No internet to whinge on back then, but I wasn't alone in raising an eyebrow at the fees paid for Shaw, Daish, Salako-even Breen, who turned out better but was often not picked ahead of "Williams & Shaw" (even worse, played at RB-he says in Staying Up I think that he'd rather be shot than play there!) We over paid for Gary Mc who wasn't really brilliant until his last season with us. The fees for some of these players accelerated the crowd getting on their back, especially Salako.
Some of those are harsh. Both Salako and Shaw were England internationals, Williams had a half decent rep, and McAllister had been star for Leeds when they won the league title.
Salako was actually not bad at all until we changed system and indeed, that season I remember Trevor Brooking in his Radio Times pre-season preview (those were the days) tipping us as dark horses for the title! Generally the signings weren't unreasonable as such, but Atkinson was well past his best (and arguably had been since West Brom really), while Strachan had no experience as manager, did alright when Alex Miller was there to do tactics, but was generally out of his depth as manager.
Missed opportunity, for sure, and it was as much because the board couldn't pick a good manager to save their life. Continued with Nilsson (again, when Money was there to do the tactics, all was well), McAllister... and we know the rest!
And Richardson was far too loyal to Strachan, if he'd gone during our relegation season we might have stood a chance, and maybe fresh eyes the next season could have seen a very different result than lurching into a caretaker who then did well enough to get the job by default really.
