Having too much time on my hands I had a look at some old rumours. Choosing at random the first six months of 2018 offered the following. They were all posted as either rumours or papertalk rather than suggestions.
Munir Al Hadidi
Diego Laxalt
Alban Lafont
Ibrahim Amadou
Stuart Armstrong
Jake Livermore
Alamy Traore
Ryan Fredericks
Soualiho Meite
Jonathan Bamba
James Taverner
Alphonse Ariola
Ferdinand Mendy
Kamil Grosicki
Benik Afobe
Richmond Boakye
Jonathan Caffu
Mousse Marenga
Nicholas Gaitan
Xherdan Shaqiri
Massimo Luengo
Jordan Hugill
Mohammed Elyounoussi
Ozan Tufan
Jack Marriott
Frederick Ronnow
Geoff Cameron
Ashley Barnes
Moussa Marenga
Eder
Adam Massini
Charlie Mulgrew

A handful of them are recognisable and doubtless those better informed can identify others who went on to great success elsewhere but overall it doesn't look as though we missed out on any stars.

It would be a really long post if it included other years. You could argue I suppose that it is indicative of the crap that the media spout. The year is probably irrelevant, they print rubbish every year.

It would be interesting if someone had the time, energy and inclination to post a list of all the players that we have been linked to in this window