If you watch the highlights of the 95/96 and the 96/97 season (one of the benefits of lockdown) some of the goals we conceded were laughable (take the liverpool 3-3 as an example, we concede 1 goal by falling over the ball!!) Our defence and goalkeeping situation was nowhere near strong enough until the Festa/Schwarzer signings. Also the depth of our squad was terrible. Many players that played over those seasons never played top division football regularly for any club.
I have always wondered if when we did sign juninho if we had signed 4 or 5 grizzled top division stalwarts instead would we have had a more solid base to add the superstars later (I'm not advocating this, it's TLF, our greatest ever)