He may not have been hidden, but I feel Eric Bailly was somewhat under the radar
Bailly?
Martial, Bailly.
People don't follow teams like Monaco and Villareal that are constantly in European competitions? I dunno, I constantly watch Villareal specifically. Monaco mostly in the CL. They had a good run the season Martial was bought.
Recognition is the whole idea of it though. I wouldn't have included Martial since he was still very highly rated. Bailly wasn't as universally rated or known. Maybe a Villareal fan or someone who insists on watching loads of Villareal games especially could say that he was a top talent to watch but you could say something similar about someone who just watches Villa the whole time. I thought Gueye was their only good player last season personally and I thought he was a good signing for Everton as soon as I heard about it. At the same time, he doesn't have international recognition and I think that's pretty similar to Bailly and maybe to a lesser extent Martial, though I do feel he was a lot higher rated than most seem to think before we signed him. Renato was very highly rated before he was signed so that definitely shouldn't qualify imo.
Pretty sure he must have been a Walsh target.
So promoting someone like Rashford from our academy is not unearthing hidden gems? Having a great talents in the academy is not guaranteed they would always make into the first team, seeing how many talents had moved away from big clubs before making their names in other clubs nowadays, nothing would be taken for granted. I would humbly take Rashford over Kante, Alli, Gueye...
Nah. I mean signings made for low fees who aren't obvious names that surprise people with how good they are. Like Chicharito or Vidic. Both relative unknowns to PL fans but also very cheap. Martial and Bailey are fairly big buys.
As would I. But I'm talking something else entirely. Nothing beats a youth product making it. But it would be nice to have some cheap "punts" becoming big players for us too.
It's amazing how Leicester hit the jackpot. Mahrez cost them less than 1 million!
Oh, right. What do you think of Gueye anyway? And did he play when McCarthy was fit?
Tbf we got Zlatan for free. His character alone is worth the punt. Then commercial value, then perhaps on pitch performance follows... Many people seeing him failed in PL at this stage of career so he's like a surprise success. Early days though.
Obviously he didn't have the best of seasons last year but even someone like Roy Keane was relegated. I think he was highly rated from his time in France I have read also.
I think it'd be impossible for us to get a "cheap" player these days. As soon as they see Manchester United are interested, they inflate the price.
Roy Keane got relegated with Forest. Football is 11 vs 11 not 1 vs 11.
That won't happen again for us. Our interest alone these days is enough to justify a big fee, almost regardless of who the player is. But in every other sense Bailly is just as 'out of nowhere' as Evra or Vidic. Sure, Villarreal are hardly minnows, but I'm not sure his name had ever been mentioned on here before we signed him, and in a forum full of sofa scouts that's quite something.
I wasnt really being serious but yes good point about Keano.
