Before dealing with the question asked in the title, I should say that, if some of the things said about our wage budget for this season are true, then we would never have been able to offer some of the players we were linked with last month a deal which would have tempted them and also I'm sure there were those who did not fancy coming here to be involved in a relegation scrap.

However, preferring Bournemouth's style of play was mentioned as one of the reasons for Nathaniel Clyne backing out of the loan move here that had been agreed early in the window. Similarly, I would have thought that every one who has played professional football first decided to make it their career because of the excitement that they had as a kid when they had the ball at their feet together with the sense of achievement they had at what they managed to do with it when they did. Therefore, even to most hardened pros, I'm confident that I'm right when I say that, given a choice, most players would prefer not to be in a team that plays the percentages as much as we do, is out of possession as much as we are and places such defensive responsibilities on naturally attacking players like we do with our wingers.

it certainly looks as if we set great emphasis on the French market during the window which has just closed and it should never be forgotten that we did manage to entice a player based in that country here for a club record fee, but all of the indications were that he was someone who suited our way of playing - he was acknowledged as someone who was not the most naturally gifted (a scruffy player as our manager called him), but he had made the most of what he had and Cardiff looked a good fit for him.

Apart from Emiliano Sala though, our preoccupation with France over the past month has to be seen as a failure with none of the multitude of players linked with us seemingly coming remotely close to choosing us except for Adrien Tameze.

Of course, I cannot claim that they all didn't fancy Cardiff because of the way we play, but I would say that traditionally French sportsmen and women are expected to play their game in a way that has flair and an attacking outlook to the fore. I'm not saying that French footballers lack discipline, but I think that desire to want the ball and keep the ball is more strongly embedded in their DNA than it is in footballers from some other countries.

That said, my suspicion is that most footballers, no matter where they are from, who are wanted by a couple of clubs of similar standing that are offering similar financial rewards and are based in a similar part of the world would be instinctively drawn to the one that plays in a more "attractive" manner where they are given a greater licence to express themselves - do you reckon I'm right in thinking that?