That’s where I disagree with most English fans. Assessing a players suitability accurately comes down to competent scouting. A good quality scout, who understands the game, with sufficient time to watch players should be able to easily assess how well a player will fare for us regardless of what part of the world they play in.

The reality is, you can never be certain with any player you buy. There are so many deciding factors beyond the origin of a player that make up his likely success at a club. But I completely reject the conflation people make with over spending in the premier league & being more assured of a hit rather than a miss. I think it’s just a way people use to marginalise the debate in order punt the “best league in the world” rubbish and also because they don’t personally see much of other players.

If you actually watch European football on a regular basis, you’ll see the undeniable talent available & be able to identify numerous clear upgrades on our current squad. The difference is we don’t have to break the bank sourcing these types of players, but we do now have means to buy players of a certain level of pedigree. Even outside of Europe, imagine we had scouts who could dip our toes in some of the South American markets. Talents coming out from Aregntinian & Brazilian leagues will always be amongst the most exciting in world football.

We’ve made a couple of decent PL signings but the only I can think of off the top of my head who actually represented value, are Puncheon & Wilf. And Wilf could hardly be considered as an actual Premier league player at the time when he first came back to us.

And let’s face it. Had he not come from our academy, we’d of never ever made a signing as inspired as him for the money we did.

For the record, I’m not saying there isn’t ever a need to prioritise Premier league experience. In our first few seasons it proved invaluable. But in creative and attacking areas especially, there are very few circumstances in this generation where that type of business will ever represent value for money.

Edited by Mstrobez (18 Jun 2018 5.18am)

We're the Arthur over ere!

Fantastic player, but the ONLY reason we are even in the room with the possibility of signing him is because of his injuries. Its naive to not be concerned with the cost implications of a player as good as he is with his past injury record (yes I know he played games last season).

If you can actually find someone who said he wouldn’t, then your rant might actually hold some weight.

We're the Arthur over ere!

The good thing is that it appears Jack W is off the drugs as well.

Not true. Only one of them was a PL player who I conceded was good value for money. Dann came from Blackburn, so I’m confused as to why we keep bringing players from outside of the premier league into the debate.

PVA has been a good signing. But 15 mil pre Neymar good value? No way. Only reason we were able to buy someone like him @ the same time as Schlupp & Luka was because we actually do spend a bit of money.

We’re among the biggest net spenders in the league over the past 5 years. Topped only by 3 or 4 teams if I remember correctly. But on paper, our squad isn’t exactly all that much ahead of teams in and around us. That should highlight the issue with our transfer policy.

Edited by Mstrobez (18 Jun 2018 10.35am)

We're the Arthur over ere!

Dann played in the prem, so did MacArthur and PVA would be included in that group that should be in the prem proven group if we signed him after Sunderland were relegated. They were all obviously prem quality at some level but at relegated or soon to be relegated clubs.

But I agree PVA wasn’t good value when we signed him.

Edited by Rudi Hedman (18 Jun 2018 11.11am)

COYP