It’s complex what’s happened but I think it’s both a bit of give and take. Last summer, Ollie Watkins, Matty Cash, Antonee Robinson and Said Benarhama amongst others were mentioned on here as potential targets for us and the rumour was that Wilder was keen to sign them. I don’t think Wilder has an issue identifying good quality targets, it’s being able to compete financially.
I think we know that the Prince can’t afford for us to compete in that market, he knows that and Wilder also knew that. They’ve both stated they won’t put us in financial difficulty so that writes off most of Wilder’s first choice targets at this level.
To the Prince’s credit, he’s actively looked for solutions to make us competitive at this level. As presumed, we do have a wider scouting network that has been able to identify players for us, however Wilder has rejected these players and continued to go for his third and fourth choices in the English market. The further down the list he goes, the less value for money we get. An equivalent Oli McBurnie or Rhian Brewster or Aaron Ramsdale from abroad, may potentially be as much as half what we paid for the above players.
