in terms of the Zaha replacement, or just a wide player, this has been the club's biggest failing.
If a Franca type had been bought in the summer of 2022 (for less than £10m, which is surely the top valuation for such a young player) you could see some logic in giving him 12 months to get up to speed etc.
Last summer we knew Olise was injured and had a release clause and let's be honest he has missed the last 3 pre seasons now so has a mixed injury record.
Whilst Ayew played admirably on the left in Zaha's absence late last season it is not his natural position, he is not a spring chicken and he would depart in Jan for the Afcon.
Schlupp had played centrally for the last 2 or so seasons so could not really be considered more of a stop gap option, at best.

Yet in the last 2 transfer windows not only have we not bought a LW, we have barely been linked with one. The Max Cornet link at the last minute seemed odd, why not try this early in the window.

Other teams in our position have recently strengthened with loans - Sheff U and Burnley for example, so players are out there.

So here we are with a squad that doesn't score many and with our 2 best attacking players injured very few options to improve the situation.

I reckon it’s a lot more simple than that. We have been flying by the seat of our pants for years, spending very little, not filling gaps in squads, failing to utilise the loan system to bring in older experienced players and whatever slice of luck we used to get seems now to have deserted us.

With two of our best players out for potentially the whole season and two other injuries to our best players we are in trouble. It appears the manager does not have the belief that the rest of our squad is capable of winning matches hence the negative approach to every game and that mentality is manifesting itself in our players too when you see the nervous way in which we are playing.

I do think Parish has taken his eye off the ball insofar as he should have spotted the deterioration in the performances and had a plan in place to shake things up. Whilst forward thinking on paper, buying players for the future when you are struggling with the present is also a big risk and in this respect I question the purchases of Franca, Henderson and Wharton despite the fact they may all come good with time.

Agreed.

Short answer 'No'

Long Answer is that we keep riding our luck. Our constant mid table finishes have not only belied our bad performances, it's also provided the board with justification of their actions which bar the odd window has been poor and led to our survival tactic to hope there are 3 worse teams than us. That is not sustainable.
Even a 'Safe pair of hands' drops the ball from time to time. the trick is for it not to cost you when it happens. Our mantra is forever 'lets get to next summer' at which point we are seemingly incompetent to find solutions to issues we've given ourselves time to find. This seems to have stemmed from being burned, then deciding never to go there again; Like buying Sakho on high wages, didn't work so now we only buy promising youth, when in truth a more blanaced approach is Required. Or Progressive managers given a go like FdB and Vieira. So now seemingly reluctant to take that risk again where in truth FdB wasn't given enough time, And Vieira actually proved in his 1st season it could be done, and in his 2nd season proved he wasn't the guy to fully realise it.
I understand we're trying to do many things at once like build an academy, renovate the stand etc... but for it to be justified by a prolonged period of neglecting first team business is negligent at best.

"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"