How was he to know, the player would fail a medical with a dodgy matatasal? Get a grip.
We’ve lost two world class centre backs in Guehi and Lacroix.
So far we’ve replaced them with,
an injury prone free transfer in Tomiyasu who has hardly played in the last two seasons,
another free transfer in Mingueza who apparently is primarily a wing back who ‘can do a job’ in central defence, but who Sage has said he sees as a wing back
a loan in Disasi who is not match fit and has been training away from the first team environment
Aside from this , we’re on our 5th centre back this window without concluding a deal for a variety of reasons.
Relying on the sadly injured Riad was always a big gamble with his unfortunate record.
I acknowledge I don’t know the full facts behind all of the above, but it doesn’t exactly indicate a club that is on top of it’s transfer brief.
The window closes in a couple of days and centre back has always been a priority position this window.