I think people are getting overly stressed about all this pre-season stuff. The defeats and manner of the defeats do concern me, but I expect at least Piroe, Grimes and one other key player (West or Ntcham) to leave. That should bring in roughly £20m. Maybe more.
Let's say we could have £10m ready to spend already, that's a huge budget. It wouldn't make sense aiming for lower level targets if we will be able to go for much better players in a few weeks.
It's all about setting deadlines (to players, agents and other clubs), being prepared for every eventuality and then executing the plan as and when things happen.
For the first time in a while, I'm actually quietly confident.
Seeing elsewhere that Duff's comments about needing 5 or 6 players was a "startling admission" made me laugh. It's not startling, unless your head is buried in the sand. We need 3 (at least) now. Probably 4 or 5 actually, if we want decent depth that a promotion chasing squad need. If Piroe, Grimes and Ntcham leave, we will need 6 or 7, in my opinion.
Let's not judge yet. Of course we can be concerned by the performances so far, but let's try to be patient and realise that the window's still open for over a month.
I'm far more focused on what the squad looks like on September 2nd than now.
