British bargains - lack of value in British players

With just a month left of the summer transfer window, clubs are once again spending over the odds for British footballers. Andy Carroll's transfer from Newcastle to Liverpool was the perfect illustration of how British nationality (English even better) can vastly inflate a players transfer value. Steven Fletcher is the latest player to have been afflicted with this British premium; reports today suggested Sunderland were prepared to bid £12 million for the Scotland international.

Fletcher is clearly a handy striker. A strike ratio of 0.35 goals per game is not to be sniffed at whilst playing for relegation skirting Wolverhampton, but the stats in no way indicate he is worth £12 million. Players with this kind of goal-to-game ratio will retail for almost half of the £12 million Wolves hope to wring out of the Mackems, if they play in Ligue 1 or the Eredivisie.

Of course Premier League experience also makes players more desirable, but it also incrementally increases their price in the market. Joe Allen is the subject of reported interest from Liverpool, and manager Brendan Rodgers doesn't seem put off by the Jordan Henderson experiment and is likely to bid £15 million for the Welsh youngster.

Allen impressed in Swansea's first season in the Premier League, but he was dwarfed in midfield by Gylfi Sigurdsson, who joined Spurs for half of Allen's potential fee. Both players are 22, but the performances of the Iceland international were clearly superior in the last six months of the season, but it is Allen who looks set for the big-money switch this summer.

Home-grown rules mean clubs are keen to bring in British players, but Newcastle have shown that with some through scouting there are some diamonds to be found over on the continent. Are scouts losing financial backing in tough economic circumstances or are club owners less prepared to take a risk on someone without experience of the English top-flight? It's unlikely we'll find out, but here is my alternative XI you could assemble for less than the cost of one Joe Allen.


Playing 4-5-1:

Robert Green (Free, QPR)


Joao Pereira (£3.5 million, Valencia), Hedwiges Maduro (Free, Sevilla), Lucio (Free, Juventus), Joan Capdevila (€350,000, Espanyol)

Tranquillo Barnetta (Free, Schalke), Ricardo Montolivo (Free, AC Milan), Michu (£1.8 million, Swansea) Rasmus Elm (£4.8 million, CSKA), Sotiris Ninis (Free, Parma)

Mladen Petric (Free, Fulham)

Total: £8,650,000