Let me ask you this: did we start our rise in 2011 by signing big name players? Or a few very good ones?
That mercato will hardly ever be repeated. Marotta hit the jack-pot with Vidal, Licht, the "past it" Pirlo, and next year again with Pogba.
I would gladly have some of the same, but it's close to impossible to repeat. Not that we didn't continue signing free transfers and cheap talents after that, but most were failures.
And, tbh, if we had money back then, we were probably gonna buy big name players, but we didn't have money, didn't have CL, didn't even make it to Europe.