If you want to argue they didn’t go after the right players or pieces that’s one thing. But to suggest they weren’t willing to to spend money on legit help as your post suggested is absurd. I wasn’t really a big fan of the Santander signing but understand they needed to do something to address Power. Signing Max to a one-year deal was never going to hurt anything they did.
They needed to do more but money wasn’t the issue in this scenario.