We bought Martial 6 years ago for 36 mil pounds, rising to 58 mil, and he was 19 and no one had ever heard of him.
1. Martial scored 9 goals in a top 5 league and played for France U21 NT. He was well known as one of the top talents in europe.
Sesko scored 5 for the dominating team in a weak league. Martial was more than one step ahead compared to Sesko now.
2. Even though Martial was a much more finished product, this example shows very accurately why you shouldn't break the bank for an unproven prospect.
He's still here but I wouldn't call it a love story. And his fee was undoubtedly way too high.
Instead of overpaying for talent that others have found, why not invest in our own scouting?
Salzburg didn't actually pay loads for their team full of talents, they discovered them all over the world. I know United is a bigger step but they could easily be loaned out. PSG has a huge army of talents across their league and can collect one or two of them for free every year. Look at Ekitike or Kalimuendo, we would speak about 100+ million if we wanted to sign them.
We used to be good at this, more at development rather than scouting, but that's even better I guess.
It feels like all we produce now is a level below, league average max.