We done the exact same thing in January, dicked about until the last week of the window (even though we were in a full blown injury crisis) got knocked back by our two main targets, Kolo Muani and Tomori, put in a £70m bid for Guehi which we knew would get rejected, then got knocked back initially by Tel. Lange started crying cause he knew he didn’t have any other options, and we had to beg Tel to join us and paid Bayern an exorbitant loan fee for a 6 month loan, which Levy would never normally sanction
We are an absolute shambles behind the scenes when it comes to transfer dealings. No planning or structure, just wait and see what opportunities come up. And when we miss those opportunities getting gazumped by other clubs or pissing about trying to haggle with clubs until they get sick of dealing with us, we go into full blown panic mode and start offering silly money for our third choice targets.