Quote Originally Posted by FormerlyJohnnyBreadhead View Post
They were only pointless because they never played - whether they were an improvement on what we had is a totally different kettle of fish.

Eikrem and Berget are both established regulars and now Swedish champions with Malmo, and were regulars in the Champions League in their debut season; Berget also has a decent scoring record there. Burgstaller as mentioned has just signed for Schalke after scoring 34 goals in 70 games for Nurnburg - an excellent return for a midfield player. Javi Guerra has scored 20 in 50 in Spain, Idriss Saadi 10 in 20 in Belgium...you get the point. The evidence suggests that many of these players were an improvement on what we had; the key theme is that none of them ever got more than 5 minutes to show it.

It would really not surprise me if Emyr Huws proved to be the same; certainly in games I've seen him for Wales and Huddersfield there is no denying the talent.
I disagree with you on this, Eikrem and Berget may well be established in the Swedish premier league now. We were in the English premier league when we bought them and they were not an improvement on Medel, Mutch, Whitts, Gunnarsson, Campbell, Bellamy or Odemwingie. Take a look at who Palace and Hull were signing at the same time; Huddlestone, long, jelavic, ledley, Gayle, dann etc that kept them up.

I don't think we've got any regrettable attrition from players over that whole OGS time period?