James is one of my all time favorite players and I still couldn't get over that it probably wasn't a smart thing to do.
And it wasn't a smart thing to do! He was really good but couldn't stay fit and then left and we had a massive hole in the team creatively the next year.
If you're going to undertake a process of steady improvement you have to commit at some point or you'll never get there. Look at Leicester and West Ham. They've made a few older signings to fill out the squad and on the cheap those are fine (Townsend, Delph for us, Dawson or Evans for them) but the vast majority of the money is on players who were purchased under the age of 25 or 26. And as those guys get older you have your experience taken care of. It isn't a coincidence that they're the strongest squads outside the Greedy Six.
Excuse me sir, I didn't talk about James Rodriguez, a man plagued by injury problems. Address my KDB sentence or forfeit.