I know its the way the game is now but we paid far far to much cash for both of these players.
Oh absolutely. Dembele I could have probably just about justified at the time, partly because he was young and we were paying for potential, and partly because I hadn't seen a great deal of him so could convince myself he was the greatest prospect going, ha ha. Coutinho though, good player, very good even, but not even a top twenty footballer for me, let along top ten. And we're paying the second most for a player ever? And not only that, but without a clear idea (as far as I can tell) where we were going to play him? Like I know people say as an Iniesta long term replacement, but that's assuming so much of a player who's probably not played more than five, ten games as a conventional CM his whole life. We were too desperate to spend the Neymar money. Spent it on two very good players, but whilst massively overpaying for both, and without really improving the team (At least at this stage. Hopefully that'll change).