Maybe Bates had a deal with the French teams for us to train Gradel until he was good enough and then give them to them, hence the undisclosed fee, we got NOTHING. BATES OUT!!!!

You'd trust Bates with scouting?!?

Also, unless they're being released, he can't afford any.

The thing with France
You either have world class players playing there.
Or cr@p players.
There is no inbetween.

London, he would be brilliant at it, he's never wrong on anything.

I was being a tongue in cheek with my comment, just want us to have a look outside of the uk again. Apart from clubless Finns it's been a while...

We got Becchio from Spain. The thing is the club has to be sure it will work. They don't want to have to go to all the effect of getting the player on trials, move to the country, they'll help him get settled etc. just for him to be a failure. If they were to get players that might be "ok" then they're risking it because if they're form falls then it was a waste of time, but if they get a really good player, if their form falls they're usually still good, like Becchio.

Anti- all points agreed, however it seems foreign players are cheaper because of the risks and relocation costs.

We've got O'Dea!