Losing Mitro was massive. The club ownership knew he was going and didn’t bother to replace him properly. Palhinha was unsettled by events in the end of the window.
In addition, key players Ream and Willian are a year older, which is significant at their age. Pereira was very important last season but had a bad injury at the end - hasn’t come back the same. Tom Cairney also important is in a steady decline of how much he can play due to his knees.
The window was very poor, the first team is weaker than last year due to the reasons above, and really castagne is the only signing yet to show much worth.
Root cause is the owners and club management. They have always underwhelmed at recruitment and are alienating the supporters with a ludicrous ticket pricing policy. The new stand is hideous and the ticket prices there are even more uniquely ridiculous than the other price increases. Our DoF is a joke example of an over indulged spoilt brat - and since the Khans have been in charge we’ve had a parade of failed centre forwards signed (mitro as the only exception was Jokanovic’s doing).
The silva lining (see what I did) is the manager’s new contract and fingers, toes and anything else crossed that the manager can influence the club management into a couple of decent signings in January with the mitro money. That and there appear to be 3/4 equally poor teams. 17th would be taken gratefully right now.
Best to prioritise those going to matches and have convenient afternoon fixtures -especially if travel options are limited.
I can foresee divorce rates going up if this idea was introduced.