When these players with question marks around them become available, these are the questions to ask:
- Is he clearly better than our current options for that position? (thinking about current year, next year etc rather than how good he was in the past)
- Is there generally a shortage of talent in that position in SL?
- Is he early-mid 20s where there's a chance of maturing, or is he late 20s plus where patterns of behaviour are probably set?
- Is he likely to do something that will involve a lengthy ban or generally shame the club?
When we have the annual should we sign Gareth Hock thread, those questions will nail it dead in its tracks.
In the case of Westerman, the answers are: not really, no, late 20s, probably not. The answers to the first two make it not worth signing him.
If Zak Hardaker becomes available, the answers would be: yes, yes, late 20s, potentially yes. So it would depend there whether the answers to the first two outweighed the last one.