I think we might need to be patient again this summer.
If we're going to try for some quality players again it's not always possible for us to get our business done early just because those kind of players are often waiting to see if elite clubs come in for them. Their agents might be told an elite team is interested in them, so they'll hold out, even if we go in with a good bid and agreeable terms, to see if the other club decides to bid.
The problem isn't always with our negotiating, agents are often using our interest to draw bids from champions league teams, or attempt to. If an agent says their player is interested but then they start faffing around because they're trying to get other clubs to come in for them there's not much we can do about it, other than move to other targets.
Most of the time the elite teams do their business first because good players don't want to move to other clubs until they realise the elite teams aren't coming in for them.
I don't think it's always bad negotiating skills on our part that has caused problems in the past. We're often getting manipulated by agents. There's not much we can do about it if we want to compete for the best players, we just need to hope we get a break and one of them joins early as that will encourage other quality players to sign.