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#1 Cut-throat Premier League
The other problem English clubs find is that the Premier League is a division that is on a tightrope.
It is fine for the top six to operate in this free-spending way, given they have no real possibility of being relegated, but for the other 14 teams, there is always a chance of one big mistake and they are in a scrap to stay up.
Everton are a prime example of this. They brought in nine new players over the summer and are currently in 15th place. The Toffees are suffering because of poor recruitment.
Gino Pozzo, the owner of Watford, has been a pioneer of South American football for decades.
His strategy of buying straight from the source and then loaning them out to other European clubs, including Udinese in Italy, to build up their experience and confidence has been adopted by the City Football Group, who own Manchester City.
Last summer, the Citizens bought a relatively unknown player called Douglas Luiz for €12m from Brazilian side Vasco da Gama. The central midfielder has been shipped straight to Girona FC, who are now owned by City Football Group and Pep Guardiola’s brother and prolific agent, Pere Guardiola, to gain crucial experience of European football.
This move will be increasingly common for Premier League teams as they see the future success it has. Obviously, not every club can match City’s wealth in doing this, but for the cash-rich teams, it will be a strategy they soon follow.
As we have seen with Juan Foyth, formerly of Estudiantes, and Gabriel Jesus, formerly of Palmeiras, English clubs are opening their eyes to the vast wealth of talent in South America and importing the players directly, cutting out the middleman.
Over the course of the next decade, the trend of allowing these players to go to other European teams first will slowly decrease. English clubs now have incredible resources to scout in South America and will use that to their advantage. The precedent of Jesus’ impeccable start to life in Manchester will only add to this.
