I'm conscious that angstful impatience is not unusual at this stage of the transfer window, but there's a question which, in retrospect, has been a real one for many years and which is starting to come to the fore again: What exactly is it that we're trying to build here? Assuming the answer is " a contender", you'd expect that there is a clear view of which parts are in place and which need to be added, and that there's some sort of plan on how to progress with that. You'd also expect that the target for this season would be a squad that has a realistic chance to progress a little further in the PL compared to last season, as well as perform well in the CL. In short - get one step closer to contender status. It's kind of hard to see how what we've done so far might line up with that. Do they really think we can improve in a 60+ games season with a squad no deeper than the one who played 40 games last season? With three full backs and three central midfielders? Sure, Mount can perhaps play well in midfield and there's some positional versatility among the defenders, but it's not like there's an excess of depth to tap into in other areas of the squad either.
We obviously and urgently need a left back - for the short term and the long. We obviously need another central midfielder. Or, if that's Mount, another attacker. We obviously and urgently need to get Rashford out of the picture. We obviously could use a more credible striker alternative than Zirkzee. And those are just the obvious immediate needs, that needs taking care of before we can get down to the business, in coming windows, of upgrading from okay/good to very good/great in enough positions to actually challenge for titles. What we need right now is a squad with reasonable depth that is functional in all major areas. And yet we do not seem to really be getting there. We've basically just replaced Casemiro/Ugarte with Santos/Tielemans. Which is leaving me with that sinking familiar feeling that what we're really doing is just spending whatever kitty is made available and hope for the best, without any real long-term design.
And another familiar, sinking feeling too: Once we gain any momentum, we do not build on it, we squander it. Like we did in the 19/20 window, coming off a season where Bruno had arrived to transform the team and we hadn't lost since January, and we built on that by signing Donny, Cavani and Alex Telles. Cavani was an astute short-term signing, and Telles more or less plugged an obvious hole in the squad, although not very well - but essentially we flatlined the team by not adding anything meaningful to its capacities, leaving it to get by on what it already had, and with far too narrow margins.
