I agree that there are many clubs who could pay more or could offer CL football to players that we would like to buy, but there actually aren't that many genuinely TOP clubs that they could go to:
1) for it to be an attractive proposition the club needs to be able to afford the transfer fee
2) the club needs to be able to afford the wages
3) the club needs to be offering regular CL football to justify a move
4) the club needs to have an existing base of quality players
5) the club would need to be playing in a good league
6) the club would need to have a vacancy for the player
7) the club would need to play to his style
8) is the club in a country or city that would appeal to the player?
Some examples:
-Madrid and barcelona could offer regular CL football to lavezzi/hulk/cavani but would they even get in their team?
-Apoel FC might be able to offer CL football but is it regular and could they afford them?
-PSG might be able to afford them but would they want to live in france and play in the french league?
If you filter out the CL teams that provide CL football but are in a poor league or couldn't afford the players or can't provide regular CL football, then the options massively diminish.
When it comes down to it there probably aren't that many clubs who fill all the above criteria at the time of a potential transfer. It's about 'ticking the boxes' and there aren't that many who do that most of the time. What this means is that we DO have a good chance of signing top players.
agree, we are a far bigger pull than people realise. Wages are a bit of an issue if we go head to head with Chelsea/City/Utd but generally we offer alot more than two of those. I like to think we should stick to a solid transfer policy though as what has been sold to us over the last year(youth, raw talent, prem ready). That said even the most rose tinted(i can be) fan will admit
currently our bang for buck has been average at best. Some winners in Suarez, Enrique, Bellamy, Coates but some duds in Downing, Adam, Carroll, with Henderson flirting with both sides.
The manager though regardless of opinion of his performance this season is a great asset in attracting players to the club. For all the criticism this surely is not a weakness.
