You may have seen that QPR are changing their transfer recruitment policy this summer. Instead of looking for talent in the English leagues, they are instead going to look to the continent for players there. They believe that you will be able to get the same quality, but for cheaper.
That does make a lot of sense. Due to the increased TV money in the Premier League, teams have more money to spend and so everyone else in England has responded by upping the valuation of their star players.
It means that players that were worth £1m a couple of years ago can now be worth £3m. It’s inflation on steroids. Whereas abroad, the price for players hasn’t expanded so rapidly and so, their players become prime pickings for English clubs.
So the question for Wednesday today is, should we follow in QPR’s footsteps and start looking for France, Spain and Italy rather than our rivals?
There was a train of thought last season that we were going to do this and there were some big signings from abroad. Marco Matias, Lucas Joao and Alex Lopez were seen as some of our marquee signings last year while we also brought in Darryl Lachman, Vincent Sasso and Modou Sougou.
When they came in, there was a sense of excitement that there isn’t usually around domestic signings. They were an unknown quantity and because we didn’t know quite how good they were, we imagined that might well be world beaters that would lead us to success.
But the unfortunate thing was that none of those signings ever lived up to the hype we created for them. Oh sure, Matias and Joao have bags of talent and they did show that at times, but both had issues which held them back. I do think both will end up having good careers with us, it’s just that they have took time to settle here in England.
Lopez was also seen as a big name when he moved on loan from Celta Vigo but he struggled with the English physicality for a while and only came into his own towards the end of the season.
The other three were less good. Sasso was alright when he played, but when Michael Turner gets picked above you there’s something going wrong. Sougou started off well with his debut against Mansfield Town and getting the late equaliser against Reading, but he then did nothing for the rest of the season. And I don’t even know what a Darryl Lachman even is!
In the fact if you remember right back to the start of the season, we struggled. Other than the games against Bristol City and Mansfield Town, we looked poor and it seemed like despite the hype, we were set for a miserable season.
It was actually two signings from other English clubs that changed things around and the were Barry Bannan and Fernando Forestieri. And while Forestieri did cause a lot of excitement as he was excellent with Watford, and the fact we snatched him away from the clutches of Leeds United was pretty sweet, Bannan didn’t have that wave of excitement because we knew all about him. He was a player that couldn’t break into the Palace first team and described as a player that we didn’t need.
Yet because both knew the English game well, Forestieri had his adjustment period a couple of years ago, they were devastating to oppositions and made themselves fan favourites. Sure, Forestieri did cost a premium, but the reason you pay that extra bit of cash is the knowledge that the player you’ve got knows what he’s getting himself in for in terms of the league you are playing in.
Sure, plenty of big name English signings have flopped and the allure of hitting it lucky and signing a player that will simply devastate the opposition for a few Euros is high, but I think Wednesday are better off looking inside our border before looking abroad.
