I am beginning to get the impression that DE took his eye of the ball in the summer and he knows it (maybe this was due to take over talks who knows). the appointment of Pep was a mistake in hindsight but what was worse was the recruitment policy in the summer. DE isn't a daft man and has now made a lot of right moves to fix the problems.
Comparisons to IL and the Waddock fiasco is not fair nor I think accurate. IL just gave up because he knew he was moving on and refused to put another penny into the club more than he had to (to the obvious detriment to the club). DE may or may not be moving on but he hasn't given up on at least maintaining the club as a decent saleable asset at a decent level and fund it properly.
Regarding a new manager now the window is shut there is less time pressure. If Faz can do the job for a bit then even better we buy more time (I am a bit more happy after the transfer window that we at least know where the issues in the squad are, and we have at least tried to address some of them). If things do not work out soon then the pace of recruitment will need to hot up and i think DE will be aware of this.
I hope the next manager will be more established with a proven track record at this level (and plenty of contacts here as well). I would also like to see someone who can work within our recruitment model, as this is one area I think Pep failed in.
I think the next few weeks will be very interesting indeed.