They've traded badly though. It would be fairly rare for Stoke, Fulham, West Brom etc to spend over £5m for a key player nevermind a fullback or defensive midfielder. The Cottagers, for example, only buy a single player over that value every other season. Looking at the team they played at Old Trafford Schwarzer, Riether, Briggs, Diarra, Kacaniklic, Petric and Rodallega cost nothing and Hughes and Sidwell were less than £2m for the pair.
Peter Crouch £10,000,000
Wilson Palacios £8,000,000
Kenwyne Jones £8,000,000
Robert Huth £5,000,000
Bryan Ruiz £10,600,000]
Moussa Dembele £5,000,000
Andrew Johnson £10,500,000
Bobby Zamora £5,800,000
Craig Gardner £6,000,000
Connor Wickham £8,000,000
Asamoah Gyan £13,200,000
Stephane Sessegnon £6,000,000
Lorik Cana £5,000,000
Darren Bent £16,500,000
Lee Cattermole £6,000,000