Seeing talk of that summer of 2019… bloody hell that really does still haunt me (us!). I think it has to be the worst window we’ve ever had.
4 signings, circa £140m spent and it took us backwards!
Clarke in fairness never got a chance so I can’t be as brutal to him but the other three… oooft.
In Ndombele we had the promised prince, the Dembele heir, the maestro! Poch said he wished he had a younger Dembele and we thought he got him; debut day goal and an assist in his second game vs City… we thought we were onto a winner. Oh how we were wrong. A fat, lazy mess with a chicken mentality ensued. Every once in a while he’d show his ability (Sheff Utd goal, the occasional exquisite dribble or through ball) but the lump was too worried about getting his next Big Mac than his next good performance, all whilst crying to the chairman that Jose was a meanie and football was difficult.
Lo Celso, the winner of the battle of “do we sign Bruno or Gio”. A bit part player at PSG who shone in Spain and showed the French giants up. Could we be signing a Dembele replacement and an Eriksen heir in the same window fans asked? No… was the answer. Quite possibly the most useless player I’ve witnessed in a midfield role and we’ve had Harry Winks play for this club, a player who at times looks confused as to what a football was but a player who certainly knew the location of the treatment room and flights to Argentina. He was so bad he got his own “StopThatGLC” Twitter handle but instead of quality highlights it was a reel of embarrassment. Ndombele was certainly the bigger disappointment due to the hype but Lo Celso was by far the worse player.
Then we had Sessegnon. The boy wonder of English football. The new and possibly improved Danny Rose signed from our west London neighbours. The attitude was there, a young, determined lad ready to take the next step in his career. Unfortunately for us, his next step was to become the new Gilberto. It almost defies footballing logic that a winger-turned-WB could be so bad at going forward, what we witness week in, week out with Sessegnon is what we’d expect to see if we put Lloris on the flanks. For him it’s truly a shame though, because he’s as professional as they come and seemingly as humble as they come to, but on the most important footballing part? Well… the less said the better.
Damn you, Summer 2019, damn you!