We are spending it, mainly on the new training complex, youth acquisition and development, plus the new stadium complex. Yes, we've wasted some money along the way, like all clubs, although I don't especially include Lamela in this as he's now usually part of the starting XI, but nothing on the scale of United's free-spending scatter-gun approach.
You won't be saying this if Spurs finish in the top 4 and United don't ... or not unless you'd prefer to play in the EL.
But have it your way: I don't mind if United want to waste their time offering mega-bucks in chasing Kane or Muller (or whoever) instead of adopting a more realistic and long-term approach, of which scouting and signing excellent prospects before they become in great demand could form a significant part.
To be fair, this is something we do.
Though we don't so much sign prospects as have an academy that produces players that fill out the first team squad. One of the few big positives this season is seeing the likes of Lingard, McNair, Pereira and Borthwick-Jackson in and around the first team. Obviously there are players we could take punts on from lower league clubs and hope they're upgrades on what we have, but it's all gambling, and it's good to have academy players make it rather than something imported.
From a signings perspective, it's also something we're doing with Martial, albeit on a much more extravagant scale, but the portents are good and the rewards could be excellent. We scouted him and had to move quickly before he was signed by one of Europe's super-clubs. It's the same idea, the financials involved are just vastly different because of the potential upside of the player in question.
And it's not like we only chase big names and stars. A lot of our dealings have been quite under-stated e.g. Blind, Rojo, Darmian, Varela.
The club has a lot of money though. Unlike Spurs, we also aren't hamstrung with the financial burden of needing to build a new stadium or build new facilities. We've been there done that. So the obvious use of cash reserves is to sign top level talent, whether that's a potential future world star like Martial, or rolling big on a ready-made star.
The key is making sure they complement the squad. That's been a mixed bag so far, though the transfer activity has still been largely positive in my view. Even if we changed manager tomorrow the vast majority of our recent signings would be safe. Some more established and long-standing names would be feeling the heat though.
