Actually I'm convinced in the opposite. If we buy Verratti sooner, they will concentrate all the money on the purchase and will not waste any cash on stupid purchases. The name of Paulinho surfaced when Verratti purchase chances started to shrink.
Hey no disagreements there. I'd pay Verratti's plane tickets myself if it means he'll sign in the next weeks. However, besides the fact that PSG are playing hardball with us, we ourselves don't seem that invested in spunking all we can and then some on him. We seem more like "meh, Paulinho is decent too" and that's what's worrying. It would also be cool if we could identify a more adequate player for our needs instead of a B2B chinese league wonder. So even if we are convinced that Verratti is unobtainable this summer, then at least we'd be at ease knowing that someone similar and more proven comes.
My point is, go all in for Verratti until the 31th of August and lose on all the other players, if our alternatives are what are being reported. No use spending just for the sake of spending. Or, if we are that strapped for cash, go for a RB and call it a day, forget the mid and hope Valverde, with improved tactics, can extract more from this group of mids.
So yeah, let's hope the reports that Verratti still wants to move to us continue and the board gets distracted. I don't have confidence for this board to have a good "plan B".