Like I said, context is important.
Fellaini £27.5m (RC), Herrera £30m (RC)
Why are you even including release clauses? Now I don't know about Italy, but everywhere else, you can't negotiate RCs unless the player runs his contract down and leaves on a free.
Mata £38m
2 time Chelsea player of the year, also a midseason transfer which is always paid at a premium
Di Maria £63.75m
Came off a world class season and World Cup, was/is in his prime
Shaw £32m
PL team of the year as a
teenager
Martial £51m +bonuses, Depay £29m
One is France's future, very young, has a lot of time to prove that he's worth the cash. Another led his team to their domestic title.
Schneiderlin £29.75m
Only one we overpaid for.
Bailly £32m
Already one of La Liga's best defenders at 22 years old
Pogba £90m
We may have overpaid for him, but he's young and had plenty of time to prove himself. Has all the tools too, just needs to fix his mindset.
I literally said we did overpay for him, but he might still end up being worth the fee we paid for. Anyway, I'd rather spend 89m on 23 year old Pogba than 94m on a 28 year old choke artist. But that's just me
You don't have to lecture me on net spend. Which big club, aside from Bayern, Dortmund, and you guys, actually manage to contend for silverware on a low net spend? That's simply not the norm these days.
Quite frankly, we were overdue a refresh on the squad as Fergie spent fuck all on an already aging squad after 2011. I myself admit that we're still quite a long way from RM, Atletico and Juves of the world. I never said we didn't spend big. We just flush out the cash when it's needed. I'm saying that the notion of 'United overspending to get their man' is a self repeating meme on the internet at this point.
The only players we really overpaid for are Schneiderlin and (once confirmed) Morata. I'd add Pogba cos y'all really hate him. That's 3 players since Woodward took over. Again, criticize the man for being a shit seller and giving high wages to squad players. As a buyer, he's done well.