Also, JoeDiego getting his awful posting game on early this year. I like the dedication.

I think Man City are the great unknown quantity and their transfer deals will tell us a lot about them. We all know (or should know) that Arsenal won't be putting forward a proper challenge until they sack Wenger.

My wish list is:

Lloris (should DDG go)
Clyne/Coleman
Schneiderlin
Kane/Lukaku

Not interested in signing any player that hasn't kicked a ball in the Prem, no matter how vaunted they are they're basically a coin flip to be a success.

We don't need CBs either (though I won't protest a signing); a fit Smalling-Evans-Jones trifecta is more than is needed in that position for PL success, the era of the team leading CB is dead.

We certainly won't be 2nd favs if your wish(list) comes true. Lukaku? You're kidding right?

Sack wenger. Lukaku/kane...smalling-evans-jones

Btw my early early prediction for the EPL thread- JD talking a huge game, disappearing around March-April along with Utd's title/cup hopes

Way to go out on a limb there MF

Alright, I'll use the JD tactics now.

If you're so convinced united are second favourites, I'll offer you 4/1. Too good to refuse right?

No one cares about the OP after two pages tbh, just edit the thread title and maybe slap a poll on this one.

I lol'ed

Drogba, Hazard, Oscar,Willian, Costa, list too laborious to type out, Chelsea running really hot at flips.

Our biggest ever flop had kicked a ball in the EPL.

It shouldnt really been surprising that the team with the best squad is one that's running hot on transfer flips. To win stuff you need to run hot too.

Dont shove your chips in with JD.

The point is that buying talent from abroad is not the flip JD claims it is.

lol

FU JD.

my "lolcasualfan" moment of the day:
"cech will get arsenal an additional 10 points"

Chelsea definitely running good on overseas flips lately but they have some serious making up to do for Smertin, Mutu, Crespo, Kezman, Del Horno, Shevchenko, Boulahrouz, Deco, Bosingwa, Zhirkov and Luiz.

I'm pretty sure £25m Oscar will end up in that camp.

#coinflipping

So JoeJoe are you giving me 4/1 on United top two?

How would Oscar all of a sudden flop?

I don't think Oscar is a confirmed success at this point...

Crespo was elite for LOLSEA

~10 NPGs & 10 assists / year at 21-23 as an attacking mid in a Mourinho team is fine with me

bought for 25m, could almost certainly sell for a profit if they wanted

You forgot Bogarde, Casiraghi and Laudrup.

soo... is the hit rate on players signed from the PL better than 50%?

It's an Abramovich list

Good question, gonna do all the Fergie signings now.

I'm just choosing S for success or F for fail, no middle ground. I am not listing players that were signed from lower divisions like Zaha, Greening, Powell etc to make it fairer for the foreign signings.

Fergie signings that had previous top division English football experience:

Viv Anderson - S
Mark Hughes - S
Mal Donaghy - S
Ralph Milne - F
Mike Phelan - S
Neil Webb - F
Gary Pallister - S
Paul Ince - S
Danny Wallace - F
Les Sealey - F
Denis Irwin - S
Paul Parker - S
Eric Cantona - S
Roy Keane - S
David May - F
Andy Cole - S
Teddy Sheringham - S
Henning Berg - F
Dwight Yorke - S
Mark Bosnich - F
Rio Ferdinand - S
Louis Saha - S
Alan Smith - F
Wayne Rooney - S
Edwin Van Der Sar - S
Michael Carrick - S
Tomasz Kuszczak - F
Carlos Tevez - S
Dmitar Berbatov - F
Antonio Valencia - S
Michael Owen - F
Chris Smalling - S
Phil Jones - S
Ashley Young - S
Robin Van Persie - S

24/35 = 68% success rate for players with previous top division English experience.

Players signed without prior Prem experience (not including lower English leagues and youth players like Djordic/Possebon/Da Silvas etc):

Brian McClair - S
Jim Leighton - F
Andrei Kanchelskis - S
Peter Schmeichel - S
Raimond Van Der Gouw - F
Ronny Johnsen - S
Karel Poborsky - F
Jordi Cruyff - F
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - S
Jaap Stam - S
Jesper Blomqvist - F
Quentin Fortune - F
Massimo Taibi - F
Mikael Silvestre - S
Fabian Barthez - F
Ruud Van Nistelrooy - S
Juan Sebastian Veron - F
Laurent Blanc - F
Diego Forlan - F
Ricardo Lopez - F
Eric Djemba-Djemba - F
Tim Howard - F
Cristiano Ronaldo - S
Kleberson - F
Gabriel Heinze - S
Liam Miller - F
Nemanja Vidic - S
Patrice Evra - S
Park Ji-Sung - S
Owen Hargreaves - F
Anderson - F
Nani - S
Gabriel Obertan - F
Mame Biram Diouf - F
Bebe - F
Javier Hernandez - S
Anders Lindegaard - F
David De Gea - S
Shinji Kagawa - F

16/39 = 41% success rate...

Conclusion - Buying players with no previous Prem experience is a -EV proposition in the long run.