Fabregas goes to Barca for £35million

[Power n Glory]

Then we should have sold him when he was just a teenager if he wasnt going to be loyal to us instead of building a team around a player who didnt want to be here.

Get a hold of yourself, man.

Such talk sounds childish.

[Cripps_orig]

I dont get the "he was always going to go back to Barca" point either.

Why? Cos he supports them? You dont hear Ashley Young, Bent, Defoe etc pining for a move to Arsenal do you?

There are plenty of footballers who dont play for the team they supported so thats not an excuse. The cunt is as disloyal as they come and the "he was always going to go back there" excuse doesnt wash.

[Power n Glory]

I dont get the "he was always going to go back to Barca" point either.

Why? Cos he supports them? You dont hear Ashley Young, Bent, Defoe etc pining for a move to Arsenal do you?

There are plenty of footballers who dont play for the team they supported so thats not an excuse. The cunt is as disloyal as they come and the "he was always going to go back there" excuse doesnt wash.

Those players are English.

[Niall_Quinn]

Well, obviously in an ideal world he'd have stayed with us throughout his career but that was never going to happen.
He always made it clear he'd like to go back to Barca at some point.
Whether our failure in the last few years hastened his exit is debatable, it may have or maybe had we been successful he'd have wanted to move on to new challenges anyway. Who knows?
IMO we did the pragmatic thing this summer but we shouldn't have strung it out all summer to do it.

Barca are laughing at us in the media gloating about how they ripped us off on the Cesc deal. It's true Cesc wanted out, it's true he only wanted to go to Barca, it's also true he was on a long term contract, true as well we banked the money instead of spending it. Barca fucked us, our board and manager fucked us. The fans I mean. It's the fans who have lost out in this, seeing a world class player sold for peanuts and peanuts brought in to fill the gap. If we have a negotiating team that knew how to win in the transfer battles rather than get mugged and if we'd then spent the money to bring in a decent and long term replacement then I don't see that anyone would have a problem accepting the alleged inevitability of the move. People are pissed because we have got precisely zero out of the deal.

[Letters]

Then we should have sold him when he was just a teenager if he wasnt going to be loyal to us instead of building a team around a player who didnt want to be here.

It's not that he didn't want to be here, it's that he didn't want to spend his entire career at Arsenal. We always knew that and yes, making him captain was a mistake. But no, we shouldn't have sold him years ago because we got a lot of good years out of him.

No player is loyal to us, frankly most players aren't loyal to any club any more.

[Power n Glory]

I dont get the "he was always going to go back to Barca" point either.

Why? Cos he supports them? You dont hear Ashley Young, Bent, Defoe etc pining for a move to Arsenal do you?

There are plenty of footballers who dont play for the team they supported so thats not an excuse. The cunt is as disloyal as they come and the "he was always going to go back there" excuse doesnt wash.

Also, you are one of Wenger's biggest critics. It's the result of watching the same dross year in year out.

Don't you think it's possible for a player that's close to the club and Wenger to feel the same way? Why would a player that has been here for 8 years and lost 3 finals and watched the team blow 3 Prem League titles stay here for another 8 years?

[Cripps_orig]

Those players are English.

There are plenty of foreign players in England who dont pine for a move to the club they support.

They get on with it

[milla]

It's not that he didn't want to be here, it's that he didn't want to spend his entire career at Arsenal. We always knew that and yes, making him captain was a mistake. But no, we shouldn't have sold him years ago because we got a lot of good years out of him.

No player is loyal to us, frankly most players aren't loyal to any club any more.

Loyalty between club and players is two ways traffic, if one give less the other will walk away.

[Letters]

Barca are laughing at us in the media gloating about how they ripped us off on the Cesc deal. It's true Cesc wanted out, it's true he only wanted to go to Barca, it's also true he was on a long term contract, true as well we banked the money instead of spending it. Barca fucked us, our board and manager fucked us. The fans I mean. It's the fans who have lost out in this, seeing a world class player sold for peanuts and peanuts brought in to fill the gap. If we have a negotiating team that knew how to win in the transfer battles rather than get mugged and if we'd then spent the money to bring in a decent and long term replacement then I don't see that anyone would have a problem accepting the alleged inevitability of the move. People are pissed because we have got precisely zero out of the deal.

We should have sorted it out sooner and bought a decent replacement. Otherwise I'm not sure what we could have done different.
We could have kept him but we'd just have had a disaffected player all year and we'd have had this all again next summer and with us in a weaker position with less time left on his contract.
Barca got him cheap 'cos they knew he'd only sign for them and they could afford to wait another year if they really had to.

[Niall_Quinn]

Also, you are one of Wenger's biggest critics. It's the result of watching the same dross year in year out.

Don't you think it's possible for a player that's close to the club and Wenger to feel the same way? Why would a player that has been here for 8 years and lost 3 finals and watched the team blow 3 Prem League titles stay here for another 8 years?

Yeah but why is it all about the financial realities one minute and then other considerations such as what the player wants becomes so important the next? We can't pay an extra few million for a quality player because it's the financial reality, don't you know? Then we can't realise the proper value of a player because suddenly it's about Cesc and what he wants.