gordoncharles
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This is all Ifs and maybes, like me you have absolutely no idea what or who we have been looking at in Europe how do you know we haven’t tried to bring players in from Europe. What is they don’t want to come to us or still asking for silly money. If we brought a player in from a lower league Spanish club and he didn’t play well the same people would be saying why have we brought in an unknown from Europe.
Do you not think more established premier league teams with a scouting network that’s second to none are also looking for these gems? Why are they not bringing these players in from all over Europe that nobody has heard of?
Look at established European players already here most don’t hit the ground running anyway.
I’d agree it’s both because I don’t think the two can be separated. The club would need to have in place a large network of scouts across the continent which we don’t. The manager would also have to trust the judgment of those scouts and be confident they evaluate players in the same way that he does and that takes time.
It’s another reason why all those years in league one have hurt us when we couldn’t afford to maintain any infrastructure really it takes a long time to build those networks and that trust.
It was not necessary to have a huge network of scouts. I already mentioned that Leeds, for example, brought in Victor Orta who had his own network. Even someone experienced as a manager of DoF in Spain or France would know someone. FFS, even I do, because I watch Spanish football every week.
However, looking at it the other way round, Burnley have a similar squad profile to ourselves and practically always sign British players. I don't especially like watching Burnley but they have been effective.
Look at Burnley's forward options: Wood, Barnes, Rodriguez and Vydra. That's no better than what we've got. Had we signed any of those everyone would simply decry us signing Championship-quality strikers.