I fear this fell down the pecking order as targets were missed out on. It has to have.
I refuse to believe players like Wes, Trez and Targett can have been watched regularly and it was decided they're worth money we paid. I think multiple agents have spoken about giving Suso players (could be the same guy on different occasions) and that's where I think more moves have happened than is useful.
We're not in a terrible spot, because these owners are clearly interested, but we need a big change in this department.
The beige swindler Gregg Evans wrote about our recruitment the year we went down recently. We had a fantastic setup, picking up players like Gueye, Veretout and Amavi for under £25m, those three would cost you at least £70m now. Sadly Tim Sherwood was in charge and told the recruitment team he was going to play 3-5-2 all season (main reason they went for the attacking Amavi), plus he insisted on signing Lescott and Richards. We were always going down with that Representative for Wellingborough in charge.
I think those players would have thrived under Smith, despite his shortcomings.