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By Grey Whitebloom Fans, managers and club executives fall for it every other year. In a summer graced by an international tournament, the players that light up the competition invariably command moves that would have seemed incomprehensible a few weeks earlier. Even Manchester United’s legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson has succumbed to the hype. “I was always wary of buying players on the back of good tournament performances,” said the man who signed Karol Poborsky after Euro ’96. “Sometimes, players get themselves motivated and prepared for World Cups and European Championships and, after …

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