I think time will tell. Ritchie is a proven class act and inn today's market his value was probably about right. Hanley is only proven at championship level but he's captain of Scotland so must be a leader. The others I'm not sure on yet. We should have a clearer view by mid season. Ultimately, if we come back up and make a profit on the transfer dealings (gini plus moussa ) it will be money well spent.
Both! All prices are now over inflated with the extra money in the Premier League, and this spills over into the Championship now. With parachute payments, combined with teams willing to spend big to make the step up, you pretty much have to try and buy as close to Premier League quality as you can get. Championship clubs will never attract world class players, but the ones serious about challenging for promotion need to be competing for the players that Premier League teams would like as squad players. There will be far more teams spending to get promoted than there are promotion places. Like Albert said though, whether they are quality will be found out in time, but no more than would be the case for Premier League signings too.
Or Sunderland "no players for a nothing team"? I'm iffy about our dealings - Gayle may come good but the price was crazy - but I'd be bricking it as a Sunderland fan. Time will tell, Moyes must have some ideas.
This is exactly where teams need to be careful, yes we need to build a team to make sure we go but what happens if you know a player isn't good enough for the Premier League.
When Keegan gained promotion back in the 1990's our two and then three key strikers were David Kelly, Gavin Peacock and then Andy Cole. Kelly and Peacock were sold, with thanks, pretty quickly after promotion was secured. I expect the same again with one or two of our buys this time round. That's football.
You're just not quite sure who the equivalent of Kelly and Peacock are this time around. We've certainly already sold our best 2 players in Wijnaldum and Townsend which is disappointing but who will step up this time around? Perez and Gayle?
There's always one surprise package that comes from nowhere when a team is successful. All I'll say is that I've given up pizzas in the last couple of weeks...
Do you mean players we are buying to play in the championship, or players we're buying from championship clubs? Our 2 big signings have been regular premiership players that could have easily gone to other premiership clubs, so with prem prices going mad, this is to be expected. The only player we've bought this far from a champ club is Hanley, and seeing he was their captain and Scotland captain, he wasn't going to be cheap, but I think the price was reasonable in the end. If we end up paying £10m for Knockeart, it's a sign that things are getting out of hand...however I hope we do buy him, he looks brilliant and it'll be a big blow for Brighton and make them less of a threat. Can't imagine a championship club has ever spent this big, basically we're spending like a Prem club, which is what we've gotta do if we're gonna get out at 1st attempt.
Horses for courses. We buy players somewhere between Championship and PL quality. Most will be able to make the step up to play some part in a PL squad (perhaps not as starters). I'd imagine Rafa sees Sels, Hayden, Ritchie as players who could play fairly regular in the PL. He probably sees Hanley, Gayle, Gamez as players who could form part of a PL squad. If we could add say Hughes and Knockeart they would add to those could play fairly regular. Essentially we appear to be doing everything right in buying players a bit better than the division we're in. Rafa certainly has no excuses for failure as he is getting his own way on everything. Which is very strange. Sunderland are rocking a little once again. New season, new manager - one who has been a bit of a failure overall aside from his time at Everton. I actually think they've dodged a bullet with Allardyce. Better they are left with the memories they have of his short spell. Remember they've done this before - his win percentage was probably no better than someone like Poyet or O'Neill but that all turned sour. Generally Sam ends up being hated by most clubs he manages bar maybe Bolton. He always defends himself by saying they always go downhill after he leaves, but the thing he misses is the lack of enjoyment he brought to them clubs. He thinks its all about league position - to most fans, whether they realise it or not, the most important thing is actually enjoying watching and supporting your team. Sunderland will have to hope they don't get worse without him mind or we will be like ships in the night if we get promoted At least Moyes has quite a bit to prove, he'll be nothing if not motivated. Again though its another manager who doesn't seem to understand enjoyment of football. The one thing Allardyce has done is left them with a good nucleus if M'Vila signs back on. Him, Kone (if he stays) and Kirchoff are the best players to play for Sunderland in quite a while. That's three players in massively key areas to build a team around. Goals is once again the issue though. They are completely reliant on Defoe once again - he isn't getting any younger and normal career progression suggests he'll pick up more injuries. Although my mackem mates assure me Watmore is ready to step up and they have some Swedish youngster who will surprise this season. They need players though. Overall I think we have a lot to look forward to this season. Things are less certain down the road in a tougher division where you need a higher quality of player, but potentially if Moyes can get it right, they might actually have a season where relegation is not a constant concern. At present the smart money says it will be but you never know.
The recruitment has been pretty decent from us I think. As has been said we seem to be picking up top level Champ players and mid table PL squad players who should be enough to get us straight back up but we still need to add a few more in as the number of games we will be playing requires the additional squad depth. As for the Mackems, I reckon Moyes will do alright for them. A steady manager who focuses on the basics. I'd expect them to get quite a few draws this season but agree they could do with some more firepower (unless of course Watmore and this Swedish lad live up to expectations.)