I'm not talking about signing people from the 4th tier of Madagascan football like. I'm saying that the likes of Robertson, Mane, Van Dijk, Wijnaldum etc were players who we could have been picking up before they became the household names they are now. I'm saying that we paid a combined £75m for Richarlison and Mina, when both of them had moved within the previous 12 months for about a quarter of that. There is value to be had in the market, same as there always has been. For whatever reason, in the last 5/6 years we haven't been great at finding it.
I think you're conflating a few points here mate. Mane and Van Dijk were signed from the same club, and certainly Van Dijk (likely Mane too) would be out of our current range. Wijnaldum, he is one we could have bought, a bit unfavoured from a relegated team, and Robertson quite unfavoured from a team that got relegated. It's perhaps worth noting if we were to go for (for example) a Cantwell, Brooks, King etc.
As for Richarlinson and Mine, yes they were bought before, both were boight from South America. It's very hard to get permits, we wouldn't have got one for Mina, and maybe for Richarlinson. That though is a very different approach to the one Liverpool have had.
I think we really need to work out where we fit, where other people people fit, and ultimately where a realistic zone model of player for us to buy can come from. I still don't see enough of that currently. I mean with Liverpool, in relation to Mane and Salah it's now well known they were ot first choice, but it was accepted both were fast and direct so if all else failed and they remained erratic they would at least fit what Klopp was attempting to do.
For us it's a question of trying to have an idea of what Ancelotti wants to do. To me its why I'm not as hung up on buying younger players.If Ancelotti required more intelligent, tactically flexible players, maybe some older players make sense if value can be sought. We are right to negotiate hard. I am seeing Arias and Allan linked, if we can get the pair for under £30m we are markedly improving two areas of the pitch for not an enormous sum of money.
