What I do hope is that alternatives to the established targets (AW / KK/ WC /JM) are being pursued as we have no idea whether all, any, or none of them will sign for us.
The aim should be to get 5-7 players in before the end of the window or sooner that are an improvement on what we have. Admittedly that's a very wide definition and you buy the best you can get but there must be a medium between the likes of Witsel who clearly does not want to join us, and players that are better than what we currently have that do?
There was talk on here earlier in the summer in the context of signing players in their late 20s/early 30s with the justification being that Moshiri was looking for success now/earlier than we might have expected through buying established players at their peak, maybe a better strategy would be to sign the best younger players and add them to the best from our academy? Big signings are great, but I don't mind bringing in less high-profile signings who will improve and peak in seasons to come. Ideally we should be looking at signings across the age/experience profile, for me there has been too much fixation with Witsel and others. Fantastic if we get them, and if we don't - nearly never won a race.
For a club that has finished 11th two seasons running and has played European football to no great degree in just a handful of seasons since our heyday in the 80s, we are clearly seeing that our name doesn't count for a huge amount at the moment, other than the sort of patronising platitudes that have been thrown at us for years. Personally I admit I have been taken aback by how difficult it is proving. The modern transfer market is indeed complex and full of sharks and backstabbers. We have no experience of swimming in those waters.
I'm not saying we need to reign in our ambitions, not at all, but there has to be a "Plan B" that comes into operation at some point before the close of the window. It concerns me that what should be a period of huge hope and promise for the club over the next few years in particular will otherwise fall victim to the short-termism that is rampant in modern football. I am very hopeful for the future, but we need to build on what has already been achieved so far by ensuring the squad is adequately reinforced in the next few weeks. It is folly to suggest that we don't need it.