My verdict on last season’s signings and the foreign versus domestic signings debate

Last season saw an increase in team’s dipping into the foreign market amid claims that it was the most successful way to go. Whilst team’s such as Arsenal have often done the bulk of their shopping abroad it is quite a new thing for team’s lower down the league but Swansea, Wigan and Newcastle have all dipped into the foreign markets in recent years whilst Aston Villa have shown in the last couple of years that they are heading down this route increasingly under Paul Lambert. The argument is you get more value abroad, the stats from last season I have compounded from last season show overall there is a marginal difference, with plenty of bargains still available in the English game. However, only 3 out of 7 of the Domestic big price transfers (over £10 million)  I have viewed as a hit compared to 9 of the 11 in the foreign list suggesting that when you are looking for the very best, it is often best to look abroad. This has been proven by Manchester City in recent years as few will argue that the likes of Joleon Lescott, James Milner and Jack Rodwell have not lived up to the value offered by David Silva and Yaya Toure despite being signed for similar prices. Gary Neville criticised Newcastle’s approach in buying French players, suggesting more English players were needed in their squad but history shows that it is not necessary to have English players to be successful as shown by Arsenal’s title winning squads. Nevertheless, it is important to ensure that there are some more experienced heads in the squad to help young players and new arrivals to the premier league. Both Aston Villa and Newcastle were seen by pundits to be lacking this premier league experience and this did not help their respective attempts to avoid relegation.

domestic transfers summer 2012 (in the interest of fairness I have admitted players aged 21 or under who played less than 10 league games)

Santi Cazorla (Malaga, £16.5m)- hit

 Olivier Giroud (Montpellier, £13m)- hit

Lukas Podoloski (Cologne, £11m)- hit

Ron Vlaar (Feyenoord, £3m) hit

Karim El Ahmadi (Feyenoord, £2m) miss

Brett Holman (AZ Alkmaar, free), miss

Christian Benteke (Genk, £7m) hit

Eden Hazard (Lille, £32m) hit

Oscar (Internacional, £25m) hit

Marko Marin (Werder Bremen, £7m) miss

Cesar Azpilicueta (Marseille, £7m) hit

Steven Naismith (Rangers, free) hit

 Kevin Mirallas (Olympiakos, £5.2m) hit

 Bryan Oviedo (FC Copenhagen, £5m), miss

Mladen Petric (Hamburg, free) hit

Ashkan Dejagah (Wolsfburg, £2m) hit

Fabio Borini (Roma, £7m) hit

Maicon (Inter Milan, £5.5m), miss

Matija Nastasic (Fiorentina, £12m), hit

Javi Garcia (Benfica, £16m) miss

Shinji Kagawa (Dortmund, £17m), miss

Alexander Buttner (Vitesse Arnhem, £4m) hit

Vurnon Anita (Ajax, £6.7m) hit

Romain Amalfitano (Reims, free) miss

Steven Whittaker (Rangers, free), hit

 Alexander Tettey (Rennes, £1.25M), hit

Samba Diakite (Nancy, £4m), miss

Esteban Granero (Real Madrid, £9m),miss

 Stephane Mbia (Marseille, £6m) miss

Maya Yoshida (VVV-Venlo, £2M) hit

, Gaston Ramirez (Bologna, £10M) hit

Emmanuel Mayuka (Young Boys Berne, £3M) miss

Steven Davis (Rangers, free),hit

, Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo, £2.3m), hit

Jamie Ness (Rangers, free) miss

Maurice Edu (Rangers, £4m), miss

Michu (Rayo Vallecano, £2m),hit

 Jose Manuel Flores (Genoa, £2m), hit

 Pablo Hernandez (Valencia, £5.55m) hit

Jan Vertonghen (Ajax, £10m), hit

Gylfi Sigurdsson (Hoffenheim, £8m),hit

 Hugo Lloris (Lyon, £13m), hit

Markus Rosenberg (Werder Bremen, free), miss

Claudio Yacob (Racing Club de Avellaneda, free) hit

Modibo Maiga (Sochaux, £5m), miss

Alou Diarra (Marseille, £2m), miss

Arouna Kone (Levante, £3m), hit

Ivan Ramis (Real Mallorca, £4.5m),hit

31/48- 64.58% success rate

Domestic transfers summer 2012 (in the interest of fairness I have admitted players aged 21 or under who played less than 10 league games)

Matthew Lowton (Sheffield United, £3m)- hit

Joe Bennett (Middlesbrough, £2.5m) hit

Ashley Westwood (Crewe, £2million) hit

Victor Moses (Wigan, £9m), hit

Steven Pienaar (Tottenham, £4.5m), hit

Hugo Rodallega (Wigan, free), hit

 Kieran Richardson (Sunderland, undisclosed), miss

 Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United, £5m), hit

Joe Allen (Swansea, £15m), miss

Jack Rodwell (Everton, £12m), miss

 Scott Sinclair (Swansea, £8m) miss

Richard Wright (PNE, Free) unfair to judge

Robin van Persie (Arsenal, £24m) hit

Gael Bigirimana (Coventry, £1.5M) hit

Sebastian Bassong (Tottenham, £3m), hit

Robert Snodgrass (Leeds, £3m) hit

 Michael Turner (Sunderland, £1.5m), hit

 Jacob Butterfield (Barnsley, £1.6m), miss

Mark Bunn (Blackburn, £1.5m) hit

Junior Hoilett (Blackburn, £3m), miss

Park Ji-sung (Manchester United, £5m), miss

 Robert Green (West Ham, free), miss

Ryan Nelsen (Tottenham, free), hit

Andrew Johnson (Fulham, free), unfair to judge

Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea, free) miss

Chris Gunter (Nottingham Forest, £2.5m), miss

Adrian Mariappa (Watford, £2.5m), miss

 Pavel Pogrebnyak (Fulham, free), miss

 Danny Guthrie (Newcastle, free), hit

Garath McCleary (Nottingham Forest, free) hit

Nicky Shorey (West Brom, free) hit

 Stuart Taylor (Manchester City, free) unfair to judge

, Jay Rodriguez (Burnley, £6m), hit

Nathaniel Clyne (Crystal Palace, £3m), hit

 Michael Kightly (Wolves, £2m) hit

Charlie Adam (Liverpool, £4m) miss

 Steven Nzonzi (Blackburn, £3.5m) hit

Louis Saha (Tottenham, free) miss

Carlos Cuellar (Aston Villa, free) hit

Steven Fletcher (Wolves, £15m) hit

 Adam Johnson (Manchester City £10m) miss

Mousa Dembele (Fulham, £15m), hit

Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City, £5m),miss

 Clint Dempsey (Fulham, £6m) hit

Ben Foster (Birmingham, £2m),hit

Matt Jarvis (Wolves, £10.75m), miss

 James Collins (Aston Villa, £3m),  hit

Stephen Henderson (Portsmouth, £1m),  unfair to judge

George McCartney (Sunderland, £1m), hit

) Jussi Jaaskelainen (Bolton, free), hit

Mohamed Diame (Wigan, free), hit

29/47- 61.7% unfair to judge 4

I expect the amount of spending on foreign players to increase dramatically due to the new TV deal which gives premier league teams an even bigger financial advantage on the rest of Europe. For the first time I expect that more players will be signed from abroad than from other domestic clubs. So far this summer 46 players have been signed from foreign teams compared to 22 from domestic clubs proving the point that so far premier league clubs are exercising their increased financial muscle. Whilst some of these players are youngsters who will not be involved in first team premier league action, it proves that premier league clubs believe they can get an enhanced value abroad next season.