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Every season begins with a set of objectives which various clubs set to reach for themselves at the end of the season, and players are the cornerstone upon which those expectations are built upon.
Funds (sometimes running into hundreds of millions) are usually expended on getting the players seen as the ideal fit to help clubs reach their objectives, and fans are usually giddy with excitement every time a new player arrives their club.
These new players are expected to blend in with the more experienced ones at the club to deliver the goods come the end of the season, and huge amounts are paid weekly to such players to keep them motivated (with footballers being among the highest paid professionals in any field in the world).
However, this only happens in an ideal world, but in the real world of top level professional football, the reality is that more often than not, mnarquee players fail to live up to expectations, with multiple factors such as injuries or fallouts with managers quickly eroding the confidence fans reposed in them and they have to sometimes suffer the ignomy of being dropped to the bench.
This season has been no exception, as big clubs such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich struggling to reach heights of yesteryears and their players have been major culprits, as they have flat out failed to match expectations placed on them. As we approach the midway point of the European season, we take a look at six players who have been the most disappointing thus far.
Dishonorable mentions - Luka Modric, Romelu Lukaku, Fred, Paul Pogba
#6 Marco Asensio
Marco Asensio announced himself in the 2016/2017 season, putting in some fine performances as an impact substitute throughout Real's La Liga and UCL winning campaign, including scoring a goal off the bench in the final against Juventus.
He took his stock a notch higher when he scored two wonder goals against Barcelona in the 2018 Spanish Super Cup and was earmarked as a future talent owing to his incredible shooting skill and link-up ability.
He however had his chances limited due to the presence of Ronaldo in the team, as the Portuguese also operated from his preferred role on the left and was always going to be the one picked of the pair.
Ronaldo's departure in the summer paved the way for Asensio to become a starter and he was earmarked as one of the players upon which the club would build post-Ronaldo.
However, six months down the line and it has not worked out exactly to plan for Real and Asensio. The club embarked on a terrible run of form earlier in the season where they went on their worst ever scoring run which led to the dismissal of Lopetegui and Asensio was singled out as one of the players responsible for Madrid's slump.
Since Solari's appointment, things have not improved much for Marco Asensio and he has been dropped to the bench in recent matches, with the highly impressive Vinicius staking a claim for his starting place.
Earlier last week, the 22-year-old came out to state that it was not his responsibility to carry the team and that it was the job of more experienced players to do so which was seen as a damning indictment on his mentality and willingness to take on responsibilities in addition to his poor returns.
In 24 matches in all competitions this season, Asensio has scored just four goals (with three of those coming in Copa del Rey matches against much inferior opposition). The 22-year-old has just one La Liga goal in 16 matches, and has not scored since getting the lone goal in the 1-0 victory over Espanyol, while his last assist came on the opening day of the campaign.
These are not numbers expected from Asensio after getting improved playing time and while nobody expected him to hit the heights of Ronaldo, nobody expected it to be this bad either.
#5 Diego Costa
Courting as much controversy off the field as he does on it, Diego Costa has made mostly headlines for his antics, but unlike other enfant terribles such as Nicklas Bendnther or Mario Balotelli, Diego Costa delivers the goods on the field of play and is a goal machine and constant threat to opposition defenders.
After a tumultuous relationship with Antonio Conte at Chelsea (where he was told he was not longer needed through text), Diego Costa returned to Atletico Madrid, and made an entrance in the only way he knows how - by scoring then receiving a red card on his first start.
Costa was instrumental as the club won the 2018 Europa League and once more haunted Real Madrid with two goals in the UEFA Super Cup to hand Atleti their seventh major title of Simeone's reign.
This season, Diego Costa has been remarkably off-color, battling injury problems, as well as a loss of form which saw him go over nine months (18 matches) in La Liga without a goal until he broke his duck against Barcelona in the 1-1 draw.
That strike remains his only goal in the league in 11 matches and even though Antoine Griezmann has helped lessen the impact of his poor form, on a personal level, Diego Costa would be disappointed with his output.
#4 Jerome Boateng
A World Cup winner, Jerome Boateng has been one of the top defenders in the world over the last few years, and has been the fulcrum in the heart of defense in all the success enjoyed by Bayern Munich and Germany in the intervening timeframe.
However, he has begun to exhibit signs of decline which reached its peak at the World Cup in Russia, where Boateng was one of the worst performers in an admittedly very poor German side which crashed out in the group stage of their World Cup defense.
He has continued with his poor form this campaign and has been responsible for a number of goals conceded by Bayern Munich as well as Germany, as opposing forwards exploit his lack of pace and positioning leading to criticisms from numerous fans and pundits alike.
Despite all the furore, he always had an ally in German coach Joachim Low, but the 56-year-old tactician also seems to have run out of patience with the 30-year-old defender, leaving him out of his last international squad, as well as coming out to say that he might be beneath the levels expected of a German defender.
