...and stayed at their club, which side could have been a 'great' or pushed much further than they did?
In the season where we had Martinez and achieved 5th we had a 25 year old Seamus Coleman, Deulofeu, Lukaku, Barkley, Stones and McCarthy. At the time it was widely thought that Stones and Barkley were going to be the next big things for England, Lukaku was going to be one of the best strikers in the world, Deulofeu was a very promising talent, Coleman had probably his best ever season and was the best RB in the league along with Zabaleta and McCarthy was a McTominay type player - not the best by any means but very solid and dependable. The next two seasons were huge underachievements and by at the end of 2017 - Stones, Deulofeu and Lukaku had all left the club. Barkley left in the January of 2018. It's a case of 'what could have been?' and many of the players have failed to reach the heights they were meant to. Coleman has gone on to have a solid career with us, Barkley has shown glimpses at Chelsea but has no consistency as with Stones at City. Lukaku has managed a very good career in terms of his goal tally but always has a lingering question mark and McCarthy was unlucky enough to be ruined with injury.
Another side was Newcastle of 11/12 (Thanks to the Cisse thread for reminding me of this). They had that young fullback Santon who was highly rated, Cabaye who many believed should have been playing at a higher level, Ben Arfa who was ridiculously talented (One of the best dribblers I've seen in the PL), Tiote (R.I.P) who was regarded one of the best CDMs and Ba who was a great striker. They went onto add Sissoko in the next season but a mixture of little to no recruitment/poor recruitment meant that this dream slowly came to an end for Newcastle fans and 5 years later they were relegated.
What happened? Were these teams or players just not as good as we thought they were or did it come down to poor recruitment and management? What other teams can you think of in decades past that could have been?
P.s I know with Everton I am a bit biased but I genuinely believe Lukaku, Stones, Barkley and Deulofeu should have been much better than they are.
In the season where we had Martinez and achieved 5th we had a 25 year old Seamus Coleman, Deulofeu, Lukaku, Barkley, Stones and McCarthy. At the time it was widely thought that Stones and Barkley were going to be the next big things for England, Lukaku was going to be one of the best strikers in the world, Deulofeu was a very promising talent, Coleman had probably his best ever season and was the best RB in the league along with Zabaleta and McCarthy was a McTominay type player - not the best by any means but very solid and dependable. The next two seasons were huge underachievements and by at the end of 2017 - Stones, Deulofeu and Lukaku had all left the club. Barkley left in the January of 2018. It's a case of 'what could have been?' and many of the players have failed to reach the heights they were meant to. Coleman has gone on to have a solid career with us, Barkley has shown glimpses at Chelsea but has no consistency as with Stones at City. Lukaku has managed a very good career in terms of his goal tally but always has a lingering question mark and McCarthy was unlucky enough to be ruined with injury.
Another side was Newcastle of 11/12 (Thanks to the Cisse thread for reminding me of this). They had that young fullback Santon who was highly rated, Cabaye who many believed should have been playing at a higher level, Ben Arfa who was ridiculously talented (One of the best dribblers I've seen in the PL), Tiote (R.I.P) who was regarded one of the best CDMs and Ba who was a great striker. They went onto add Sissoko in the next season but a mixture of little to no recruitment/poor recruitment meant that this dream slowly came to an end for Newcastle fans and 5 years later they were relegated.
What happened? Were these teams or players just not as good as we thought they were or did it come down to poor recruitment and management? What other teams can you think of in decades past that could have been?
P.s I know with Everton I am a bit biased but I genuinely believe Lukaku, Stones, Barkley and Deulofeu should have been much better than they are.
