Barcodes are being shit on this window by clubs finished above them.
they wanted Ekitike and keep Isak, now they are beaten to Ekitike by Liverpool who also might go for Isak still.
they wanted earlier Delap and/or Joao Pedro, Chelsea beat them to both.
they wanted Guehi, can see Liverpool going for him still (or Spurs? Chelsea?)
they wanted Trafford for long weeks, City getting there and closes the deal.
we might still try for Livramento.
had interest in Mbeumo too as I recall albeit didnt get to bidding once rags were known to pay way over the odds for him.
in theory if they had added Trafford, Guehi, Joao Pedro and Elanga ( with keeping Isak&Livramento), that would have been a pretty decent window for them, upgrades in all departments and bit of extra depth.
this is a summer where Barcodes needs to strengthen big time as they didnt do it last summer + others around them all spending big, and they have this tiny extra tournament called CL which in the new format imo will be brutal hard for Howe to manage especially with their high tempo style which works much better when you are out of Europe and can raise the tempo once a week.
apart from Elanga they missed out on all their targets so far and all ended up at their stronger rivals. pretty bad situation.
they seem to have their ownn version of Khaldoon who is very much involved either their version of Soriano or Txiki. Howe is left to do bits and pieces of transfer work maybe even scouting and while they identified good targets couldnt close them. now the Isak/Livramento sagas can still blow up in their face there is a real risk they start the seaso with a weaker squad than the one finished last season, which is recipe for disaster when you in September CL starts and you have difficult games almost every week sometimes with Arsenal one weekend, City the next and likes of PSG, Real, Barca midweek. al this with a potential defence of Pope 34 yo, Burn 34 yo, Schar 33, Trippier 35.
The Saudis either come through for them or this project will take a serious hit this season. apparently they have a CEO who is on medical leave (cancer?) and in process to get a new CEO and a DoF who agreed to leave/resign in May, but I guess first they need a CEO who will then try to hire a new DoF this can take months....
will be interesting to see how their summer window closes in a few weeks.