Hrmmm, whilst I'm not really in the position to argue seeing as we stand on two very different sides of the agenda, i have to say i really don't agree. The whole Anti "english mentality towards foreign players" thing is obviously barely ever mentioned over here (in fact, its something i haven't really come across anywhere but this forum)
You make it seem like there are only two ways it can go when a foreign player comes to the PL, they either progress, or regress. And that does happen, with some of the players we've mentioned Henry, Suarez, Ronaldo, Tevez etc etc, have come to the pl as promising yet average, and left being top /world class players. Its true that the majority of those that do go on to become great are usually the more expensive when they are brought here, that goes without saying obviously. But its definitely not the case that they're regarded as "unnecessary luxurious foreign imports" (regarded as such by who, btw?)
The only players i can think of that fits into that category, are Shevchenko and Torres (for Chelsea, not Liverpool. He was clearly a fantastic buy for liverpool until Chelsea doubled his value) both of which were Big Abramovich statement buys. Both were unnecessary, or at least excessive (30 mill for 30 year old striker on the wane, or 50 million for out of form waning striker, theres kind of a pattern) The difference between the two, being torres was "premier league proven" which may equate for part of the reason they paid so much for him.
bare with me because i am sort of going somewhere with this...
Yes, i see your point that narrowing our choices to only premier league proven players is ridiculous because there is a lot of talent out there, BUT you're simplifying it a ridiculous amount. In a way, you're almost saying that you wouldn't swap any of our 7 signings for any of the players in the premier league. Which is obviously not true, as an example, look at who had a better first season for us. Paulinho, or Dembele. Injuries to Dembele aside he came in and has been one of our better players, whilst Paulinho has been anonymous far too often for some peoples liking this season. Thats not to say he's not going to be our Christiano Ronaldo next season, Because he could be, we know he's talented, he's just taken time to adjust.
Dembele didnt have that problem so much, because he'd been in the premier league already. I don't think we massively overpaid for him 15 million seems a pretty fair price.
At the end of the day, it comes down to playing the odds. To continute the Paulinho/Dembele example, they were signed for roughly the same amount to play similar positions, and off the top of my head i don't think theres to much difference in age. So its a pretty fair comparison to make.
Whenever you sign any player, its an absolute lottery. Theres so many variables to take into account, which is why so much money is involved. You have to look at the player and say what are the odds, for which way those variables turn out. The odds of Dembele doing well for us in the long term were obviously high, lets say 85% because he was already doing fantastic in the same league, albeit at a lower level club. the odds of Paulinho doing the same, were probably lower, seeing as he's from the other side of the world, had already had unsuccessful times in lesser european leagues and south americans are known to not always adapt well in europe. So his odds might be... 75% in the long term. But the odds for them doing it immediately, would probably be about the same for Dembele, but a lot lower for Paulinho. say, 50-60%. Lets face it, we all knew it would take time to adapt, we just hoped that it wouldn't take long. Unfortunately it has and the club didn't exactly help that situation.
So, basically, were i in charge of signing players, id say that yes, you could save money by buying foreign, but theres a lot more risk attached. And i don't think thats in any way shape or form xenophobic or anything. You paint a picture of a jekyll and hyde mentality over here where, we love to sign all these foreign players but hate that theres so many of them in our league. Maybe thats how we come across over there but i really don't think its the case.
Ive heard many people make the argument that we're almost xenophobic for the way we go on about young english players, and how they're losing out to foreign players etc, and that we shouldn't care how many english players play as well, but thats clearly just stupid. Whats the point of having and english football setup if not to bring through and create talented english players. Otherwise it might as well just be moved to Qatar and milked for every penny, and then used to bring in all the best players from around the world and create some huge money bags league.
Short story long, "Premier league proven" is certainly not something that should be dismissed so easily. Because there have been FAR far more players that have come in and been forgotten about because they were at best average, than have come in and become great. I think the way you, and whoever it was that made that list are putting it, are ignoring the fact that its not just the top 5-6 teams in the PL that are bringing foreign players in, its every premier league team, dating back to the start of the premier league, and the teams before that, for about 100 years. even back in the early days players were signed from Scotland and Wales, which obviously isn't the same as signing a brazillian, but you get my point, english leagues have been signing players from outside england from almost day one. And the ones worthy of making lists about are a mere footnote. Theres been far, far, far more that have been forgotten about before they'd even had a chant made for them.
