Those days are very largely gone mate. Forget signing a shock player from the big boys (Staunton or something), even a good player from a team of a similar level is rock hard. There's too much money around.
Milivojevic from Palace for example. Not even their star man, but a good PL player. He'd cost over £30m. They'd probably ask for £40m and up.
It's picking the players good enough who, for whatever reason, aren't playing the level they should be. It's possible, there's plenty out there.