We lost Cech, Lichsteiner, Koscielny, Monreal, Ramsey, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi and Welbeck in one summer. That's almost an entire starting XI, and a ton of experience which was gutted from the dressing room. Imagine turning up to work one day, the old heads have been culled and the office is now full of college graduates. That's what happened over the summer. Those players bar Ramsey and Iwobi needed to leave, but it was too drastic and should have been spaced out over a couple years. Regardless, we had a CL wage bill despite being in the Europa League for three years running, so I don't think we had much of a choice. Unfortunately, it has cost us massively.
It also means that we are at the start of a transition and it will take a few seasons before we start to see any real results. Assuming that the faith placed in Guendouzi, Torreira, Pepe and co. pays off.
