In an ideal world you’re right but there’s so many different factors that can delay all this (agents, other teams trying to sign the same players, re-location considerations).
Karl can’t just go into the Westgate and pick what he wants off the shelf.
There
are factors that can delay signings of course, but a well-oiled machine can also get signings done in a timely fashion.
For me, there's a bit too much leaning on the old crutch of 'things happen, player X needs to move to free up player Y, players become available late etc'.
Actually, it goes further than this (and this isn't targeted at you specifically) - there seems to be an accepted fact in some quarters that if you want the best you have to wait 'til the bitter end.
I'm curious as to where exactly this understanding that the 'best players' can only be signed late on in the window has come from? Is there actually any evidence for this?
The L1 PFA team of the season for 21/22 contained 8 players who were already at their respective clubs from the previous season. Of the 3 who were new signings, 2 were signed early (Whatmough and Twine - 4th and 8th June respectively) and one was a loan but still over a month before the season started (Bazuna - 1st July - which is particularly curious as some would have us believe that PL clubs won't let their youngsters go on loan until all of pre-season has been completed).
So identifying top players at this or the level below early and completing the deal before pre-season even starts
is do-able. Yes, both of the above were OOC - but so was Nicky Cadden (for example). Was there not any competition for Whatmough and/or Twine?.
I suspect that this is where a DofF would make all the difference (I think almost everyone is now on the same sheet on this).
However achieved, they managed to somehow insulate themselves from this domino effect/relying on other things to fall into place. Some on here would have us all believe that such ambition is entirely unrealistic in the smoke and mirrors of the transfer window.
For the avoidance of any doubt, no-one (
literally no-one) is suggesting that the signings of the likes of Murphy or new contracts for Cam Bran are anything other than massive plays by the club. However, that doesn't mean that questions can't be asked about the sheer amount of activity that remains to be done - as evidenced by the bench at the weekend.
I'm not even doubting that we have probably been stung a couple of times this Summer or that we have genuinely been unlucky in some regards, but please let's not pretend that signing 4 or 5 of your core squad once the season has started is either inevitable - or even worse (and as some seem to suggest) - to be regarded as a positive.
