Obviously you've seen more of all those players than I have, but I only have his stats (and Football Manager!) to go on before his time in the Premiership. There's more than enough horror stories from the dutch league to counterbalance the successes, hence my trepidation.
For the record, I think he will be decent. But I also think next year we might be thinking we could have signed a player of the same quality for half the price. Then we will spend £30m on whoever tore it up for Southampton that year.
Yeah, but the thing is, EVERY SINGLE YEAR, there are a few players who look like the most amazing signings ever, and all the papers and media platforms do a poll of "Bargain Of The Year" or "Best Transfer" and everyone moans and says "why didn't we sign him when he was available for £2.50?! Now he's worth £35m and will go to Chelsea/ City/ Real/ Barca/ United!"
And that club makes a load of money in transfers when they sell them, and the Chief Scout is a genius, and he moves to a bigger club and on it goes.
But it's all cyclical. One year it was Southampton. Then Leicester. Or Newcastle and their French scouting network.
Because it's a massive fluke. Yes, of course there are some fabulous scouts. There are some clubs who seem - for a while - to be able to pick up these bargains. But they sign just as many shit players that nobody wants after a year or two. Eventually. It all evens out. There's always risk involved.
Smaller, less attractive clubs are
exactly set up to take those risks. Players (like Wijnaldum, like Kante, like Vardy, like Sissoko, like Payet, ike Mane) know that this could be a great stepping stone move. That if they impress, one of the "big clubs" will come in and pay them double what they earn now. Both the club and the player have to work harder, take different routes, look at less fashionable destinations in the short-term.
And it will always be that way. There'll be threads in a month or two speculating on who we
should have bought for £5m, like there was with Kante last season. Don't recall any posts about him when he played for Caen.
But then, you don't often hear about the failures quite so much. Does anyone still wish they'd taken a chance on Michu before Swansea got him? Or Benni McCarthy? Savio Nsereko, the £9m genius signing for West Ham? Xisco? Matt Jones? Steve Marlet? Thomas Brolin? Jo? Kleberson? Mitroglou? Alves?
There's far more shite signed - BY EVERY CLUB - than quality
