I'd assume he had Wijnaldum over at his house because he wanted to sign him. Unfortunately, his fee was 25 million pounds and salary demands were 75k per week. That would make him one of our top earners and one of our three most expensive fees ever. For someone from a relegated team who probably would have been a back-up when our first-choice XI was fit. Does that sound like a smart signing to you?
We are building a new stadium; we can't just throw stupid money around because our coach wants a player. Same goes for Mané. He cost 30 million (our transfer record) and was asking for 125k per week. We just can't afford to smash our wage structure on someone like Mane, who might not even improve our XI that much. New signings are fun, but we have to be reasonable.
So, wait a minute. Your post suggested that us not signing anyone of note despite shifting players over the last few days is down to Poch wanting to blood youngsters, not Levy being legendarily tight (as he usually is, sometimes to his own detriment). Now, when I point out that Poch wanted to sign players, you're suggesting that we were right not to go for them because they were too expensive for our tastes, which is necessarily a case of Levy being tight. So, who's responsible again? Poch wants players, Levy doesn't want them - no need to then go on to suggest that Poch *really, really likes* using Onomah over 25m Wijnaldum.
And, incidentally, this sort of argument does make me laugh a bit when it comes from people (not you necessarily) who proudly declare that we should back the manager's 'vision' or his 'plan' on one hand and then dismiss signings like Wijnaldum or Zaha as unreasonable for a teensy club of our stature building a stadium on the other. If you're backing the man, back him when he asks for a 25m signing on 75k a week. Saying that's too unreasonable is just saying 'we back him when he asks for something cheap and easy to get - else, he's being unreasonable'. Hell, I think Zaha and Wijnaldum are awful, mediocre signings, but if Poch wants them, I damn sure expect Levy to put down the f*cking money for them if he's serious about 'backing' the guy. All else is just hypocritical equivocating, imo.
In response to: "Poch 'believing' in our youngsters need not mean buying no one and relying on KWP, CCV, Winks, Carroll, Onomah, Edwards and Harrison to all excel a la Alli when they are inevitably called on to replace a first team player. I don't think it's helpful for either them or Poch to rely on them, especially given (let's be honest) their decent-but-unspectacular performances from them so far in their cameos."
We haven't bought no one. We've bought three players already — Wanyama, Janssen, Nkoudou — who are all meant to be in the first team squad, and we are likely to buy a couple more (as I advocated for). Sure, all of those young players probably won't excel, but they'll never be able to if they aren't given the chance. Also, I'll never understand why fans hold their own judgements of young players in cameo appearances over a management team who literally watches them every day in training. There's a reason why Poch didn't buy another centre back last season (as soooo many clamored for). It was because he knew that Wimmer was ready.
Before we start ripping up our season tickets and burning our jerseys, let's at least get to the end of the window and give this squad a little time. Just like last season, they might surprise us.
We have not bought three players. We have bought two. N'Koudou has not been registered, has not been on what has otherwise been a very thin matchday bench these past few weeks, and has not done anything other than training here. But, that's somewhat beside the point. Poch seeing Winks in training didn't stop him from starting Wanyama over him in the games, and that's despite accounting for the fact that Winks was relatively impressive in pre-season. Poch seeing Onomah in training hasn't prevented him from only using the kid in the last 5-10 minutes of games.
The management watch them every day in training. I'm just not sure the management are reaching conclusions all that different to the fans, who see these players and think 'they're okay, might improve to become good with time, but nothing presently extraordinary'. As for Poch not buying another center back last season....erm, Wimmer was a signing from a few months beforeVerts went down. One of the most impressive defenders in the Bundesliga, first-team football under his belt at Koln, 23 years of age. He was the very definition of the squad signing that people now feel would help beef up our squad alongside the higher-profile options (like N'Koudou - I have no great expectations for what is a peripheral addition if it happens, but every player sold makes it more necessary to have at least a player of that quality around). A better example to use in your case would have been Poch using CCV to fill in for Verts' absence - which we now know he didn't do.
I just don't think it's wise to expect Poch to be some masochist who deliberately makes his job harder for himself by using unprepared kids en masse when a signing with more experience and more ability might do a better job.
