of the market, you can't just say "except for that one, world class player they got, who else?" and PSG were after him too. city and chelsea haven't really made any more impressive signings, fabergas is good but it was similar situation to Di Maria, barcelona wanted him out.
yeah, they've missed out on a few players they've been after, but herrera, shaw and di maria is not the summer spending of a club that's undesirable, it's arguably the most glitzy in the EPL. I think you're setting unrealistic expectations if you expect them to qualify their reputation by signing every world class player available in the market, they've never done that before. madrid outgunned them for James, but Madrid have always been the pinnacle, they wouldn't have lost Ronaldo to them if they weren't.
I do think though players of similar sature to di maria and shaw would have been having second thoughts though if they make embarrassing themselves a more common thing.
Luke Shaw is an English player who already was not in the Champions League. Herrera is not a big name either no matter how much Man Utd fans try to tell you he is. Di Maria is the only one you can use to back your point, and as I said, what other option did he have? It would have happened a lot earlier if Man Utd were his first choice or close to it.
Also you are pretending as if they are Everton or something who are offering reasonable wages. These players are getting ridiculous wage upgrades, it tells you something if they still don't want to move there. They've tried to sign big names this summer and Di Maria is all they could get for the aforementioned reasons.
I struggle to see how Man Utd is a better destination than Tottenham for example, and they are anywhere close as desirable as the top four as your message seems to suggest you think.