Oh dear.....do you realise the can of worms you've just opened up by mentioning Ajer and 3-5-2 to me John?
Got to say it never fails to amaze me the amount of people who still see Ajer as a first pick at CB given how many of the goals we concede and the issues we have in defence come from the area of the pitch he's supposed to be covering. I think he gets away with murder tbh......mainly because his errors tend to be forgotten because of that 1 stand-out tackle or interception he usually makes in a game.
Imo he lacks the positional awareness, the concentration required and the basic nous for a CB and because of that he too often gets caught out of position meaning he either ends up being caught flat footed in no mans land or he has to resort to lunging in because he's too far out of position to make up the ground. I genuinely couldn't think of anybody worse in our defensive ranks to play in a back 3. The guy is a CM being played out of position at CB and always will be as far as I'm concerned.
And as far as 3-5-2 goes, I don't want to bore everybody again with the specifics of why I don't think it works as I've talked this subject to death now......all I'll say is I don't think it works on any level with the group of players we currently have.
Getting back to the original point......I think we're now at the stage where the continued inclusion, especially in the starting 11, of those want-away players is now doing more harm than good. Like you said what sort of message does that send out to those players who've committed their futures to the club, players who are working their arses off day in day out in training yet still get overlooked in favour of guys who don't even want to be here?