Gregor Paul: Costly buy to enthuse the Blues

Classy Nick Evans was allowed to leave the Blues. Photo / Getty Images

Having finally realised the transfer market is their best route to salvation, the Blues have decided not to muck around.

There has been no gentle dipping of the toe - instead, close to $400,000 has been plonked on Dan Carter's table. That's a huge price tag, but worth every cent.

One signing does not a team make, except if it's Carter. The 27-year-old could just be the man that transforms the perennial bunglers into the franchise they should always have been.

This is a competition that is all about the No 10. If the Blues have the best one there is, they will automatically become genuine contenders. Not the faux contenders they so often are; fancied because of the explosive power of some erratic individuals.

Carter could be the breakthrough signing that ushers dramatic change on many fronts. Obviously the Blues will instantly become a better team for his presence.

He and Luke McAlister present a formidable pairing in the five eighths while Isaia Toeava could really fulfil his superstar billing playing at centre or fullback outside those two.

But Carter will do more than that. What's become apparent in the last few weeks is that the Blues are not an "aspiration" franchise.

No one, it seems, is coming through the system with the specific intention of making it to the Blues. Even the players in the greater Auckland region have limited affection for their home team. They covet professional contracts ahead of local representation. Anywhere will do.

Secretly, it's the Crusaders that the best Aucklanders want to play for. That's the team they want to crack.

It's a rotten state of affairs but the Blues have only their muddled thinking to blame. They are the antithesis of the Crusaders; there has been no unity of vision that has served as a guiding path; there has been no mantra to serve as a foundation principle and there has been no recognised, defined "Blues way" of doing things.

The Blues have been held hostage to internal politics for so long that players with ambition can smell the dysfunction. In the last few weeks, Blues chief executive Andy Dalton has been feverishly working to bring some other new talent on board. It has been a hard sell. An impossible sell, even.

The legacy of bombed campaigns is not a drawcard. But it is not results alone that are drawing polite rejections.

The sad truth is that this is a franchise in which few now believe. Everyone involved has become conditioned to failure. There is uncertainty over the future of the coaching and there will be a few players who under-performed this season not involved next.

The Blues have decided to buy their way out of trouble. But the most promising talent in this country - Victor Vito, Colin Slade, Bryn Evans, Owen Franks and Ryan Crotty - have all thrived this year. They are in environments that work for them. Right now, they are not interested in the Blues.

They can't be blamed for that. When they look at the Blues what must they think when they see Shane Howarth appointed assistant coach one year, under pressure to be dumped the next?

Some might even wonder why it has taken so long for the Blues to get in contact in the first place. Everyone knows - how could they not? - that the Blues have not had a first five around whom they could build a team since they callously cast aside Carlos Spencer in 2005.

Nick Evans, a class act, a genuine All Black with the skill-set to deliver success, arrived in 2008 with just one year left to run on his New Zealand contract.

The Blues can convince themselves that Evans left for London as a consequence of learning his All Black opportunities would forever be limited by the presence of Carter. They have to ask, though, would Evans have beat such a hasty retreat if he felt something for the franchise?

The problems have been just as obvious at No 8. Xavier Rush, maligned as a lug, may have been out of his depth at test level but he was a force at Super 12 both as player and captain.

But while the Crusaders celebrate their journeymen, view their graft as courage, Rush left when he had so much more to offer, hinting he was just as derided from within as he was without.

Halfback is the other disaster area. Following the career-ending injuries to Steve Devine and David Gibson, Taniela Moa threatened to make a significant breakthrough only to be exposed as a flash in the pan.

He's the sort of player who will forever promise and never deliver. Chris Smylie is much the same and, while there are many within the Blues who believe that with 40,000 players in the greater Auckland region, they must have the local talent to fill positions - it just isn't there. Loyalty is best left to dogs.

It's been painful watching campaign after campaign go down the gurgler due to the failed 8, 9, 10 axis. How could prospective players trust a franchise that has taken so long to address such a glaring problem? The more astute will spend some time wondering why it is that the region doesn't have players of the right calibre coming through.

Lachie Munro was Auckland's great white hope at first five last season. He's now been punted to Northland having made no impression. Colin Slade steered Canterbury to the title and is now a Junior All Black.

This year's Super 14 final is the light by which the Blues must now be guided. The two finalists were both proof that if a franchise has faith in its people, gives them time, supports them and adheres to the long term vision, then success should follow.

Coach Pat Lam needs to be shown that same faith now. The reputation of the franchise is damaged. Lam can restore that as he's a coach with some good ideas on how to play the game. He understands the need to manage personalities and he accepts that if he's given the team he wants, he will be held responsible for their performance.

More coaching change will only enhance the reputation of the Blues as divided and uncertain - exactly what they can't afford in their quest to lure new players.