The not what we need right now argument, barely makes sense, when the club doesn't always control when players leave. I am not sure how you get ready made replacements lined up, if you don't sign prospects like this and develop them.I understand that, but senior players are expensive in terms of wages, transfer fees, hard to find and not guaranteed to work out anyway. Look at Dahoud so far, looked a banker but hasn’t worked out yet.
I have no doubt the club are monitoring a great number of many experienced players, but as always we will only move when the time (and the price) is right. We tracked Veltman for years, and bided our time until he was available for £900k. We learnt our PL lessons the hard (and expensive) way with players like Jahanbaksh and Locadia.
The idea of squad building is to slowly and carefully add to it with the right players at the right time. But we simply cannot and won’t operate in a way many believe we should; I.e “we need a central midfielder - let’s go out and find one for X price”.
Our policy seems to be to track players we want, and get them regardless of our strength in that position. We didn’t need Fati but the right player came up and we acted.
Losing Caceido was probably a year earlier than the club would have wished for and Baleba is still some way from being a ready made replacement. In the mean time, you can see the transformation in Gilmour, who looks physically stronger and is playing with authority for the full 90 minutes. Are we really missing a defensive midfielder? I personally wouldn't swap him for the energetic yet clumsy Kalvin Phillips.
Buonanotte is also adding a more physical side to his game, is less likely to be brushed off the ball and more likely to win the ball back.