Good post. Will give some of my thoughts too, then it will be good to focus on the upcoming matches for a while rather than the transfer window !
I think however many players we'd signed yesterday, be it loads of players or nobody, my views on our transfer policy would still be the same. The last few years transfer wise have not been good enough, and that has now played out on the pitch with a decline in the quality of performances, and a bunch of players being sat at the club who we simply cannot get rid of. I'd be more than happy to change my views on this, but it will take time for the work we have done in this window to bear fruit. Generally you see the results of good or bad recruitment a year or two down the line. So we will see if what we have done has been up to scratch as the season develops.
I still think our way of working is very slapdash and random, and lacking in strategy. I rate Murphy, but the club essentially failed to secure a striker, that they seemingly thought was all we were lacking, and then reverted to signing someone who is primarily a winger. As I've just said on another thread, I am happy for us to wait for the right striker if that is what it takes, and not sign one for the sake of it. But to seemingly focus your strategy for weeks on getting a centre forward, only to not get one, is far from ideal. Thankfully it hasn't prevented us doing a good deal for another area of the pitch like McCann, but I wonder if this apparent (imo) tunnel vision towards only being a striker away from being competitive is particularly helpful. Especially when you can't really afford one anyway.
Despite all the talk about strikers, my main concern about the current squad, and our recruitment this summer, is definitely the defence. I'm glad we've finally seriously attempted to replace Pearson, but we certainly haven't replaced Davies. I don't think we have addressed the defensive problems that came up post-January last season. I'd hoped that we would recruit well enough at the back to be able to use a back 4 if the manager wished, but I don't think that has happened yet and we still look pretty fragile at the back and locked into a back 5. Sepp is a good player and Olosunde on paper seemed like a good signing so we'll see how he does, but 2 year deals for Lindsay and Cunningham who were essentially stop gap signings already look unwise, and I think we could've easily found better if we'd looked elsewhere for a centre back and a left back. Maybe if we had, we might be able to play a back 4. We have a lot of defenders out of contract next summer, at which point I would hope to see a rebuild and see the club invest in building a defence for the next 3-4 years, rather than constantly plugging holes in this area with cheap options.
