In the mid-table Premier League transfer market, all roads lead to England

Andre Ayew and Dimitri Payet prove mid-level clubs are scoring with transfer acquisitions from abroad while some of the top-tier sides were stagnant or just merely poached from their rivals, writes Richard Jolly.

Swansea City’s Andre Ayew, right, scores against Chelsea on Sunday. He was one of Marseille’s leading scorers before arriving at Liberty Stadium this summer. Mike Hewitt / AFP

Managerial departures on the opening day of the season are always dramatic.

Marcelo Bielsa seemed to borrow from his shock-and-awe on-field tactics when announcing his resignation at Marseille in France. The pressing game's advocate took the press by surprise.

Around the time the Argentine announced his exit, a cornerstone of his team that threatened to win last season’s Ligue 1 title was introducing himself to English, and Welsh, football.

Andre Ayew delivered Swansea City's first equaliser in their 2-2 draw at Chelsea. The Ghana international, who was Bielsa's second-highest scorer, arrived at the Liberty Stadium this summer.

Marseille to Swansea: it was the sort of transfer that, a few years ago, would have seemed possible only when football management simulation games parted company with reality.

Fewer than 24 hours later, another of Bielsa's disciples was helping to engineer another shock in London. Dimitri Payet took the free kick that Cheikhou Kouyate headed in for West Ham United's opening goal at Arsenal.

The France international midfielder showed the power and invention to suggest he will flourish in England.

The oft-quoted statistic is that he created more chances than anyone else in Europe’s top five leagues last season. And he left Marseille for West Ham.

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That is Marseille, the 1993 European Cup winners, nine-time Ligue 1 champions and the club with much the largest average attendance, nearly 53,000, in France.

Swansea and West Ham, in contrast, have never finished in the top two in the top flight. While Ayew arrived on a free transfer, both player moves are proof of the purchasing power of the Premier League’s middle class.

Incredibly lucrative television deals have given them an allure. Whoever props up the division this season will still receive around £100 million (Dh568.1m) from broadcasters, courtesy of a more equitable distribution of income than in other leagues.

The remarkable thing about Ayew and Payet is that, while each has the potential to be an outlier, an extraordinary coup, neither seems a one-off. Not when the influx of talent elsewhere is considered.

The French and Dutch leagues have suffered particularly at the hands of the acquisitive English, and not just because Aston Villa have bought in bulk from Ligue 1.

Yohan Cabaye may have lost his place in the Paris Saint-Germain team but a regular in the France squad might have been expected to find high-profile alternative employers in his homeland. Instead, he has become Crystal Palace’s record buy.

He scored on his debut. So did Georginio Wijnaldum, captain of PSV Eindhoven’s Eredivisie-winning team before joining a Newcastle United side who were almost relegated.

Aleksandar Mitrovic, arguably the most exciting striker in Belgium, is another Newcastle newcomer. Jeremain Lens left Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk for struggling Sunderland. Feyenoord captain Jordy Clasie has signed for Southampton.

These are players who may not quite be good enough to start for a top-four Premier League team but could have the ability to be squad members. Opting for first-team football elsewhere is a career choice for some.

As Payet and Ayew showed, they have the talent to trouble the best. It means meetings with their nominal inferiors are more perilous for the favourites.

The Premier League may be squeezed in a concertina effect. Even before dropping points to Swansea, Jose Mourinho already had predicted that this season’s champions would record a lower total than Chelsea’s 87 in May. The Portuguese spent Friday discussing how the Premier League clubs are failing to sign the genuine superstars, citing Lionel Messi and Thomas Muller, and an examination of the supposed superpowers’ dealings suggests as much.

Chelsea are yet to sign a player to strengthen their first 11. Arsenal and Manchester City’s biggest buys, Petr Cech and Raheem Sterling, came from domestic rivals.

That leaves only Manchester United and Memphis Depay is another of the Netherlands exodus while Bastian Schweinsteiger, much the most glamorous addition, might still be at Bayern but for his injury problems. United are English football's biggest spenders this summer, albeit while selling their unsettled galactico Angel di Maria, but the eventual verdict may be that the best buyers were the mid-table managers, plucking the premier players from seemingly more prestigious clubs abroad.

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