Doesn't mean we control the timescales on when the players we want are willing to sign though, does it? Literally the worst thing we could do is start making panic signings. There's only Tufan gone who we didn't expect to leave this summer.
Yet we could have pressed to get some more realistic signings through the door. The fear is they’re aiming for A* players but forgetting about the B players that a squad like ours needs as well.
Any club will start at the top of a list and work down. Otherwise you never sign your top targets. Just stop panicking Mr Mainwaring.
What matters is having a couple in to bolster the squad going into the first game and a squad with a bit more depth come the end of August. If we don't have that by then, it's the time to panic, and the board will have some explaining to do and a half empty stadium to deal with.
I dont see a stinker coming. Rosenior played into their hands last season with that limp display he engineered. Even with a weaker than preferred squad we should have way too much for them if he plays a similar team to last night.
Seemed to suggest in his interview that it would be a chance for the youngsters which is understandable.
Sounds good on paper but I imagine the problem is that every one we're interested in has an agent trying to squeeze as much as possible out of us and even the "cheap" signings would be easy to find outselves overpaying for. Something might have to budge somewhere along the line and maybe we will have to overpay for a couple in order to get things moving. Which is why I think it's wrong for people to suggest there's absolutely nothing to worry about.
We don't control the timings of when players make a decision to sign. We do the background work, get agreements in principle but we can't hold a gun to their heads and say sign now. Were not significantly slower with incomings than last year, and we ended with a strong squad. Now isn't the time to panic.
So a loan who it'd already been decided to let out due to mediocre loans the previous year, and a punt who was surplus by January. Suspect the loans won't happen until the prem starts signing and the pre season tours are done. And if we're in for players who have more than one option (as you'd hope we were in for) then it's up to them where and when they sign. Club can only control it's side of things not the player and agents side. And sadly brinkmanship is part of the market these days. Outward pressure from fans doesn't help the situation either. And the last thing we need to be doing is taking punts for the sake of it.
Keeping Traore would have been a good move as things have turned out. Our attack would be significantly stronger right now if he was still here.
