I see your point, but didn't Adkins technically resurrect Chaplow's career? He'd been out of the team for quite some time, and played for a few different clubs.
I also think that you may be overestimating our league. We already have the best overall squad in the league, virtually all of our players would (and some have) be the star player in almost all League One sides. The fact we can talk about Lallana, Guly, AOC, Lambert, Chaplow etc all playing for us shows that we don't need any marquee signings.