Last summer we signed Parker, Friedel and Ade (on loan), all have been very important players for us. Why only mention Falque?
I agree that getting players in earlier would be better if possible. But we can't compete with United, City and Chelsea in an all out transfer battle. We have to be smarter than them, we have to find better value signings. The extra cost they can easily absorb, we might not be able to absorb every season until we have a bigger stadium.
I mentioned him because, like Pienaar, he looks a completely pointless signing in terms of actually improving our team.
Last summer we signed Parker and Ade on deadline day (or thereabouts). Reportedly we wanted them all summer. Why didn't we seal them earlier? It could've made a big difference when we played the two Manchesters. That's the issue I have with those two signings.
In earlier seasons we have ended up with Raziak, the worst player I have ever seen play for Spurs, and Pav (decent enough) on deadline day. It probably saves us some money, but what did it do to the team? We knew Berbatov was leaving, and we knew we could make Manure pay brickloads for him, so why not seal a proper replacement earlier, instead of waiting until deadline day when everyone knew we were desparate and loaded with cash?
We have done good business on deadline day (VDV), but the problem for me is that we seem to rely on deadline day bargains instead of using a systematic approach to strengthen the team as early as possible. I don't think that strategy is good business in the long run, even if it saves us a few bucks in the short run.
And while the richer clubs compete at a whole different level than us, it doesn't stop us from trying to be systematic, to be smarter
earlier, and to buy players that we
need - when we need them. We know we can do it: Sandro came out of nowhere, Modric was sealed early (expensive, but worth every penny), Berbatov we also signed pretty early, if I remember correctly.
I, like everyone here, don't want us to be the next Leeds or Sheik City FC, but I feel there's a lot of improvement to make in our transfer strategy before we are anywhere near that.