I'm enjoying your posts, because of the logically argued points and the use of facts that are placed in context (unlike the use by some of win ratios). Another bonus is that it flushes some people out of the undergrowth, where they lurk waiting for any negative thing to happen to the club that removed their heroes.There is a longstanding convention, a forum factoid, that we sign "nearly all of our players in the last few days of August". It's not true. We sign half of them before August starts. That was my point.
I wasn't "stating my opinion". As I have written here often, opinions are overrated. I was setting out some accurate information that contradicts commonly held opinions.
My opinion on the prevalence of early signings for players who turned out to be great successes is that they are the ones on whom we pounced before the rest of the market had properly noticed. Not one of the players I listed (Berbatov, Modric, Bale, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier & Wanyama) was a an established star before arriving at Tottenham. Modric and Bale were widely expected to become international stars. The others were all a bit under-the-radar.
I'm not concerned about our lack of signings at all. I think the other longstanding convention and forum factoid that "the other clubs are all improving and we will be left behind" is incorrect. The other clubs are not "improving", they're "signing players". As we found the hard way in 2013, signing a lot of expensive players does not guarantee improvement.
We could improve a few areas of the team with some judicious arrivals, but it's not essential, unless there are more of those Alderweireld/Wanyama bargains in the market.