It's quite insane to me that one of the richest clubs in the world, who has spent a crazy amount over the last few years, is starting a midfield of Lingard, Pereira and Fred v City. Just...why?
I thought Arsenal had it bad in CM, but jesus.
The answer is because the two best ones are injured and after one transfer window with the current manager, none have been bought in.
I also think if you were to account for the fact that United will always be required to pay more for players as clubs know they have deep pockets (not sure how you'd do this, maybe just total transfers by a market value?) then the spending in the past few years has not been keeping up with other clubs. I understand that market value is also what clubs are prepared to pay for a player but as soon as United is in for the player, the price goes up.