And this is a better gripe than vague ‘lack of ambition’. We have spent some money there, some may yet pay off but have not done so yet in the way the signings that preceded them did (Wharton and Munoz most recently but the likes of Hendo, Eze and Olise before).
To be fair LaCroix and Kamada come in the middle of that first list and have faired better, but those were clearly Glasner signings. It is difficult to tell who chose the others you listed with Dougie going part way through and not knowing Glasner’s full involvement.
Lacroix was a like for like replacement, a strong defender for a strong defender, in fact we did fantastic out of that deal as Lacroix is both younger and a better defender than Andersen but without perhaps the range of passing. Sarr was our Olise replacement and has done really well and fitted in perfectly down that side.
Canvot is young and inexperienced and rather like Chalobah, has a mistake in him. One for the future perhaps but expensive for a youngster.
The issue I have which is why I left Lacroix/Sarr out of that list is that our like for like replacement for Eze, our talisman, our Zaha, was Pino. Now he may turn into a decent player for us, but a replacement for Eze, no way.
It’s like Esse, I don’t get where he fits into the picture. Again he might turn into a decent player but I don’t see it at present.
Nketiah was supposed to be our no 1 striker but he is now just a reserve primarily because his hold up play isn’t good enough. Thats a lot of money for a reserve striker.
As for Johnson, I have absolutely no idea why we have bought him. He is not better than Sarr who has a great working relationship with Munoz so unless they plan on moving Sarr to the left and dropping our star buy Pino completely (which seems the likely course), then our buying looks very muddled.
Kamada is a bit different as he was a free agent and costs us expensive wages but no wasted fee. I reckon he will likely follow Glasner wherever he goes anyway.
Sosa (should be called Soso as that sums him up), the least said the better but he does at least provide specialist cover on the left.
Uche is another who I have no idea why we took him on. He reminds me a bit of a younger Schlupp, powerful, quick but not effective enough to maintain a permanent spot. Thankfully, as it’s a loan with a game dependent purchase clause, no money wasted here yet.
In short, since Dougie has moved on and perhaps for a while whilst he was with us I’ve been rather underwhelmed by a substantial part of our expenditure.
Whatever money we get for Guehi must be used to bring in a quality Centre Half. Riad will be like a new signing but let’s hope that his long term injuries have not destroyed his career before it starts with us.
England
