To be fair, one of the hardest things in football is to accurately judge how good a player really is. If you look at Chuba's record one thing seems apparent: when he plays as part of a front 2, he does well but when he plays as a lone striker he struggles. Until relatively recently, most teams played with a lone striker. In his first two games with us, he played in a front 2 with Britt and scored in both games. Then Warnock took the chance to boot Britt out of the team and play Chuba as a lone striker. Predictably, with hindsight, his goals dried up, his confidence took a knock and Warnock threw him under the bus.
Although Wilder got a lot wrong and clearly had no interest in bringing Chuba back, when his hand was forced, he played Chuba in a front two and he did really well. He then got injured. Leo also played him in a 2 as he came back from injury. Carrick took it to the next level by having play a deep-lying role which, it turns out, Chuba is ideally suited to play.
I think it's fair enough to look at Chuba's first season with us and his indifferent season at PAOK on loan and think he's never going to make it. But it is clear that he wasn't being played to his strengths. Play to his strengths and it's a revelation.
You can also look at someone like Mowatt who had an injury-blighted season at WBA, came to us and had to deal with the whole Wilder soap opera then had to sit on the bench waiting for a chance. He may not have been brilliant yesterday but he did a decent job and, assuming we can't send him back, I have no problem with him playing a back-up role for the rest of the season. I think he'll get better with more match time and probably chip in with a couple of important goals.
Conversely, I don't see Steffen improving beyond how he's playing now. He's done ok but I think he's plateaued and will probably end up back in the USA or Germany having a perfectly fine career. Thing is, all these judgements are based on seeing matchday performances and that's really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to judging how good a player really is. Steffen is only 27 and he could be going through an awkward adjustment from hardly ever playing for Man City to playing under 3 managers in a soap-opera while being dropped from the national team for the World Cup. In two months time he could easily look like the best keeper in the Championship. I don't think so, but ultimately you never know until afterwards.