I'm pretty new myself tbh but I think my newish Serie A team was something like this:
------Handanovic------
Maicon - Barzagli - Caceres - Radu
Candreva - De Rossi - Guarin - Asamoah
---- Ibarbo - Vucinic ----
That's probably closer to 15-20k actually but I still use quite a few of them, namely Handanovic, Radu, Barzagli, Maicon, De Rossi, Guarin and Candreva and none of them cost huge amounts, but I'd say it's worth trying others as it's all personal preference really.
http://www.futhead.com/ is very handy for seeing what's available. Serie A seems to be the way to go if you're new, you can get some really awesome players like El Shaarawy for just 5-6k (on PS4).