Maybe a fair point that he wasn't shafted by Brands alone (or was the shafting both ways lol ), but also who promised what in those early interviews? Who "sold the project" so to say? We had a Hollywood manager wanting to sign Hollywood type players, a DoF who didn't want either of those things, a chairman that promised he won't meddle with transfers but sat in and did exactly that for years and an owner who... well I have no idea what he wanted honestly, but in a bizarre way and as that's his hire he might've wanted the best for us in this case lol - European football and a top manager.
If they'd promised he'd be given freedom to do things only for the same people to turn around and say "actually no we will do what I want" (and that "I" is the different-for-each "I" of 3 people) - yeah, I can see how it'd be frustrating and they wouldn't want to stay.
Dunno if he'd have stayed more tbh, pure speculation on my part - seems like he knew exactly how crap we were ran behind the scenes and jumped at the first (or second I guess) stop, also understandable - as I say this is not Tony Pulis having a good run for a change, it's Carlo Ancelotti, arguably the best of the best - he went on to instant success in the place that gave him what we promised lol
And it's not about pure spending power - he left us, got Camavinga for less than 40 mil and won everything except the Copa del Rey. Granted with a better squad but we had many games where the dynamic duo of Keane and Godfrey looked like world beaters, not half bad.
Not saying we deserved it or that he's faultless for what it's worth - every single new bit of info that comes out for his tenure makes it even bleaker and makes the "jump to RM" choice somehow even more normal to make.