So far this season, Bayern Munich have conceded 18 goals from just 15 matches (by contrast, they conceded just 28 goals in 34 matches last season and 22 the season before) as they find themselves in unfamiliar territory sitting nine points behind Borussia Dortmund.
Boateng has been a culprit for many of the goals conceded by Bayern this season and considering the high standards he has set for himself over the years, that comes as a massive disappointm
#3 Gareth Bale
The player most expected to benefit from the sale of Ronaldo, Gareth Bale arrived Real Madrid from Tottenham for a then world record fee on the back of his very impressive displays in the Premier League for the London team.
The Welshman was the star of the show at Spurs and everything at the club revolved around him, but on arriving Real had to take a backseat owing to the presence of the more talented and charismatic Ronaldo.
Over the next five seasons, Bale drifted in and out of the first team, as he struggled with injuries and form, failing to truly win over full sections of the notoriously demanding Bernabeu crowd.
However, for all the criticisms, on his day, Gareth Bale is undoubtedly a world class player and his displays for Tottenham and Wales where he was the star of the show are proof of that and he had shown fleeting examples of his undoubted class (such as his wonder goal in the UCL final against Liverpool) he was never going to get the opportunity to do so on a regular basis owing to Ronaldo.
Speculations had constantly linked him with a move away from the Spanish capital and the 29-year-old himself came out to address the situation after the UCL win, citing a need for improved playing time.
As it happened, Ronaldo departed Real after the World Cup and the stage was set for Bale to become the star of the show, as Ronaldo's sale offered him the space he had been craving for since his arrival five years ago.
However, things have been disappointing to say the least. Real have struggled in Ronaldo's absence and Bale has not had the same impact on matches that the Portuguese had.
He has failed to stamp his authority in the way Ronaldo did and has looked on haplessly as Real struggled for innovation upfront in scenes that would have been unthinkable had Ronaldo been present.
Two weekends ago, he scored the only goal in a hard fought 1-0 win away to struggling Huesca and that was his frist league goal in over 10 hours of football which is a poor return for someone suppoosedly expected to minimize the impact of Roanldo's departure.
Replacing a player like Ronaldo is downright impossible and while it was somewhat expected that the club would struggle in the new era, the quality of players available with Bale in particular meant that a cushion was expected but Bale has failed in his role.
#2 Alvaro Morata
After struggling for gametime with Real Madrid, Morata wanted out and Chelsea offered him an outlet, splashing a club-record £58m with a potential £12m in add-ons to bring him to Stamford Bridge.
The Spanish international began his Blues career like a house on fire, scoring and assisting on his Premier League debut in a shock 3-2 loss to Burnley. He also grabbed a hat-trick a month later against Stoke City to take his goal tally to six from six matches.
Since then however, it has all gone downhill for the 26-year-old, as he embarked on long goalscoring droughts and struggled for confidence such that Olivier Giroud was signed in the January window to provide an alternative.
Morata finished his debut campaign with a platry 15 goals from 48 appearances in all competitions and was left off the Spanish World Cup squad as a result of his indifferent club form.
This season, he changed his jersey number from 9 to 29, citing the reason as being to commemorate the birth of his daughter (but it's more likely the superstitious reason of number 9's struggling at Stamford Bridge), but the number change has not done much to improve his proficiency in front of goal.
So far this season, he has just five goals from 14 EPL appearances and has found himself out of the starting lineup in recent weeks with Sarri preferring to play Hazard upfront and it is rather disappointing considering how much optimism his arrival generated.
#1 Alexis Sanchez
You know you're special when two of the all-time greatest managers at two of the biggest clubs in the world battle it out for your signature over two transfer windows right until the final day and this was the situation Sanchez found himself in as the two Manchester clubs slogged it out for his arrival and there was much fanfare and celebration when the Chilean was finally unveiled as a United player.
However, since arriving Old Trafford, Sanchez has not looked anywhere near remotely special, instead towing the path of all other players signed under Jose Mourinho - struggling for form and looking short of confidence.
It has been a whirlwind year for Alexis Sanchez, going from one of the best players in the league at Arsenal to a very 'expensive' laughing stock and subject of social media banter at Manchester United.
The 29-year-old has always been a world class player, that much has been evident right from his days at Barcelona and more pointedly Arsenal, so his struggles at United are made all the more harder to explain.
He scored just 3 goals in 18 matches in the first half season (he joined in the winter0 with United and this came in marked contrast with his ratio at Arsenal where he averaged a goal every two games.
The fact that he did not have a pre-season with the club and did not blend in well was given as an excuse and indeed Sanchez was one of the earliest reporters to United's pre-season ahead of this campaign, but that has not done much to improve his standing.
So far this season, Sanchez has scored just one goal in 12 appearances in all competitions for Man Utd, looking devoid of ideas in a blunt United attack, offering nothing from an offensive standpoint and found himself out of the starting lineup before injury struck.
Alexis is reportedly the highest paid player in Premier League history, earning a reported £350,000 a week and for how much the club is paying him, he is making extremely low returns and would do well to start improving upon his contributions to the club.
