I'm not bothered. I rate that the club, when needed to, both changed tack to a CDM position and held firm on their unwillingness to be bent over a barrel. It avoids the scenario where we splash extra cash on the hopes it'll guarantee a better outcome at the sacrifice of long term planning.
I still think Tielemens will be a January signing for us should we plan for life after Xhaka, assuming he'll fit into our wage structure. Given no one went for him at £25m you'd think he hasn't got the interest to command huge signing on fees and wages.
We have 19 matches between now and January. While Elneny will miss all of that, you'd hope Partey is available for some of them due to the injury not being as long term as Elneny, and fingers crossed the other issues aren't true.
So you'd expect January/summer window to be focussed on 6, right wing, and maybe a left 8 depending on the market i.e. if Tielemans is next to nothing in January and Xhaka is injury, why not.
I still think Tielemens will be a January signing for us should we plan for life after Xhaka, assuming he'll fit into our wage structure. Given no one went for him at £25m you'd think he hasn't got the interest to command huge signing on fees and wages.
We have 19 matches between now and January. While Elneny will miss all of that, you'd hope Partey is available for some of them due to the injury not being as long term as Elneny, and fingers crossed the other issues aren't true.
So you'd expect January/summer window to be focussed on 6, right wing, and maybe a left 8 depending on the market i.e. if Tielemans is next to nothing in January and Xhaka is injury, why not.