i think the Henderson and Holding signings were to ensure we have cover in the squad as the club may have had approaches for either or both CBs and with VG leaving and with Johnstone supposedly having a £10m release clause there appear to be concerns about an approach for him too. I presume Franca was purchased to replace Eze next summer.

However, essentially we had a limited budget but paid out c£40m on a young, unproven attacking midfielder and a goalkeeper, neither of whom will be a guaranteed starter whilst leaving both fullback positions and LW and maybe centre forward very short.

Over the last few seasons we have actually been reasonably lucky with injuries. Guehi and Andersen have been almost ever present for the last 2 seasons which has been a massive positive as the 3rd choice, Tomkins, is regularly injured (as he was again on Saturday!). Similarly Doucoure played every game last season, bar when suspended, which was so important as Jimmy Mac was injured.

Now we are getting a couple of injuries, hardly a surprise when 5 or 6 of our top players are internationals, and suddenly the team and bench are looking really stretched.

As Olise and Franca were already injured we can't really moan about their absences. Losing Ayew, who has an excellent injury record, will be a big loss and if Eze ever gets a knock god help us! Saturday's team and performance just shows how bizarre our transfer business was.

However, we now need players to step up. Maybe JRS will get a start on Saturday. Let's face it he may not be 100% ready yet, but if he can't get a start on Saturday then i can't see him starting a game this season.