Mate... You yourself set the terms for a signing when you said "minimal outlay". And for minimal outlay I would take them no questions asked. You can't later change your argument to be based on their price...You could argue too much quality as they can’t get a game/club!
We have a system, a system that considers both defence and attack, and they do not fit that system. We do not have the budget to splurge on players, who won’t do work off the ball. In a couple of seasons, hopefully, we have the budget to allow us to change system/personnel without losing quality. At present we don’t. What we have achieved in last few seasons is nothing short of a miracle, given the odds against us; to ask so many L1 players to step up and actually compete in PL is statistically improbable. To abandon this system/structure for champagne football is utter lunacy especially when we have seen how quickly PL teams can rip you apart. We are evolving and mistakes will be made along the way but a dressing room full of, admittedly, average players running through brick walls for a manager they believe in is far greater than a couple of pleasing on the eye charlatans. This is after all a team game.