Well there's asking for money and then there's asking for above and beyond what a club believes you deserve. Added to the ongoing legal issue regarding his image rights then it's probably a good thing we decided against it having been seriously naive with the Sanchez deal.
I agree there are still serious deficiencies in the team but I think we need to move away from the idea of a quick fix and just throwing money at big names. We've tried that over the last 6 years and it's been an abject failure. I don't know what goes on behind the scenes, perhaps some of our targets were not available. Perhaps we are interested in Sancho next summer so don't want to spend huge amounts on a RW this summer. Or perhaps not, I don't know. But it is pointless buying someone just for the sake of it. Perhaps OGS believes Fred can push on this season - if so that will be like a new signing in itself.
Do I wish we'd have signed 1 or 2 more? Yes, and I'm sure privately Ole does too. But he's clearly placing great faith in the youngsters, and Fergie was a great advocate of that approach and often commented young players can surprise you when given a chance. Look at Sancho at Dortmund for example.
Be disappointed by all means, I just think the doomsday comments are a bit much. One poster thinks we won't make top 10. It's just absurd.
I don’t know know what’s going on either to be honest and I’m more venting in frustration at the lack of coherent process in which way we do our business. I mean, surely we could have done our due diligence in regards to Dybala and then moved along. If we didn’t sign him, fine. Move on to another target. Bruno, for instance. I mean he’s a number 10 that would be obtainable and by the look of things - he fits Ole’s system. Why Dybala, why Eriksen? And then we’re briefing that Eriksen didn’t want to come here in the first place. I mean it stinks of scattergun approach and complete incompetence. Surely we’d sound out to players’ agents and judge their level of interest, find potential snags and see if we’re going to move on with the deal or not. Now we’ve did that but we did it in the last week of the window and now we’re wondering if our squad will score enough goals. Well we haven’t for past 6 seasons and our attack hasn’t improved so I’m expecting just more of the same. Also, we should have been working on those deals for Eriksen, Dybala weeks ago. We should have known Dybala’s situation, he’s been on the market all summer. Eriksen always wanted to go to Spain yet we’re running around like a rabid dog chasing cars. Just reminds me of the 3 lawyers outside La Liga offices without a fecking clue of what to do. And 5 years later it’s more of the same.
Ole’s lost before he’s even began because he’s working with his hands tied behind his back. But at the same time if he believes Fred, Matic, Andreas, McTomminay are enough then he’ll be judged as such when if the shit hits the fan.
If we have the money, we should be investing in midfield. I don’t believe for a second that Longstaff is the only option. There are plenty of capable midfielders that we could have signed.