Spurs has always been my favorite team in England, so i have followed them quite a bit. Story with Paulinho in Spurs is similar to many of our last season failures like Gomes/Paco etc.
When Spurs sold Bale to RM, they had a big transfer summer and signed many new players, like Soldado, Lamela, Chiriches, Capoue, Chadli, Eriksen and Paulinho. Out of this entire group more or less only Eriksen has proven to be worth the value and well Lamela somewhat, although he has been gone for awfully long time already and noone really knows what is going on. Rest were considered flops and have been sold on.
Paulinho was actually pretty decent in his first year, but things turned worse once Villas Boas was sacked as he never really fit into Pochettinos plans. He had a few really embarrasing moments and stupid red cards, but overall he was pretty slick player. But he was benched by Poch as his profile did not suit new style and when Scolari was put in charge of Guangzhou, he saw opportunity to play himself back to Brazils lineup (role he lost sitting on Spurs bench).
And he has done exactly that, i think he has been one of the best players in Chinese League and won titles and actually is now back in Brazil lineup and doing fine.
I think most of Europeans automatically consider that if player moves outside European League, he goes there to retire, but it is not so really. There have been several cases of players returning and doing fine, Defoe being the latest example. Was as clinical as before he went to US.
My point is that he is not as bad player and being Spurs flop has alot more to do with the coach who wanted him being sacked rather than him being on level of Douglas. And his decision to play in China has alot more to do with Scolari being there, rather than him trying to retire.
Saying all that, it does feel excessive to pay that much for him, not to mention the fact that we do not need really quantity to our midfield, but quality. But i do not think we will sign him. Chinese league new rules have made it very expensive to sign any foreign players, which means that those who they already have, they want to keep. Also he is teams biggest star and they do not really need the money.
Credit though, one of the weirdest transfer sagas in recent times.