God, to that wider point the last thing I'd EVER do is buy someone off the back of a good tournament the summer he's invariably trying to sell himself in. Too many countless examples of too many clubs getting burned like that. Two instantly spring to mind personally. Back in '94, we unbelievably got into a bidding war with Tottenham for Phil Babb off the back of him playing superbly that WC. Most notably the opener against Italy when he completely marked Signori out the game. That fee was a British record for a defender at the time, £3.6 million. Coventry must of been ******* themselves as he was NOTHING like that. Then there's that absolute low life POS El Hadji Diouf, who we not only shelled out £10 million for after his showing in Korea (by Houllier's own admission he'd been watching him at Lens but thought he'd elevated to top bracket that tournament), but compounded it by buying his equally ***** mate Diao to keep him happy! Oh yeah, and costing us a true WC talent in Anelka who Gerrard went back on his promise to and **** all over!
Simple rule of thumb when it comes to International tournaments:
NEVER bet against the Germans or Italians.
NEVER buy somebody off a good showing over a few games the summer.