I think we’ll continue as has been the case before. Analytics in America was often used to find value. Some numbers were initially undervalued, then as things evolved those things would become overvalued and the evolution would lead to trying to find value in other areas.
You could argue that initially signing players from within the premier league/PL experienced at a good age was an undervalued area. We managed to get Mane, Gini, Mo and Robbo all for great value and exploited that. Then the English sides got richer and it’s much more challenging to find that same sort of value unless a player has a clause like Mac Allister. So we then look to other markets to find value and that’s led us to Netherlands, Portugal and Germany for some of our most recent large outlays. All the while along we’ve been exploiting the market of players around the age of 16 to fill our academy with talented lads for minimal fees. They’re more of an unknown, but any risk on potential is mitigated by how little they’ve cost. It now looks like FSG will be trying to compliment what we’re doing here with a second club abroad. It’s hard to see that as anything other than a project to develop talent for the transfer market/parent club.
I can’t see heaps changing from an approach perspective, I can’t see us suddenly taking greater risks or paying way above our valuation like Chelsea have. I think they’ll look to have a squad of around 20 senior players max with the rest being made up of academy players the coaching staff think can contribute. I just hope that within that 20 we don’t enter seasons where absolute certs for the treatment table are factored in and relied upon like in the past. Decisions on the likes of Ox and Keita were far too optimistic, adding a player like Thiago to that list was silly really even if your glass is three quarters full.
The great thing with the emergence of young talent is we might be able to aim for “transformers” in the key windows as the younger players should add proper depth to the squad, enabling us to invest the majority of our budget into potentially elite players.