Not buying this at all.
We had a more than 'decent budget' last year but were massively outperformed by teams such as Shrewsbury who had less money but a man at the helm who had a far better tactical brain and transfer market acumen than any of our sorry incumbents.
If we had a manager from day one who didn't try to play a formation which was patently unsuitable for the personnel (JED) and then one who didn't sign players who were manifestly of an unsuitable character for a relegation dogfight (JFH signing KVV, Peirera, Bunney etc) then we would have stayed up.
Can you really ascribe Chris Wilder's success to 'money and luck' during our adversity-defying title winning side? Can you really say that there wasn't something 'revolutionary' or at least tactically innovative in Alan Knill's free kick routines (which have apparently been studied on the continent)?
Managers make a huge difference. Hopefully we now have a man at the helm who is at the very least a decent man- manager who is intelligent enough to keep it simple and clear tactically and let the players express themselves. That sounds easy to achieve, but we have had a litany of clowns who have failed on both these counts.
You just need to ask the average Oxford fan what they think to Wilder to realise he isn't some sort of new Messiah and did strike lucky with that great season.
I reckon he thought the same and cashed his chips straight away to join a club with the budget that is more likely to continue that success.
Knill's free kick routine was great to see but come on, it was hardly revolutionary, clubs try plenty of similar routines on the training ground and some making it to games. Do you really think no-one has thought of a couple of passes with a runner before?
You do need plenty of skill and knowledge to be a professional league manager but the problem is all clubs have the the same skilled manager in charge. Unfortunately for them it's a league so they can't all do well, so it has to be something else that makes the difference and you can guess what I think that is.