There was a lot of money spent in the summer…
Almost a tenth of it was splurged by Fulham, who became the first newly promoted Premier League side to splash out more than £100m in the summer transfer window. As you might have noticed, many of their signings have not worked out, which is why three of them feature in our biggest disappointments of the season so far.
This team is not confined to summer signings, but features nine of them who have simply failed to live up to expectations.
GK: Petr Cech
Cech will rightly go down as a Premier League goalkeeping great, winning four titles with Chelsea before joining Arsenal in 2015. Now 36, his best days are behind him however, with the early part of this season highlighting his struggles to adapt under Unai Emery. With Arsenal’s new coach instructing his team to pass the ball out from the back, videos of Cech looking nervy in possession circulated on Twitter on an almost weekly basis before he was consigned to the bench in favour of Bernd Leno. Still, if Leno continues to flap at crosses as he did at Southampton, there may be chance of a recall before the end of the campaign.
RB: Diogo Dalot
Another signing who hasn’t really been given enough chances to justify their transfer fee, Dalot has made only four Premier League appearances this season. Man United fans had hoped that the 19-year-old would displace Antonio Valencia at right-back, but despite looking bright in patches, former manager José Mourinho had decided to keep Dalot on the bench for the majority of the season so far. Let’s hope we see more of him in 2019.
RCB: Alfie Mawson
One of Fulham’s 12 summer signings, Alfie Mawson has failed to find any sort of form with the Cottagers, largely due to former Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanović’s constant tinkering with the back four, or five, or whatever system he decided to go with on that particular day. When you concede four goals to Cardiff City, you must be categorised as a flop – though there is of course time for Mawson to turn things around under Claudio Ranieri.
LCB: Jannik Vestergaard
It was always going to be a tough task filling the massive shoes of Virgil van Dijk, but Jannik Vestergaard hasn’t even lived up to the reasonable expectations that fans had of him. The former Borussia Mönchengladbach defender has looked out of his depth in the struggling Southampton defence, with his lack of pace often exposed. He was lucky to keep his place against Arsenal after the clusterf*ck that handed Cardiff victory in Ralph Hasenhüttl’s first game.
LB: Joe Bryan
After the controversial circumstances in which Bryan left Bristol City for Fulham – being chased down the M40 by Steve Bruce after bailing on his move to Aston Villa – it was fair to expect big things. However, much like Mawson, Bryan has been a victim of Jokanović’s fickle team selection, having been included for just seven Premier League games.
DM: André-Frank Zambo Anguissa
Guess what? It’s another Fulham player. Zambo Anguissa cost Fulham £22m, which isn’t exactly ridiculous in this era, but still a fair whack for a newly promoted side. Basing judgement on his 11 league appearances this season, Marseille definitely got the better side of this deal.
LCM: Fred
£52m was a lot of money to spend on a central midfielder whom you don’t trust to start because your team is too defensively fragile. When you consider that Man City were also keen to sign the Brazilian, and how savvy their recruitment has been in recent years, you’re inclined to think that Fred has much more in his locker than we’ve seen so far. Will Ole Gunnar Solskjaer give him time to impress in 2019? Probably not.
RCM: Carlos Sanchez
I don’t understand why Premier League clubs continue to sign Carlos Sánchez. I really don’t. He was terrible at Aston Villa, and so far he’s done nothing of note for West Ham. Declan Rice has rightly made the defensive midfield slot his own, with Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang comfortably higher up the pecking order than Sánchez. You’d probably forgotten West Ham even signed him, hadn’t you? Exactly.
RW: Rachid Ghezzal
While nowhere near as good as Riyad Mahrez, who left for Man City in the summer, it’s fair to say that Ghezzal was signed as his replacement. Their similarities go beyond nationality; both left-footed wingers who like to cut inside, Leicester were hoping to mould Ghezzal into the next Mahrez. Unfortunately for them, he hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. On several occasions, Claude Puel has opted to play Ricardo Pereira – naturally a right-back – ahead of him in midfield, which does not reflect well on Ghezzal at all.
LW: Jordan Ayew
Crystal Palace fans had hoped that Jordan Ayew might be able to provide their forward line with the cutting edge that Christian Benteke lacked last season. Unfortunately, he has more closely resembled a blunt butter knife, bent out of shape. Lacking any stand-out abilities, Ayew’s uninspiring form this season has encapsulated Palace’s season: drab.
ST: Álvaro Morata
One of two members of this team who didn’t join his club this year, there were high hopes at Chelsea for Morata to bounce back from his dismal end to last season. However, the first few months of the current campaign have been just as difficult for the Spaniard, who has only bagged five goals in the league so far. It feels like the end of the road at Chelsea for Morata, who has been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge in January. That could be the best option for both parties, sadly.
And so concludes the Disappointments of the Season So Far XI, which would definitely finish 15th.
