Worst thing about today is that it fuels the doom-merchants and gives them an "I told you so mandate".
In reality, it's clear that we've tried and failed to spend a shed load of money. Even if we'd just signed Sissoko, who seemingly royally screwed us over - we'd have had a £30m positive spend and people would be feeling a bit different about things.
I'm not going to pretend I'm not disappointed. My hopes were raised massively by the names we have been linked with - with seemingly concrete evidence that we were genuinely "in" for a a lot of them. But my overriding feeling is that we over-reached and aimed to high given where Martinez had left us, and we left it too late to then fall back on "plan b" targets.
I do partly wonder if the start we've had to the season has also changed things. Holgate and Stekelenberg have emerged as very capable players in the first team - when we've spend all summer thinking we need to address RB and GK. Mirallas looks like a man possessed, leaner and fitter and full of energy - playing Koeman's pressing game perfectly.
Valencia is a slight upgrade on Kone and Niasse - who knows what sort of tune Koeman might be able to get out of him. He made Shane Long look like a world beater last season when we all know deep down he's bang average.
The big question is what happens in January. First priority is a change in approach - we need to do business early, and we need to not let Kenwright anywhere near any of it.
Secondly, we need to be realistic and chase targets who will improve but who aren't way out of our reach. A lot of that will depend on where we are in the league come 1st Jan. I'd give Koeman every chance of having us top 7 at that point - in which case we look a genuine proposition - particularly if we have stadium news by then.
Anyway. Crap day. Really crap. But not the end of the world.