[Slick_Footwork]

Firstly I was not trolling, I was not expecting a reaction from anyone. What I said are just speculative thoughts. I don't see us investing to the same levels as what our direct rivals are doing. I fully recognise we have signed the like for like players kindly identified. Our goalkeeper replacements were over due and look good deals. One thing I would like to add is, Evans value was considerably higher then what we received. Its more the proven experienced players that have left I feel are not being replaced, this includes our loans. (Sturridge & Greg) Sure we can get more loans in, but I fear again a lesser quality. McClean is the first one sold and replaced by a loan. I would have no problem if we had an option to buy, any player coming in is a blessing at the moment as I think we are still 5 or 6 light. We do have several players who can play in a left attacking role, which puzzles me as to why we would sign him. Of course no other player might leave and we may sign a couple of others and bring 2 or 3 quality players in on loan. None of know what tomorrow brings, certainly not me. Everything could change, we could sign 3 twenty million pound attackers next week (doubtful).
We will all know in a few weeks time, again these are some of my thoughts - they are not directed at anyone.
Losing Reid and Flint were both body blows. If we lose any of Chadli / J Rod / Rondon / Dawson / Livermore / Phillips - I will expect a like for like player to come in and replace them = same experience and value. Anything less and I will grow more concerned.
Lastly Lai wouldn't cover the small overdraft needed earlier this year, this is leads me to my thinking process that he will not be investing funds in to our club and more likely to be seeking a ROI asap.
I have always maintained to maximise our chances of returning to the PL a minimal amount of changes to the squad was the best way,
so selling anyone IMO reduces our chances. Although some of them did deserved to go? Hence I hope we don't sell any other players.
I'm just a concerned fan, who is putting 2 and 2 together and not getting 4 at the moment.

Fair point, apologies for calling you a troll, but I will say I believe you're overly pessimistic given our spend so far. Usually I'm the king of the pessimists.

I think most teams who get relegated will lose players and not be able to replace them with like for like quality. This is because usually even sides who go down have a couple of very reasonable Premier League standard players who leave and are simply impossible to replace.

Stoke are clearly going for it, but lost Shaqiri and Sobhi and replaced them with Tom Ince and McClean - both clear downgrades IMO. In Shaqiri's case this was inevitable, as you're not going to get a player of Shaqiri's quality at this level. This is pretty much the same situation we are in with Evans.

We were not in for Flint from Bristol City, so we didn't lose out in him. I watched a lot of Bristol last season and I'm not gutted about it personally. Admittedly, he is fantastic in the air, so I can see why Pulis went in for him. BUT the cross side of that is, he's very poor on the floor. He's slow, cumbersome and gets turned by almost any striker with a turn of pace. Also he's 29, so unlikely to get any better. His centre back partner at Bristol City, Bailey Wright, is a much superior player.

I assume we went for Bartley in this position by design, not as a 2nd choice. Although, I haven't seen enough of him to know if that was a good choice.

That said, from what I can see, we are showing reasonable signs in the market so far. I'm sure a few more will go, but we just keep our fingers crossed that the club has replacements lined up - so far, they seem to have.