Very clearly it's a big and complicated task. The longer without developments, the more frayed the nerves, both within the club and without.
Seems to me like a high-stakes game of darts. How many attempts are you going to have to land on the double before your opponent swoops in? And repeat that 8 or 10 times.
The most important thing for me is ensuring there is sufficient quality and affordability in our 2nd and 3rd options in each position. That prep work has either been done or it hasn't.
Let's say 3 options x 10 signings = 30 possibilities. Delap and Tete out. Nor we will get that many imo so can we get 8/28 that are good enough?
Bearing in mind the size of the squad currently, surely we can. There is no such thing as a perfect window and there will be issues and constraints but I'm expecting them to deliver something that equates to "good enough" and a 7/10 window.
If this is a new era then we should be beyond the violin treatment - the old "We tried" and phantom bids.
I think you can subdivide it again in terms of quality control mate.
If you look at mission critical its at 9, 10 (hybrid) and 7. Possibly at 8 as well. Thats four positions that you absolutely need throw resources at and not compromise to a degree that you are stuck with your 5th or 6th choice on a five year deal £25 mill lighter. Investing well in those positions significantly changes the match day team.
I personally believe the type of players we want in the positions above we are going to struggle to get - not that we wont get them but it wont come easy, like it or not - the players we will want to improve us with the sufficient quality, will likely have options, thus we are either throwing money at them or working hard to convince them - likely it will prob be both and all that may come later to its own deadline later in the window. I wouldn't comprise on those positions on quality and would be frontloading my resources to ensure we execute that.
The defence is strong - it just needs supplementing, we could do without having to invest in a new centre half so Keane is fine and a necessary compromise, we could do with a couple of full backs, but a loan or a free might be the compromise until we can look at it again in another window. The options of the bench may be our loans and further comprimises
For me 9. 10, 7 and 8 are non negotiables in terms of compromise on quality maybe a cut off of at 3rd/4th of a choice on our list. Further back and padding out the squad we can compromise and make do with a few risks - our defence is our strongest line by far.
I still think we struggle to attract the type of quality we will need, im not saying we wont get it, but there will be a bit of holding the tension and sticking to and trusting a plan. We are a trust project in the market at the moment for players in my honest opinion.