Which I think is exactly why Walsh was brought in. While we would love to and might shoot to bring in big signings, we realize that we have to be better at finding good players than others have to be. Having Walsh find gems and Koeman wanting players now are not exclusive to eachother. His job is to find the Kante's. You can find players who the top 6 have just off of their radar, but who play to a top 4 level in their first year. The type of player who the top clubs consider europa league material and not CL, but who is actually underrated is both the type of player we want to bring in, and would be willing to come.
Walsh wasnt just brought in to find 3 mill players who play like they are worth 10 mill, he was also brought in to find 15 mill players who play like they are worth 40.
Look at how much of an increase in value players such as Kante, VVD, Dele Alli, Payet, Mane saw in just a season. There are more of them out there, but we just dont know who they are yet. Either Walsh is better than others at his job, or he is not, we obviously believe he is, and if thats the case we should unearth some of them.
Some sense.
Spurs are yet again the model to follow here. We need the type of Alli signings, but also have to attract some similar to Eriksen and find that type of player this summer. Clearly, Eriksen didn't demand UCL football as an all or nothing as Spurs were in the Europa League the season he joined. They were also attracting players of the ilk of Luka Modric when he was still home-based and not quite attracting the levels of attention he subsequently earned. Van der Waart was another example of a good signing at the right time.
This is surely why Walsh has been brought to the club. I think Champions League is overstated in its immediate importance to players. They all want to be sold an idea of where a club is going, where things are headed over the next 2-3 years. Clearly not only have Spurs sold themselves well but they have also delivered if they promised UCL football to anybody over the course of a contract. That adds hugely to credibility now and they should reap the rewards.
We are told we have the finances, and we should even without any largesse from Moshiri, be able to compete in the sort of targeted market we should be fishing in.
The unknown is obviously what sort of narrative we are giving to players and agents. The amount of rejections last summer was obviously a concern, but a year on with UEL football and definitive stadium plans, surely we are better placed. Comparisons with Man City are futile as their takeover was a game-changer overnight, and even then they signed quite a bit of dross at inflated prices.
It isn't that we can't offer UCL football, its what players/agents, and the wider footballing world are hearing in between the lines when Everton are mentioned. Are we a club on the up, bullish, and with bold and ambitions plans? If so, that is a tremendously good sell if we can offer decent wages to boot, and spend a little over the odds if required.
If that doesn't stack up, and we are seen as happy to tread water with a finish anywhere in the top six seen as the holy grail, then our attractiveness is deservedly limited to players of similar levels of quality and ambition.
