Yea, pretty obvious at this point that they base all their transfers on agents, media hype, and manager requests.

Simple as. Guys like Antony, Matic, Mihki are clear manager buys. Sancho, Pogba, etc. were media hype transfers.

Very few look like a part of a well-scouted, coherent, long-term plan.

Its a lot like what was happening at Arsenal during the dark days of Raul Sanllehi tbh, except this has been going on for 10+ years at ManU.