But he did. Bloom said in a fans forum, and Barber has said many times since that not all of the incoming transfer money would be spent on players fees. This isn't unusual. Few Champ clubs would spend all the Ulloa money on new players. (Palace didn't with Zaha to pick one example at random).
I think the club have been open about it. And the only reason we get told the squad is the most expensive we've ever had presumably because it is. The accounts will have to show that when they're published next season. All other statements along these lines in previous seasons by Bloom have been proven true.
Thinking that the squad, at least in the first part of the season, is capable of holding its own in the Top 6 and being open about it being expensive shows us a number of things given we finished 20th .
We've spent badly, Bloom believed the players we bought had a track record/potential (at the time), Bloom has invested in the playing side yet again. it doesn't show he's lying , or trying to pull the wool over the fans eyes as the regret and disappointment in the programme and elsewhere by TB in the last week or so also shows.
This season has been horrible, the club messed up with recruitment, didn't handle the replacement of key players, made a key managerial mistake and only about half a dozen matches out of the 28 or so i've seen this season have been in any way satisfying. But the idea that the club aren't open about what they think to fans, haven't invested heavily in the clubs playing side or didn't think the club had potential to be top 6 in Sep/Oct just doesn't hold up.
I guess maybe it's one of perception then. Agree that Barber has said that not all the Ulloa money will be spent on new players but they also said Bridcutt didn't need to be sold for us to hit FFP that year and we also heard that Buckley and Ulloa didn't need to be sold either (in terms of FFP). So, if we brought in around £13m (not sure if that is about right?) for these players that didn't need to be sold for financial reasons; even if not all the money would be spent on new players (and I totally understand why this is the case), I would still expect more than 20% of it to be spent on transfer fees for direct replacements if we were really expecting to try and maintain/improve the playing side of the club...