c. 6 years ago, the Tuesday Club podcast said, at the start of the season, we had 14
or so top players.
That we had a starting XI with perhaps 3 top notch options on the bench like Tomas Rosicky.
Now, we don't even have a starting XI. Xhaka and Mustafi shouldn't be anywhere near the first team - if only they'd been as good as the price suggested they would be. We spent top dollar on Mustafi/Xhaka/LaK7 as a new spine and all are mid-table level.
Likewise Iwobi - we can't have a wide forward who doesn't create or score goals. {I'd rather Rambo played in his place - at least he can score.}
Cech is worse than both of our ex-Poles. The journos say Flappy's doing well and I always rated Sir Chesney. Petr is passed it.
Kos has lost his pace and again should be being fazed out of the starting line up.
Hector's going backwards, though I'd keep him to see if he improves if/when we get a sorted back 4.
Nacho's the one defender I'd be happy to keep in an ideal world, but he, too, is ageing. While Kolasinac is a wing back, not a full back. He can't defend and his passing completion rate is below 60% a lot of the time. A poor man's Eboue. And on £150k per week, we'll never be able to move him on.
Wilshere really needs a DM behind him and a proper attacking MF (as opposed to a pure no.10) ahead of him. One that can tackle as well as create. I don't think it's a coincidence he looks worse behind Ozil than Cesc.
I don't think Rambo's as bad as people make out. But who can he play with? I would like to see him as the attacking MF in a 3, with Ozil and Mkhitaryan out wide, with a DM and Wilshere behind him. It may not work, but it couldn't be much worse than what we have atm.
So all we've really got are the three players we signed or kept in Jan. {If both Ozil and Sanchez had decided to leave on frees this summer, we'd have been completely screwed with only Aubameyang, so things could be worse.} But we still don't know how good the two Jan signings will prove to be and we know Ozil needs players around him - we won't make goals from nothing on his own like Alexis did.
We thought things were working out when we bought Ozil and Alexis, but then buying Cech, Mustafi, Xhaka and LaK7 screwed everything up.
We used to buy decent young prospects - many didn't work, but there was hope. But we don't have any now.If the likes of Jeff and Nelson can't get a go from the bench in place of Iwobi they can' be much cop. If we had a decent defence and MF, we could still be playing Feo instead of Iwobi. 30 goals+assists a season is not to be sniffed at. Him and Giroud would be better to have kept than buying LaK7.
In short, as opposed to having 14 top level players, we just have two no.10s and a striker, of which two are unproven at PL level and one needs better players around him. And a decent left back, but who's starting to pick up injuries as he gets older.
Given how fücked we are, will decent players sign? Would a decent manager?
And does our Septic owner even care?
