billie86 wrote:But then how do you judge players? As we've seen there have been good players in the EPL switch clubs and then not be the same, there has also been players signed from foreign essentially poor leagues and been revelations, if I'm not mistaken from the invincibles squad only sol Campbell was purchased from a fellow EPL side.
That is where the scouts earn their money.
It's up to them to highlight the players that will work well in the PL.
Clearly, some players are cut out for the PL from foreign shores (although we have far too many foreigners in the PL). If the scouts can't find them they are not very good at their job.
For players like Partey, I hear a lot about how good he was in La Liga, but actually, when looking at his numbers he wasn't particularly good. For example, he was not as good as Ndidi at Leicester, a much younger player and proven in the PL. Why are we paying 43m for Partey when players like Ndidi are floating around? OK, so we might not have been able to get Ndidi (although I rather suspect a 30m bid would have secured him), but there are others, including la Liga with much better numbers. Emerson at Betis for example, just 22 yrs old now.
We pissed away 43m on a player who didn't have outstanding defensive or offensive numbers in a weaker league.