I agree to a degree but I don't think Depay will be much of a battle if we really want him. But if we are advising him he is our back up do you really think he would be happy with that...maybe he is?
Last summer we signed Di Maria as a British record transfer after the club he was seemingly going to sign for got scuppered by FFP. Herrera we paid his clause and Blind and Rojo were hardly being chased by the elite teams. Falcao yes had options by all accounts and Jose was quoted as saying we paid too much for Shaw and they were unwilling to go anywhere near that price. That transfer window was a good one but I don't think we were battling it out for those signings.
If Bale, Reus, Pogba etc became available I'm sure the elite clubs home and abroad will be wanting them and I personally believe they would choose other teams ahead of us. I'd rather have the problem of signing very good players we could get (Depay) for relatively cheap prices then also be bidding for the likes of those, if we manage to get one or two of them also (finances permitting) then LvG will have a selection headache but also a squad capable of beating the best out there.
We may be doing that exact thing, I'm just speculating of course but it's what I would do after trimming the squad down further with the like of Evans, Hernandez, Nani and possibly Di Maria if a big offer comes in for him.