This summer we saw cash splashed around like no other. What was particularly unusual was that it was not just the big boys who opened up their wallets but also a large proportion of the sides who make up the rest of the league.
Now of course it is very early to be making sweeping claims and players are still finding their feet, adapting to new systems and cultures but a large proportion of notable signings have made stuttering starts at best – with forwards proving the most significant strugglers.
Norwich were one of the sides to splash cash in a manner unknown to the Carrow Road faithful, bringing in the likes of Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Gary Hooper and Johan Elmander to ail their goal scoring problems of last term. Seven games in they have contributed just a single goal between them, leaving the Canaries tipped by many to shine floundering in the relegation zone – further to that they have scored just five goals.
Southampton have made an impressive start and whilst they can boast an early contender for signing of the season in centre back Dejan Lovren, there is a feeling that their lofty heights have largely been the work of players who were already on the books. Their other two signings have received mixed reports most notably Victor Wanyama who has currently looks vastly overpriced, whilst Dani Osvaldo has showed only glimpses of his quality thus far, although there does look more to come from him.
Wilfried Bony is another big money striker who has struggled to hit the ground running, with the man tipped to take the league by storm failing to score a league goal since the opening day. Strikers struggling to transfer goals from Holland is developing into somewhat of a theme, with Jozy Altidore failing as yet to answer the doubters following his move to Sunderland in the summer.
Andy Carroll has thus far failed to find any significant fitness, leaving West Ham woefully short up top and making the gamble to splash the majority of the summer cash on him looking at this stage like an error. Andreas Cornelious is another big money purchase who we are yet to see, with the young Dane hardly providing Cardiff with little return on their lofty investment.
When we start to analyse the early fortunes of these players, it is intriguing that the vast majority of those making slow starts are players with no premier league experience. Now as is mentioned earlier it does take time to adapt and they could yet prove hits but there will be more than a few concerned managers around hoping that the men they have put their faith in can find their feet sooner rather than later.
Of course there have been some astute captures, such as Loic Remy, Tom Huddlestone, Stephen Sessegnon, Martin Amalfitano, Gary Medel and several others. Nevertheless you can’t help but feel that for the money that has been bandied around more might have been expected.
This article only focus on those outside of the traditional big players, start to investigate their work and things start getting even more concerning. That said we are not even a quarter of the way into the campaign so perhaps this is being a little overly knee jerk, but a reassessment at Christmas could prove interesting reading.