Nature abhors a vacuum. If nothing is said, someone will say something and it will invariably be shite.
We are not privy to the truth in any of these negotiations, we have no real grip on what is truth and what is speculation and then counter speculation. With media channels being as intrusive as they are, agents playing mind games and the internet playing chinese whispers endlessly who the fuck knows what is going on let alone who is to blame for it.
There is no sense in comparing now to 2 years ago let alone 5 or 10, its a different world and we are no different from any other club in terms of this transfer roller-coaster. It has got much worse since the purse strings were tightened so severly. However, I think the 'disaster' has been in place for most clubs since the advent of the transfer window. It takes all the speculation and conjecture and concentrates it into a short period, thereby intensifying it and focusing eveyones attention.