Yes I’d say it’s the players we’ve bought rather than the type.
I don’t think we’d get Firmino, Salah, Mane (the same way they didn’t get Willian, Sanchez etc).
If we’re moving down a level from that type of player we’re signing either worse players from those league or players from worse leagues which are more risky.
But we’ve signed a good number of players 24 and under.
Yeah I thought that while writing tbh.
I suppose the Adeniran’s and Lookmans of this world could be seen as the Sterling’s and Delle Alli’s.
Guess it comes down to what you say, we can’t buy those players that have proven themselves and more often than not we won’t get the undiscovered talent without superior scouting or superior wage offerings and we generally won’t have either.
The expensive gambles we take - N’Zonzi, Sigurdsson, Tosun - must be a case of, well we’re not going to get the ones we want, and we have a pressing need for a player. Sigurdsson arguably the best playmaker outside the top 6 that we could feasibly get, N’Zonzi the manager’s fancy, and Tosun is maybe walshy’s work in an unfancied League.
I know what bluedylan is saying and I do agree with the constant criticisms of evertons scouting within the data community, but I can’t help but hope for the best.