The crux of the problem is, that because of an egalitarian(ish) distribution of TV funds, clubs necessity to sell has almost diminished. This may not last forever, as with previous bubbles wages may catch up and clubs will then be short of money again, but given how much further ahead we are than any other league in terms of revenue I find it hard to think it will happen as quickly or in truth at all.
People listen to lads like Jamie Redknap declaring "he will go when the money's right" in relation to VVD. Not only is he an idiot but he's living in the past. There is no incentive to sell if he has 5 years to run, much like Countinho this summer.
In years gone by, Watford would have seen the offer as a nice little earner. They have no need too now. At this moment Silva may literally be priceless.
Everton will no doubt claim bad luck via the local journos. They should have had a proper shortlist of 8 or 10 names and been speaking to people 3 or 4 at once from the moment Koeman went (and probably before).
Let's put it this way, when go to sell a product I am expected to quickly ascertain likelyhood of success. If I spend weeks on something which doesn't come off, it wouldn't be an excuse for me to say "well they wouldn't budge". Rightly they would say you hadn't prospected the difficulties properly.
We repeat the same patterns as the summer. We got dragged on and on with Sigurdsson and because we Elstone/Kenwright can't close deals and can only work on one deal at a time we are left with too little time to do essential business. We have to question, are they fit to be running a Premier League football club?
In my workplace, if last night would have happened there would have been a 0900 meeting and a statement put out. We will get neither. Incredible.