Screwing up what exactly?
Said early on in summer early signings are preferred, but even if they are new signings allways take time to adjust fitness wise and what not, so it really doesn't matter wether they play first or 2nd game because they tend to he benched for those games. Like Luiz been so far, or Locatelli was before when he joined and countless others.
The club were defenitely not working the assumptions our season is in jeopardy if new signings aren't made before first and 2nd game. It's a marathon not a race, so they were very unlikely to be rushed by that at all. Especially when those you negotiating with are unlikely to be forth coming until they get the precise deal they want.
The urgency of the 1st and 2nd games are usually just from the fans side. For these seasoned pros the real season for new signings and team build starts after first international break. Because that's usually when they have 1-2 weeks of interrupted preparation together. While pre season is mainly for gruelling fitness readiness.
It feels like complaining for the sake of complaining to cry about why the transfer market wasn't build around 1st or 2nd game in mind. Early games we already dominated the heck out mind you.