And yet here we are, still needing a no.6. Makes Gravenberch signing even more bizarre because we probably didn't need yet another no.8. It's not balanced at all.
8s galore. Think we saw a bargain and took it, rather than look at the balance of the squad. The late window stuff was haphazard.
The balance would have been right in signing Caicedo, as he would have made that window and team build close to perfect. It's a huge ask to have a completely new midfield bed in and win a league in their first season as just asembling a new midfield in one window has never been done by a top club before, but that would have given us a real chance. He joined a shitshow, but in fairness they'd been negotiating for months, so us coming in at the 11th hour was unlikely to change things. Watched him when Chelsea played at Everton, and you could see immediately what he'd had done for us. Him, Dom and Mac in the midfield, two athletes either side of a playmaker, Mac would have had some platform to produce his magic, likewise Dom in a creative sense with the knowledge he didn't have to do the running for everyone else. With an athlete at 6 think we'd have seen the best of the 8s all season (including Harvey), the midfield with more energy and intensity would have been operating closer to full power, and the chances of big success would have been much greater. It's pointless looking back now obviously, but we were close to nailing that midfield build.
