The problem is we could buy 1 million Sigurdssons and we'd know that none of them would ever take us up a notch. Potential is a risk but potentially great as to be better than a safe good but not quite good enough.
Liverpools front 4 cost about 2 and a bit Sigurdssons. We have to buy potential because what we can get that's proven isn't good enough
What we did with Sigurdsson is basically exactly what they do.
Buy peak age proven attackers from the big leagues and play a premium.
Buying potential would have been Salah before Chelsea, Mane before Southampton and Firminho before whoever he was at in Germany. None of them were risks in the slightest.
Only potential they bought was coutinho and they still bought him from inter, and it was years ago so clearly not part of the same strategy.
We did the same thing, we just have to buy worse players because nobody wants to come to Everton. We paid so much more because of the inflation of the last window, and Swansea has our kecks down.