'The jigsaw' is probably just an innocent turn of phrase. That said, and whilst I (like everyone else) hope there is another player or two on the way who will improve the first team immediately, the modern 'jigsaw' no longer involves just 11 pieces - those days ended 20 years ago - and could just as easily refer to vital medium term planning.

We can all be guilty of forgetting that the 'jigsaw' these days is made up of at least 25 players, necessarily including 8 'home grown' ones such as Zaha, who we actually 'grew' in our 'home' (even though we sold him, then borrowed him, then bought him for a fee, though at a profit) but also the likes of Townsend and Tompkins who were 'grown' elsewhere, and even one (though not the other) of both our sets of Dutch and Ghanaian internationals, such is the oddity of the definition.

The 25 man squad need not, however, include the likes of Mitchell, Kirby or anyone else 'grown' in an English youth team (ours or anyone else's) that we think we might use in the first team before they turn 21. I think I'm right in saying that young Ferguson (and possibly Eze as well) need not be registered in the 25 for instance, even though both will likely be first team players, and would help towards meeting the home grown quota. That's because we don't currently need to worry about the risk of having too few 'home growns' because half the squad qualifies. For now.

If we shift the likes of Wickham and Mccarthy, and if Zaha gets his move then we will be sailing closer to the wind on the 'home grown' front, which will affect our transfer strategy significantly. It might, for instance, make Watkins (who qualifies as home grown) far more attractive than either Edouard or Mateta (who don't), which Brentford will know and reflect in the price.

If we really get stuck for home grown players following a clear out (either this summer or next when perhaps Cahill, Dann etc may move on) we could always register Ferguson in the 25 as one of the 8, thereby solving that problem but creating a new one, namely reducing by one the number of new senior players we could sign. Unless the new man were home grown. Which would make them more expensive than they would be if we had planned our business so as not to desperately need to focus on that particular market. Which is probably exactly what Freedman is doing. Which affects transfers. Which affects Roy.

All of which is without even considering FFP which, even by itself, is complex enough to give ones ar£ehole toothache.

I'm amazed that any club that have a squad that is just about good enough, meets the regulations, and that they can afford ever even tries to buy or sell!