SouthDownsRoyal The Brentford model is a good one and would be nice if we adopted similar.
They’ve done well but it’s also by no means a guaranteed model that works forever, although they do very well scouting and buying players an they need at good prices no one can ever know you buy a player for X million and he will be good for your club then you sell him for X million more job done.
If it was that easy loads of clubs would be doing it.
I think half the problem is that a most clubs don't even try. They see clubs throwing money about and having success, and therefore seem to think throwing money about is the way to go about it. This is probably especially true for owners who see "gambling on getting promoted" as a worthwhile bet.
When clubs go down the cheaper route, it's usually through necessity.
It certainly isn't easy. You need a good scouting network, and well as a management structure that knows the kind of players a club needs, who will fit into a manager's desired style of play. Recruitment has been terrible at Reading for years, and if we decided to go for the cheaper option with our current set-up, it would just result in us buying a string a cheap Portuguese players.