TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
It doesn't have to he Sancho and Havertz though. We could have signed Brandt two years ago for example and that would have been just as good. The idea is to get Sancho before he's Sancho.I agree with a lot of that. However I am not sure it's the only way to be successful. If we were following that pattern we would go and sign say, Havertz and Sancho this summer- but we know neither would join us. 4 years in and it's very difficult to get players to join us. We attract the level down, your Kean's, your Vlasics, your Iwobi and the levels of inconsistency frustrate fans.
I think the other point to note in this, is young players playing in a struggling team don't really improve. Stones was great when he first arrived into a settled back line, and went backwards after that. You need a balance of youth and experience to be successful.
We are not dining at the same table as Liverpool, or City. So occasionally short cuts are needed. Personally I would sign Koulibaly from Napoli rather than Allen, but if the player shows value then it's the right move. I see people say signing Allen can never be a value signing. I don't understand that. I can understand the position that spending £50m is not value. However what if we got him for £10m? Where is the cut off point? Surely we would be better saying paying big money and handing out long contracts for older players is the issue, as opposed to a blanket belief on not signing them?
There is a point where Allan would be decent value but Napoli aren't allowing that.