I think they got stung by Emnes though and are unlucky with both. Alves was a gamble, a quick check of his Wiki shows he's scored 14 in 11 for his new team.
Emnes had played at all Dutch national levels, so on paper you'd think a good investment, if not a bit pricey. Much like Didier Digard tbh.
Aye looking at Alves' Wiki, looks like the original team he joined didn't think he was up to much (3 in 15) and now they've loaned him out to a team doing worse in the league and he's scored 14 in 11. Gutter.
At the end of the day though they were both risks that flopped badly, so whoever did the scouting/negotiating should get flak for it. Apparently they got £7 million back for Alves though, so that's not too bad.