Problem is Dave, 20m+ won't get him, not even now, never mind in a year or two.
That's the conundrum that faces the owner, is he willing to spend what it takes to get the calibre of player needed, if a player has already done it in a 'big' league - then they will either not be attractable by us, or they will have 'bigger fish' after them - as they've shown they can do it already.
So we either take a risk on younger less proven but ones with that look that little bit special and we pay what is needed to get them - not stick rigidly to what we think they are worth - else frankly we won't get them, or we take cheapish punts on players like Deulofeu etc - 'broken prospects' for want of a better word. Or we go down the route of paying over the odds for 'proven' premiership standard players - who by and large will not be players that make much of a difference - great for going from 11th to 7th or 15th to 10th etc, but to bridge the gap you need genuine quality after that.
Back in 99' Arsenal took a similar 11m punt on a 21yo French lad called Henry - in modern fees etc what would that be - 40m+?
