Thread:

Ole's been our manager for 1.5 seasons and 3 windows now. Ideally he should now be getting his 8-10th signing and the rebuild should be on its last stretch.

But the mess he took over was so huge that 3 windows in, he still has 7-8 unwanted players left to clear out.

Fans need to realise the sheer magnitude of the rebuild he took over. The solution was never going to be just buying players who he wants and likes.

Before he gets to do that, first he has to clear out the ones not needed and we had quite a few of them.

The wages of those players along with their absymal form means finding a buyer for most of them is difficult.

But even with those constraints, Ole is doing the best he can - loan them out with the hopes of getting a buyer later.

This may not be a perfect solution but the other option is keeping those players at the club, which not only affects the morale but also eats up the wage budget on players who will never play.

For Ole, the choice so far has always been between the lesser of two evils.

Even with all that in his first 2 windows he cleared out 9 such players

1. Fellaini, 31
2. Lukaku, 26
3. Smalling, 29
4. Darmian, 29
5. Valencia, 33
6. Herrera, 29
7. Sanchez, 30
8. Rojo: 29
9. Young: 34

A few were on loan and in this window hopefully we get to move them on too

This should put into perspective just how bad our squad building & maintenance was over the last 7 years.

No manager before him came in and wanted to take responsibility for the clear out. Everyone just avoided these glaring issues & wanted to cover it up by buying more.

This isn't bcs those managers didn't know better.

They knew but they also knew the effort it required would mean sacrificing performance for a while and none of them wanted to risk that.

In turn with each new manager the squad for more and more unbalanced & bloated.

Ole is the first one to come in and take the risk knowing fully well the repercussions.

9 players leaving left huge holes and combined with the injuries meant we had a torrid first half last season.

But in between all this Ole also knew he could show what was possible.

The fans who understood the scale of the problems could see what he was trying to show.

But the fans who dont fail to realise the reality of the situation - Without such dead wood the rebuild would be well and truly on its way right now and we would be a far better team.

With each new signing it's getting better & easier to attract the next - that's proof enough.

Bruno & VDB for a combined 85m is fantastic business for any club. 2 years ago we would never make such deals

This is due to Ole being pragmatic and taking things one step at a time

To put it into perspective as @AbdelBeheri pointed out

Pep got 20 signings in his first 2 years
Klopp got 12 & Bielsa got 19

Ole in 3 windows so far have gotten 5

The other managers had the luxury of making mistakes in the market but Ole has to get every signing spot on

This is because every bad signing for us at this stage hurts our leverage in the market while also giving us 1 more unwanted player to try and sell.

I would highly recommend reading @AbdelBeheri thread which goes into detail about this: https://twitter.com/AbdelBeheri/status/1306838248354983939?s=19

The idea of this thread isn't to make excuses for the board or to justify our lack of signings.

It is simply to point out the challenges that Ole is facing with this rebuild and put into context the reason why our rebuild seems to be slow from the outside.

Hopefully by the end of the next window we will no longer have any unwanted players in the squad.

As of now Ole is rebuilding a house on one side while carefully demolishing the other side so he has to be slow.

One that demolition finishes, the pace of the rebuild will pick up.

When Ole came in he had 2 choices:

1. take his time to right the wrongs of the last 7 years by clearing out unwanted players & buying players who want to be here

Or

2. go the same route as the managers before him, ignore the deadwood & try and buy his way out of trouble

The first option entails initial struggles, drop in performance, slower signings & a longer process

But it also entails a longer lasting future & the opportunity to fix the issues for good

Ole took the difficult choice & as fans we should be grateful. I know I am

Back the man!