I take your point and you may well be right. From my perspective though it seems to happen over and over again. We wait until the very last day, fail to land a target and then Parish gives an interview saying that us fans don't understand how difficult it is etc.

In this case it feels like a token bid was placed to distract from Benrahma clearly rejecting us for West Ham, with the amount we bid clearly nowhere near what they wanted. Ironically the £32m bid seemingly would have been enough to get Benrahma if he had wanted to come.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...

Okay...so...let's say we really like Sarr and wonder if it might be possible within our limited budget.

What would people have us bid up to? And when?

Just stroll straight up to Vicarage Road with an offer of £47.9 million on Sept. 17?

Delusional.

We are hoping no big club truly bids. Then we are bidding late and low (but as high as we dare) hoping other clubs aren't ready to gazump (or even match) us.

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

Agreed.

The point is that Watford didn't want to sell him whilst Stoke did want Butland off their hands. This type of last minute bidding for a player will only ever work if the seller is willing.

We may still pick up a free transfer or hold onto our money until the next window when clubs below the Premier league will really be struggling.

I think it was worth chancing our arm but it was likely that Watford told us they had no interest in selling and that was the end of it.

One more point

SP will be breathing a huge sigh of relief, I was amazed he got sucked into this PL money-pit at all.

Big money signings how would you compare Sarr to Ayew (cost 2.5 million?) for instance.

Sakho Benteke big loss-makers.

SP has done so much for us, doesn't have to prove anything.

Watford have based their valuation of Sarr on Watkins and Benrahma, Their justification to the valuation is the fact Sarr has Premiership experience, I do wonder if the boot was on the other foot and it was us that got relegated and they were interested in Zaha or any of our players how much would they have valued
them. The problem Watford have now is they have to be in the running for promotion, if they do not instantly get back into the Premiership at the first attempt them Sarr value is going to drop greatly.

South London & Proud
Sometimes I really wonder if family are really worth it.
Because it doesn’t matter how time and affection you give
It’s never enough

I'm on to focusing now on the Brighton match now. Am reasonably optimistic