casemiro hasn't been great since february

Xhaka has not declined yet. Nothing in my comment suggests that I think every player 30 or over has started to decline.

Prime Xhaka is now innit? He was mediocre for years and was a liability for a red card.

well xhaka also had other issues that caused him to try to do to much thus lose what he was/is good at look not as great.

always liked him even through his bad spell ofc.

didnt help that he was signed when wenger was still there then gone through a few different mangers with different styles.

its prob the same at man u because different managers rate different /want different players or players that they want and not what they have as well.

besides the fact that they are older ofc

Perisic is our current best left winger. Last year was shit for everybody I don't think there was any evidence he declined noticeably.

This wave of guys like Ronaldo, Messi, Ibra, Thiago Silva, Modric, have made people forged that 90% of players over 32 are going to drop their performance lvl. People forget these are professionals with their hands on top level technology, nutricion, recovering etc. Also 2 of them were born with probably 1 in a million natural genaracional talent. That and like you said games like Fifa and FM have made people look at older player in a diferent way ( which is not all 100% correct). Hell, 15 years ago, a 29 year old player would be called ancient.

Yep. What could he do that would live up to the ecstasy of winning the league cup?

Not to mention, when a player is young and poor they are hungry. I just am not certain how a 32 year old, who is worth millions can have that same want to get out of bed every day with achy joints and go train, instead of living in leisure and just putting in the time. It is still a job and many forget that.

Casemiro also went from a culture where excellence is expected to a culture where it’s not.

There are so many examples of footballers losing their drive to stay at peak performance or who want to move onto other interests.

And I can't really blame them.
You've earned millions, played tons of important games, won trophies. At some point you might think ''been there, done that'' and start prioritizing other things besides your footballing career.
For some players the drive to compete and strive for the best never diminishes but it's not all what's out there.

For the money United spent, they could have bought far better long term options.

But they didn't want long term options. They've got the cash to sign a Casemiro every year or two.
They'd rather overpay for proven players than risk spending a chunk on a player who's not quite as good, but has room to improve.

Players of his calibre are so rarely available, and especially not willing to go to a borderline CL qualifier with little realistic chance of a title win.

The problem Man U have is that they've got the resources for those top drawer players, but they're not an attractive option.

I mean, imagine them trying to sign Jude Bellingham. Is there actually an amount of money they could have given him to sign there? 3, 4, 5 times the wages Madrid offered? I think he'd still go to Real.
And if he did go to Man U, it would literally only be for money, so not that motivated to put in a good performance. As we've seen over and over.

Hendo was never in tip top shape. He's played through a heel problem for years even at his peak.

Its millage in the legs also.. messi and Ronaldo always were efficient with the effort.. would walk half the game etc.. it’s the charge around non stop players who’s muscles and tendons just lose their snap