All of these intangibles like mentality, experience, composure start to come out when a big team performs consistently poorly, but I think the answer is a lot simpler. Transfer business from United, over the last 10 years, has been categorically horrendous. People bringing up mentality seem to imply that it’s the mentality that’s letting them down and that the players are losing because of their weak mentality - no, the team is just crap. It’s not a top 4 team. United have a weird propensity to sign glamorous players with strong resumes that drop off after 1-2 years, giving them high wages which restricts investment elsewhere. And after the 1-2 years is up, it’s rinse and repeat - no semblance of a plan, a project, or a cohesive pathway forward. Their team right now is only Europa League standard, which is why their performances have reflected that.

Damn I thought Pope was 27/28

We lost Lewis Hall for this guy too, all the more infuriating

It is just bewildering to me how Man United continuously sign the same flavor of player over and over again, the experienced player who’s “good enough to hold up the Man United name”, they produce 1-2 seasons of good performances and then something happens and they’re out. Happens over and over again - here with Varane and Casemiro, then there’s Eriksen, Ronaldo, Cavani, Lukaku, Matic, Mkhitaryan, Ibra, Sanchez, Di Maria, Schweinsteiger.

Note, this isn’t a list of United transfer flops, of which there are a whole lot more, but a list of the same archetype not working over and over again. You could argue that some on these list recouped some money, or that they brought value for a couple of seasons in a certain way, but that’s not the point - for a team to rise back to the top, you need a concrete plan, and repeatedly signing players without the means to succeed long-term is the opposite of the stability that’s needed for a project. You can’t build a team up if your marquee signings all get crocked/fall out/become surplus/want to leave after 1-2 seasons - there’s just no project then, no concrete plan to get back to the top, and it’s back to square one with next manager.

Can someone inform me why Varane is leaving?