We Need to Talk About the Three Missing Players

 

The transfer window is officially shut, yet three of our finest assets appear to have evaporated into the Stratford ether. Edson Álvarez, Alphonse Areola and Soungoutou Magassa have simply vanished.

Álvarez, naturally, appears to consider the Championship somewhat beneath him. Fair enough. Unfortunately for him, our valiant efforts to flog him this summer ran into the small problem of nobody being willing to meet our valuation. So here he remains in East London until January, which means Nuno really ought to pull him off the naughty step and put him on the pitch.

Magassa is a little more convoluted. His agent spent the summer making it abundantly clear that the boy was far too splendid for the second tier. Magassa has since offered something resembling an apology and pleaded for game time, yet he remains mysteriously invisible.

Then there is the grand mystery of Mr Alphonse Areola.

Not a peep.

No dramatic statements. No petulant Instagram posts. No agent briefing the French press. Just complete radio silence.

Glorious.

The problem is that all three are far too talented to spend their weekends admiring the stadium turnstiles. Whatever happened over the summer, it is time to draw a line under it and get them properly reintegrated into the squad.

If they are fit, they should be available. If they are good enough, they should be competing for places. And if they refuse to put in a shift, then we have rather bigger problems than where they happen to sit on the bench.

These are professional footballers who signed professional contracts. This is a football club, not the East London Academy for Sulking Millionaires.

They are being paid very handsomely to play football.

So, perhaps it is time they did exactly that.