Affordable quality players

[Neil G]

Branching off from the Next Season thread, and following on from Silverlining's post a while back, I think it's worth compiling a list of quality players who've been signed by Premiership clubs in recent years for sums of money that we could currently afford to pay.

 

I don't mean players who can just "do a job". I mean players of the sort of ability, either now or at the time of signing, that would clearly improve our current first eleven. There are plenty of them, enough to prove that we can genuinely strengthen our team this summer without having to spend vast sums of money.

 

Here are some for starters. I think I've got the fees mostly right, but will stand corrected if any of them are wildly out.

 

Strikers:

 

Henry £11m

Adebayor £7m

Van Persie £3m

Santa Cruz £3.5m

Benni McCarthy £2.5m

Robbie Keane £12m / £7m (the latter was from Leeds' fire sale though)

Berbatov £11m

Yakubu £11m

Anelka £15m (highest fee paid by Prem club)

Ashton £3.5m / £7.5m

Saha £12m

 

Wingers / wide midfielders:

 

Rosicky £7m

Hleb £10m

Pires £7m

Joe Cole £6m

Robben £12m

Duff £17m

Nani £14m

Petrov £4.7m

 

Full-backs:

 

Evra £7m

Heinze £6m

Belletti £3.75m

Bridge £7m

Sagna £6m

Eboue (don’t know the fee but it can't have been much more than £5m)

 

Some of those players are, or were at the time, among the best in the league in their respective positions.

[Unrighteous]

Duff should not be on that list... £17m affordable? He's also the highest transfer on your list but one of the worst players on it.

 

He shouldn't be there.

 

Also, Saha? He's a good striker but he's got more injuries than Harry Kewell after Australia's friendlies are done for the year.

[Ian Sea]

In the last issue of TTWAR (RIP) there was a cracking quote in one of the articles; it was along the lines of "it's not about buying the best players but buying the right players" and I think that is spot on.

 

A player doesn't have to cost a fortune to improve any given team but the difficulty is identifying the "right player(s)" in the first place.

[BROCK]

Marcus Bent :whistle: The ideal replacement for Voronin!

[Hooch]

Adebayor for 7 mil??

 

Ignore me didn't read properly sorry.

[Paul]

I fully accept that it is possible to buy top class players for a decent price. However, the players above only became perceived as top class after they proved themselves in England. They all went up in price afterwards. In other words, there was an ekement of taking a punt on almost every single one of them. We can't possibly expect a 100% success rate. I just don't see us being able to dramatically improve our attack on a budget. We've tried to do it for years with exceptionally hit and miss results (miss most of the time, in actual fact).

[Neil G]

I fully accept that it is possible to buy top class players for a decent price. However, the players above only became perceived as top class after they proved themselves in England. They all went up in price afterwards. In other words, there was an ekement of taking a punt on almost every single one of them. We can't possibly expect a 100% success rate. I just don't see us being able to dramatically improve our attack on a budget. We've tried to do it for years with exceptionally hit and miss results (miss most of the time, in actual fact).

 

A good few of those players were already proven in this country when they moved for the fees listed.

 

Obviously there are risks with any signings. My point is that it's perfectly possible to strengthen where we need to in order to really challenge for the title without spending vast sums of money. Your post on the other thread indicated that you'd effectively ruled out that possibility, which was why I responded with this.

 

I don't know how much you think we need to spend, but I reckon if we went for two full-backs for £10m a piece and a winger for £15m we would get real quality in those positions. We wouldn't be shopping in the bargain basement.

[Neil G]

Duff should not be on that list... £17m affordable? He's also the highest transfer on your list but one of the worst players on it.

 

He shouldn't be there.

 

Also, Saha? He's a good striker but he's got more injuries than Harry Kewell after Australia's friendlies are done for the year.

 

Duff was available for that price after the 2002 World Cup, a year before he moved to Chelsea. He was one of the best players in the league at the time. He still did well in his first season at Chelsea, it was only when Mourinho came that his form started to dip.

 

Fair enough about Saha's injuries, that should maybe have ruled him out of the list on second thoughts.

[Rashid]

Let's buy three Portuguese players.

 

Quaresma (Porto night go down due to curruption so cheap)

Deco

Bosingwa

[05 Milan]

Let's buy three Portuguese players.

 

Quaresma (Porto night go down due to curruption so cheap)

Deco

Bosingwa

 

That's actually not a bad list, but I don't think I could stand the Q-man in our team.

[cotter]

deco's an utter cunt also.

[Guest TK-421]

David Bentley - Arsenal to Blackburn Rovers 31 Jan 2006 (Undisclosed).

[shanks59]

deco's an utter cunt also.

 

He may be, but he's still got it :whistle:

[WaltonRed]

If we only have 20m to spend I'd blow it on one player.

[Trucker Paddy]

If we only have 20m to spend I'd blow it on one player.

 

Daniel Alves,who needs a winger when this man is your fullback!!!

[twelvesmallsteps]

let's buy henry, and zambrotta.

[Newport]

Seems like Barca are planning to sell Zambrotta. Shouldn't we have a go at him? He's 31, but he's class and can play both right and left.

 

I would also like us to try Adrian Mutu. He's got a troubled past but he's been brilliant for Fiorentina the last couple of seasons.

[Rashid]

That's actually not a bad list, but I don't think I could stand the Q-man in our team.

 

You would love instantly the first time he skins a full back inside out and we realise what we have been missing all along.

[DJLJ]

If we only have 20m to spend I'd blow it on one player.

 

Me too.

[Chuck Fadanoid]

I fully accept that it is possible to buy top class players for a decent price. However, the players above only became perceived as top class after they proved themselves in England. They all went up in price afterwards. In other words, there was an ekement of taking a punt on almost every single one of them. We can't possibly expect a 100% success rate. I just don't see us being able to dramatically improve our attack on a budget. We've tried to do it for years with exceptionally hit and miss results (miss most of the time, in actual fact).

 

Babbel will be included in this bracket at the end of next season.

 

I don't know who we should buy, but it should be players who Rafa thinks will fit into our side correctly - regardless of price.