We can all name players who look like they've hit the ground running and say "well I'd have signed him for starters". Pelle being a classic example, I'd personally never heard of him but yeah for sure if that's what we're doing here, put him in my list.
I don't think though that there's much of a point in that, as I've said a few times quite a few of our signings this Summer were bought with the idea that they'll come good in 2-3 seasons time (at the earliest in some cases), and to my mind it's this policy which needs a look. Equally, you could argue that it's the players already at the club who really ought to be kicking on now given their age and experience (Henderson is a glaring example here IMHO) who are letting us down more than a bunch of 20 year olds. Henderson, Allen, Coutinho etc are at the age now where they really ought to be approaching their best years as players. They've been at the club for long enough to become acclimatised, they know the league etc, so I think it's reasonable to have expected them to have offered far more than they have. They haven't done it for us, and now the focus of many turns to players who are either brand new or are in the twilight of their careers.
Just to put into perspective though, Can is 20, Markovic 20, Manquillo 20, Moreno 22, Origi 19. Now, can anyone name ANY players at the other big clubs who are uprooting trees at that age? When you stick in Sterling who's 19 who already plays for us, it makes you realise that we are very much a "project" in progress, and IMHO it is unrealistic to expect these kids to come in and flourish immediately, particularly when the so called season pro's around them are stinking the place out as well. We end up coming to the conclusion that we've "spunked our transfer funds" when in reality, it'll only really be in two or three YEARS time when we'll know if these transfers listed above have worked out.
Obviously Balotelli we can make more of an immediate call on (and it doesn't look good), Lovren ditto (although I do think he'll make a player for us). Lambert it looks like we've bought 18 months too late, but our youngsters are really being asked to perform just about the impossible in my eyes.
So my answer to "what I'd have done with 120 mill" would be that I'd have gone up the age scale by a couple of years into the 22-25 bracket, and bought a bit more proven quality. Quality which you could expect to flourish after 3 months and not 3 years. Going forward, I'd look to do the same. That said, I definitely WOULD look to hijack the ongoing Berahino contract discussions (he's 21), as I think he already is a very good player who will only get better.
Logged
