They brought in the second richest man in Great Britain and the hottest young coach in Europe.
And yet, while fans yesterday for the 20th anniversary of the acquisition of the Glazer family, Manchester United are worse than ever.
It is easy to forget, after Ruben Amorim has laid the abandoned soul of United in his newest brutal fair press conference, what a coup it had been to land him in the first place.
How Amorim was praised as a cross between a young Jose Mourinho and Jesus Christ, when he supervised a 4-1 demolition of the Champions League of Manchester City in his last home game that was in charge of Sporting Lisbon just six months ago.
Sporting had a 100 percent record in the Portuguese League and Amorim was a charismatic tactical brain that would transform Old Trafford.
And what a game changer it should have been when Sir Jim Ratcliffe took control of United's football operation only 16 months ago.
This ruthless brilliant businessman, this local-boy-made-good, would go back to the Red Devils to the place he once held in the Forbes Rich List.
Now the ruthlessness of Ratcliffe is considered to be hateful Penny-Pinching, which has not translated business insight into football and United is two places above the relegation zone.
This rotten, smelly football club takes the reputation of the best men.
As Amorim seems to have realized, according to his extraordinary round of the media interviews in the aftermath of the 2-0 home defeat on Sunday by West Ham.
Words that seriously wondered whether Amorim wants this summer.
The 40-year-old offered the idea that if United could not change things “very quickly, we have to give our places to different people”.
After all, the trend is clear: Leave United and start to enjoy football again.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka, instrumental in both hammers goals, has been voted on by a landslide of West Ham and is only one of the many players who have left Old Trafford and flourished.
Scott McTominay is a key figure in the bid of Table-Topping Napoli on the Serie A title, Antony has inspired Real Betis at the Conference League final and Dean Henderson goes on the way to a FA Cup final with Crystal Palace.
You can mention a composite of the XI of players who have left United in the last two years a list of permanent or on loan – they all considered dead wood or wrong 'UN – who would probably defeat the Amorim team in its current form.
The group includes: Henderson (Crystal Palace); Wan-Bissaka (West Ham), Willy Kambwala and Eric Bailly (both Villarreal), Tyrell Malacia (PSV Eindhoven); McFred (Napoli and Fenerbahce); Antony (Real Betis), Mason Greenwood (Marseille), Marcus Rashford (Aston Villa), Anthony Elanga (Nottingham Forest).
United has become a vast football player Recycling Center that buys good players and makes them bad before they sell bad players who will be good again.
Just like Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag for him, Amorim has identified a kind of concrete cancer at United who feels incurable once you've been replaced.
Win 'Hell Clasico' Europa League final against Tottenham in Bilbao and Amorim next week will have something to build.
Champions League qualification would considerably increase the budget, as well as the desirability to move to United this summer.
Losing it and Ratcliffe is in the same position as last summer – wonders if he should support a manager who is poorly failing in the Premier League.
If he wrongly handed over a new deal and a substantial transfer Kitty last year, would he do the same again?
Amorim is clear enough to realize this perilous situation and describes it as 'a decisive moment in the history of the club'.
Like all good managers, he had the ego to believe he could turn United.
Once inside, however, he realized that the full scale of that task was beyond him. Maybe past everyone.
Among the devastating glassers, so many things have been wrong for so long that nobody even knows where to start when it comes to doing things well.
Dan Ashworth, one of the best sports directors in the game, was in and out of Old Trafford within a few months. Amorim can follow very well.
Amorim was right to suggest that the United players engaged it for Europa League matches on Thursday evening and threw it into the Premier League on Sunday.
He was also a blast when he identified that united players are no longer afraid of losing and that not possessing “that fear” is “the most dangerous thing a big club can have”.
What does the idea of 'Bigness' actually mean when the Premier League defeat at home has become so routine that everyone knows they can beat you?
Since the start of last season, United Domestic matches have lost in Old Trafford to Brighton, Crystal Palace (twice), Manchester City, Newcastle (twice), Bournemouth (twice), Fulham (twice), Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Forest, Wolves and West Ham.
When Aston Villa wins in Old Trafford on Sunday week, this means that, of the 16 clubs United, both this season in the Premier League and the last one, only Chelsea, Everton and Brentford have won in Old Trafford.
And only Everton did not succeed in beating United, at home or away.
United has been consistently terrible in the Premier League for two years now.
If they do not win the Europa League and if one of the promoted clubs has a serious ambition, United will be real relegation candidates in the next term.
So we shouldn't blame Amorim if he doesn't feel like overseing it.