- Jan 17, 2008
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Yeah fair point, but regardless of leagues are we realistically going to find a real top quality DM who is aged 25+ for under £20 million in January? Seems practically impossible to me.Were they signed mid season and hit the ground running though?
That’s what we need.
None of those players were. With an established, experienced player who’s played at the top level for 6/7 seasons there’s much more chance it will come off. That was more the point I was making. If there’s one in the French League, then fair enough, as long as though he’s not another Stambouli!
Most of the real top talents are worth more by the time they're that age and unless the player is running their contract down, we really won't get a whole lot for less than £20 million these days. Add in the fact that clubs are notoriously reluctant to sell in Jan and we'd probably be looking at signing another stop-gap plodder at best (i.e. Stambouli - exactly who you don't want). Given how hard it is for us to get players off our books that absolute last thing we need is mediocrity
I'd much prefer us to do proper scouting and spend big money on someone who we really rate who could be our DM for years to come (Soumare) or pick up a young upcoming talent on the cheap (the next Kante).