Or prices being ridiculous this summer. When they set the budget and how much goes to each player they probably didnt know the fees would be so high this summer. Especially if Prem players are being targeted
Say Ashley said "here's 100m, do what you want" then Rafa picked 8 players he wants and would fit in budget, then all of a sudden we go to those 8 clubs and turns out 100m will only stretch to 5 of them. Takes time to sort that and get to the 2nd/3rd/4th choices. I'm not convinced Murphy would have been one of the first choices. Lejeune probably was