Happened upon one of those 'transfers so far' articles online and was dismayed to discover the number of ins and outs attributed to almost every other PL club.
Given his heroics keeping us up, I had such hopes that Roy would demand a no nonsense approach to our transfer dealings this Summer. Anyone else getting that sinking feeling - that, despite our hopes, the window will wimper out with little or no transfer activity on our part.
Feels like what we need is a single desirable player about which to get excited. But I can foresee one or two pretty uninspiring additions to the squad.
Someone please cheer me up with a fresh perspective.

If only it were White, rather than Yellow!

I think the minimum we would want is a central midfielder and a striker with no key players going whether loans or signings, to me Welbeck seems the obvious target for striker, and hopefully RLC.

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

well, RLC would come in to play as himself from last season, so you still need to bring in someone to replace Cabaye and a bench player to replace Lee+Mutch+Sako. Plus the striker/winger. So two players in isn't enough. If RLC isn't coming, then you need to bring in one for RLC, one for Cabaye, one for Sako/Lee. And even like that we were thin last season. I'd say we need to do a poor man's West Ham and bring in numbers, but of course we can't afford to spend what WH have. There are cheaper targets out there, but I can't see us working hard enough to identify them.

I agree. Those midfielders are an absolute must. Fail there and everything goes belly up in a big way, including new stand and investor funds.

COYP

I read this site way too much for my own health and at this time of year in particular the level of panic is far and away out of proportion to the reality (or at least that's what I tell myself!).
Don't get me wrong, I'd love big signings and/or at least a bit of communication between the club and the fans to reassure all of us poor buggers checking our phones every five minutes that "stuff" is happening but I also appreciate the need to keep as many cards as close to our chest as possible.

My main fear is obviously the need to replace RLC (hopefully with RLC) and Cabaye but I think we could all see that last year the latter struggled to manage the full 90 minutes and although his contribution in games was vital I don't think it's impossible that we'll plug that gap. Clearly the void gets fearfully bigger should Wilf be off but, perhaps naively, I think we'll be OK on that front for one more year.

With regard to comparing our business (or relative lack of) to other "smaller" clubs I think we need to look at the bigger picture. Whilst Bournemouth have coped impressively well in the PL their squad on paper does not look that impressive - they've also just spent £10.7m on an unknown left back from a tiny Spanish club, something that in my eyes would not provoke much celebration on HOL had that been us!! Brighton and Huddersfield have spent a bit but they are in their infancy when it comes to PL football, they have much larger gaps to fill than us. Southampton are now being well documented as needing to sell before they can buy, in fact it's really only West Ham who appear to be splashing the cash on impressive signings. What I think I'm getting at is that it's hard - it's hard to identify players, hard to persuade players (and agents) to come but mostly that what we have is still a very good squad of players, a manager who hopefully seems content here (despite rumours of not signing a new deal - the guy's 71, give him a break!!) and some decent players coming back in to contention post injury. It's not ALL doom and gloom.... Yet.

That being said, if I had a wish list I think it'd include :

1. RLC
2. Antonio
3. Welbeck

If we play with a midfield four we have, Luka, McArthur, Schlupp and Townsend, back up Puncheon, Riedewald and Williams, I think one quality midfielder is enough as we have gained Townsend back into midfield. this and one mobile forward could be enough as long as nobody is sold

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn