i also think the press are good at spin stories thus making out we have missed out on signings. for example, do we know for sure we were interested in Bouma, or is it just the press speculating b/c he happens to be a centre back and is clearly happy to move from a foreign league to the premiership?
we will never know i guess but i do think a lot of it is press spin and we're not really missing out to lower sides on most of these deals. (Stellios may be the one exception to this)