Well, he has done very well in it, and helped to take a not very fancy Serb team to a world cup, so that's something at least. Still, it's a bit of a catch 22, if you get a proven world class player, he becomes very expensive, at least 25 million, if you get a player with good potential that has shown quality, you may end up with a flop but nowhere near as expensive.
I'd say Krasic is the better option than Elia but unless we got someone like Ribery it's tough to ask for proven, world class players.