I would have prefered Siggy to Paulinho too.
Edit: Let me expound on that a little as I'm drinking.
Both Siggy and Paulinho drew Lampard comparisons when they were purchased. But let's not kid ourselves, Siggy was/is half the player Lampard was and Paulinho is some smaller fraction of that. Lampard was a far better player in almost every aspect of the game to both of these guys much as it pains me to say it. But, we misused Siggy on the left mostly and then decided to flog him as he wasn't Iniesta. If we wanted a Lampard type player and the impact that gives a team then we should have setup like Chelsea and played him in the position that Lampard played in. We never really mimicked Mourinho's setup and as such we had no place for Siggy in the line-up, or at least no place that would get the best from his talents. Ditto for Paulinho really, but unless we change formation we will get no value from this signing. Paulie is a spare wheel for the wrong vehicle. And he is the lesser of two similar type players we had on the books.
To get back on topic with Holtby. Moving him on was a mistake I think. Financially maybe not but I don't give a toss about that really. My initial impression of Holtby when I watched him for Schalke was that we were signing a similar player to VDV. Yes he had played in midfield for Schalke but for me that was never his position. He was a number 10 that roamed a bit to get involved, just like VDV did. I can recall many comments about VDV dropping too deep and not holding shape, and Holtby did the same really. It was tagged as a failing for VDV but for me it was crucial to our recycling of possession back then. I think Holby could have grown with us and Poch but for whatever reason that was not meant to be.