Paying the ‘English premium’ is never a good idea, but clubs keep making the same mistake

A lot of this is driven by the media. Most transfer mishaps that are retold involve overseas players. Somehow, that they are foreign means their failure is more obvious. ‘Of course they were going to fail, they’re not English’. But for every Shevchenko or Veron, there is a Downing, Bentley or Jeffers. It attracts less criticism to sign a player the fans have heard of. Cardiff fans know Tom Ince. They know what he can do as he has done it right under their noses.

However, a quick look to Italy sees Juan Quintero starring for Pescara and available for the same money, if not less. If Ince fails though, it is because of the wider malaise in English football. If Quintero failed, it would be because Cardiff took too big a risk in signing an overseas player. Or so the common misconception goes.

Of course, this sort of thinking doesn’t infect everyone, just the teams with an inefficient transfer policy. It’s never a good idea for anyone other the very rich clubs to sign a player for far more than they are worth, simply because of the name on the back. Cardiff evidently want Tom Ince and are willing to pay. But they are paying far too much money compared to what they could find elsewhere. Is there really no player in the £3-4m in range in Holland, for example? PSV are about to spend £7m on the massively superior Adam Maher, and he is considered the cream of the Dutch crop.

The vastly superior and experienced Adam Maher cost lesser than Ince

The likes of Swansea, West Brom and, before last season, Newcastle, have all found success down a different route. They have carefully scouted Spain, the Benelux and France respectively and found incredible value. In order to get yourself above the log jam at the bottom of the Premier League, you need to be innovative, or just fairly clever in the market, and you will see a noticeable upturn in your fortunes. Teams that ignore that (Stoke, Sunderland, even West Ham to a degree) have found themselves below where they should be considering the amount of money they spend.

Tom Ince is a good player, but made to look better by the dearth of English talent. Being the star man in England’s youth set up is not the same as being the star of Spain’s. For a club to be willing to pay £8m for a young player with only one good season, in the second tier at that, on his CV is a huge risk and shows why you can’t buy British unless you can afford to easily replace them. Liverpool’s mistakes have set them back about 5 years.