Opinions, innit?
I don't profess to be a great scout of footballing talent, but aside from his sheer willingness and work rate I haven't seen anything from him to suggest he can produce on a consistent enough basis to be a decent PL player.
Of course, history is littered with stories of players who made a great career out of little more than hard work, as well as those of players who utterly wasted their potential. Given his starting point, I'd sooner take a chance with £50m if we can get it.
If he turns out to be world class, he would leave eventually anyway, and we'd probably lose out on £50m again in fees. As long as we can cover that opportunity cost with profits on the players we buy now, we wouldn't lose out on a great deal in the end.
Of course, that's putting my trust in our recruitment, but aside from the question mark over McNeil they've been pretty shrewd so far.