Agree that players signed from this point forward are touch and go for the start of the season, and that could be crucial in negotiating what looks a relatively straightforward set of opening fixtures but I have to keep pointing out that there are (at least) 3 parties involved in any transfer and that Brands showed last year that he will take as long as he takes to get the right deal over the line; all that is to say that targets could very well have been ID'ed early, and our intention was almost certainly to get them done early but selling clubs for whatever reason (haggling, trying to find replacements, etc) could be holding things up.
The only reason I take pains to point this out - and I appreciate I am reaching a bit - is that I like the idea that the team is potentially sacrificing in the extremely short-term to benefit the club in the longer term; compare that approach to the Black Summer of 2017/18 and piling in loads of ill-fitting signings early, and it becomes by far the lesser of two evils.