Steve Wigan
Player Valuation: £35m
In terms of playing personnel, I honestly think we're still suffering badly from that summer transfer window in 2017. Losing Lukaku and replacing him with an over-the-hill Rooney, Sigurdsson, Sandro Ramirez (!!!!), and Davy Klaassen set us on course for where we are now.
If we had replaced Lukaku by going all-out (i.e. spent upwards of 40 million) on a proven goalscoring striker, and if we hadn't of alienated Ross Barkley to the extent that he obviously felt moved to not sign a new contract and go to Chelsea the following January, we'd likely be in a very different place. Barkley I'm sure looked at the signings of Sigurdsson, Rooney and Klaassen and figured Koeman simply didn't want him in the team anymore.
With the benefit of hindsight, Ross looks like a freaking genius going to Chelsea.
Barkley led us a dance and had off the field problems at Everton, and was always an accident waiting to happen. Lampard has sussed Barkley out and it will take a lot from Barkley to even get another game at Chelsea. He's on a downward spiral. And yet according to you he looks like a genius. And we didn't 'alienate' him...it was the other way round.