It appears that the powers that be jumped at him early through fear of his having another 12 months at Lyon and improving a bit more and suddenly finding him out of reach. Also reckon there's a bit of damage prevention happening, had the world gone mad for Branthwaite and a buying war broken out there had to be a plan B to keep the support onside whilst "selling the family silver again" happened.
We're out of the Tosun, Walcott, Mina, Gomes, Maupay, Alli, era now. The fingerprints of the martinez, Silva, Allardyce times are starting to fade. The maniacal transfers and huge costs have been absorbed, and cost us dear, we've had to scrape by because of the wastes involved. Getting in young talent with potential to improve for us or earn us some profit a la Onana seems to show at least part of a grander lesson learned.
Not sure anyone could foresee Mykolenko going backwards at quite the rate he has. We've been lucky Young has stepped up and been at least competent. We're surviving on squeezing the last drops of a career out of him, Gana and Doucoure. It's been last chance saloon stuff for quite a while.
.......................Martyn
Hibbert Jagielka Lescott Baines
.....................Carsley
..Arteta Osman Cahill Pienaar
.......................Bent
Been a while since we've looked as good a unit as the above eleven. Heaven only knows what a properly focused Yakubu long term or even Lukaku could have done in a side like that.