It seems to me that Cesc got the 'one more year' speech last summer and he's not the only one that was persuaded to stay longer than he wanted, ofc there's plenty who haven't but that's the same for any club. I'm not completely sure Madrid wanted him after the World Cup as wasn't the following year the one where Ronaldo got ridiculously good? Either way, we have persuaded players to stay before, it's a shame we don't quite have the staying power we used to have but we've tried as much as we can imo, we're not a laughing stock yet, just a less attractive proposition than we were.