Papy was a bizarre transfer whichever way we spin it. Given that he was signed so late in the day and thrown into the first team squad (and then subsequently replaced in January by Mizaga) tells me he was bought at the failure to secure a central defender who was going to compete for a first team place.
RE Stones. If we never had any intentions on meeting Everton's valuation of him then we should never have spent so much time on trying to sign him because the evidence suggests that it was at the expense of signing a different central defender. Perhaps we left it too late after Stones to identify and sign a quality defender?
Leaving it late with Luiz and Alonso. You yourself have said it's because we failed to sign Conte's first choice targets. So that's two summers running where we have failed to recruit the manager's primary target(s). Is this because we are targeting unrealistic options? Is it because we are undervaluing said targets (even if that's in the eyes of the parent club)? Either way I think it raises a question in how we've conducted transfer negotiations for the last two years, especially when contrasted to to the year proceeding when Costa and Fabregas in particular were recruited very quickly by contrast.
RE lack of activity this month. I alluded to it in my previous post but basically I'm saying, we're in a much stronger position in the league than we expected so why not try to capitalise on that? There's not many (if any) other clubs with £60m burning a hole in their back pocket following a player sale so we find ourselves with funds to strength, especially after lightening to wage bill considerably too with also releasing Mikel.
So given that Conte clearly has reservations about playing Michy, why not recruit another striker? Given that Alonso is the only natural fit at LWB why not add depth there?
In isolation this window isn't anything out of the norm but in the wider context of how lackadaisical (I feel) we have been with regards to transfers for a couple of years I thought it worth comment.
I honestly have no idea why people are so fixated on Papy (seems to me as an easy way to target Emanalo). Yes he was a rubbish signing, but he didn't even play and was sold for profit, so his presence at Chelsea was literally irrelevant in terms of damaging. I mean, we've signed players like Sidwell, Ben Haim, Jarosik and Smertin before so odd transfers like that are nothing new.
I've said this time and time again, real football is not football manager. I'm sure Emanalo and co know exactly what they are doing and are handling circumstances to the best of their ability. If they were so incompetent, we wouldn't have Conte and a performing side top of the league. We had every intention of signing Stones (to back Jose), however when buying you know there is a limit and all you can do is test resolve. We might have identified other quality defenders and failed at inquiry stage. Remember, we only know the surface of whats happening yet we all think we can explain the transfer and targeting process in just a few sentences.
We failed to sign Conte's first choice targets like I'm sure many other clubs do also. There is no massive skill in signing targets. All you have to do is look at China. As long as you have the money it will work. However, Chelsea will no longer be mugged off and therefore some bids we will win and some we will lose. There is a difference between the board being tight (ala Wenger) and being sensible. We are the latter.
Lack of activity this month? What about Real Madrid for the last 2-3 seasons. They are without a doubt the biggest spenders and yet have slowed down, not because of tightened purse strings but because the lack of identifiable quality on the market is so hard to find within the right value.
You only have to see the outburst of people blaming Emanalo because we didn't back Mourinho and spend 60-70m on Stones. Now imagine that actually happened. We wouldve seen how overrated Stones is, our defence would've still got demolished and Jose will be screaming for more funds again.
To sum up, it's a seller's market today, there are more quality clubs than there are players who are very hard to come by. Don't just expect the board to go out and recruit this player or that player because it's not as easy as that!