The last player we bought who actually caused a bit of excitement and made me think we were going places was VDV. He was a known player of quality, the fact that we only paid 8 million for him is irrelevant. We have spent more than that on a number of players, look back to Bentley (15 mill), or recently with Lamela (25 mill). So I am not saying we have to break our transfer records, or even have to come close. But there is a difference between buying a Modric, Berbatov, or VDV (total cost 45.5 million) and Bentley, Bent or Lamela (total cost 57.3 million). Now Bent was not awful and Lamela I hope will still come good. But there are players who you know will come in and instantly add quality and improvement to a side, and there are those who may or may not become brilliant in the future (Bale, Lamela, Rose) and finally there are those that will only be squad players at best.
Unfortunately most of our signings fall into the middle category in the hope they will make us a profit, but until we start adding 1 or 2 quality players, we will only ever continue to be the almost/nearly/hopefully there kind of side. The saddest thing of all is that this argument has been my view for too many years now and it seems like there is a simple solution that we never seem to want to take.
Will spending more help? Yes. Will increasing our wage structure help attract better players? Yes. Will being in Champions League also help to attract the better players? Yes. Are these all essential? No. There are always quality players who will look beyond those factors. It is the vision that matters most, if the right player sees a team moving in the right direction they will get on board and take that chance. It is down to the club to make sure that vision is believable, achievable and attractive.
Just signing one player that no one saw coming, that raises the perception of the fans, players and our opponents, could be the difference between being 4th or 6th next year. Time for Levy to back his newest victim.
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