The thing we all (me included) need to get our head around, is that we have a very limited budget and many holes to fill, so paying that kind of money for a player will be the norm for us. There is no point in me (for example) talking up the Dortmund financial model (buy cheap to sell high to generate bigger transfer funds), if I am then going to dismiss buying a player for £10m as it is beneath us Reality is that is the transfer level we are going to be operating in and we are gonna have to get used to it. Maybe I would be happier if Mislintat was making these purchases cos he has history of making some excellent cheap signings at Dortmund, plus we signed sokratis, torreira and the dozi for cheap money last summer and they have all turned out all right.
As I said many times previously, our income from player sales this summer will not be great cos the players are shite, so selling to generate funds is a commendable plan/notion, but it wont apply here UNLESS we sell one of our strikers - it isn't that I would want to sell either of our strikers but more that I see it being a necessity unless dick is given proper funds to spend, and there is no point of having 2 quality strikers up one end of the pitch if the defence is leaking goals all over the place at the other end. Right now if I was told that we could sell auba (for £70m-£80m) and replace him with dembele (lyon striker) AND either umtiti (barca centre back) or Tierney (celtic left full), then I would say that would be an excellent piece of business cos our team would be stronger as a result. That is the mindset that served Dortmund so well over the years, but it requires patience from fans cos it isn't an overnight project that's for sure