Man City are in a position that they are not only one of the richest cubs in world football, but they also have one of the very best teams and even the very best players would consider going there. I think it's fair to say that they generally have their pick of players so can identify their target and invariably get them. But even they have their moments, like the race with United to sign Sanchez 18 months ago.
Everton, by comparison, are in a position where we are trying to bring in players that are of a better quality than our current standing in world football. We are also having to do this on a budget that has been limited by the poor transfer dealings of the previous management team which also left us with a plethora of aging sub standard players on high wages that we are trying to offload. In addition we are striving to hold on to our best players who are understandably attracting the attention of the bigger clubs.
In the ideal world we would have brought in all the players we wanted early in the window, retained our best players and also offloaded all the deadwood just as swiftly. But football doesn't work like that. I'm more than happy that we have a manager who is keeping the DoF on his toes as I think the fans demand that as well. But at the end of the day we are asking him to perform miracles and they only happen in the Bible.
People who are trying to make out that the club are a joke or, in your case, that we are looking amateurish, are way off the mark. What have we done that is amateurish? Put an offer in for a player that broke our club record?. Made a club statement to deny rumours that might have affected current players worth?. Generally stayed quiet about our general dealings?.