RichD
Striker
There's a bit more to it than that, marra, it takes financial analysis, initial discussions of how much the other team would want for him, proposals for staggered payment plans and clauses, and comparison of alternatives to see if it's even worth buying a specific player for a certain amount or if the money would be better spent on someone else, discussions with the player to find out if they'd even be interested in a move, followed by contract negotiations and possible alterations to the original bid if the player's demands are higher than expected.
It's a very complicated process, not just "hey there, we want to buy this player", "Oh hi, yeah that'll be £11m please", "OK thanks, we'll take him", job done.
For all we know, we could have any number of signings in various stages of this process. Nobody outside the club has any idea how many, and at what stage they are. It's not in the club's best interests to announce every player we've got under consideration to the press just to appease the fans. There could be 5 players packing their bags to come to Sunderland for medicals at this very moment. We just don't know. Panicking at this stage is just putting yourself through stress and worry for the sake of it.
We did indeed finish 4th bottom last least season with a weaker squad than we have now. However our current squad is stronger yet more streamlined than the one that started last season and had us right at the bottom of the table at the turn of the year, so we're not only a better team, we're also in a better financial position to be signing new players than we were at this point last year.
Add to that we've now got a manager that's more accustomed to the English game than the manager we started last season with, with a history of being able to make great signings and achieve continental qualification on a limited budget, who has committed to a long-term deal. I'm very confident that we're heading in the right direction as a club.
Have a nice Sunday, marra.
Get away