Of course they would have paid and of course they had the money. Everything that was "true" about this deal has predictably turned out to be bullshit. The "bench player" crap, why are you going to leave one of the best players in the world on the bench? The "didn't really want him" crap, like they didn't chase him relentlessly and employ the whole team to tap him up. I've never seen a team more desperate to sign a player. They framed the who transfer from an early stage and executed perfectly, our lot were eaten like a light snack. How do we know this for sure? Because Barca have admitted to all of it in public, they're laughing at us. No doubt they feel a sense of payback for what they consider was our theft of him in the first place. Bottom line, Barcelona 100 Arsenal 0. Only we could engineer the sale of our prize asset for half what he's worth. We are so incompetent in so many areas it's frightening.
True, the deal is done and there's no way it will be undone. But we've also paved the way for any club to come in a pick up our top players for pennies even when they are on long contracts. This means clubs will see the value in trying to unsettle our players, tap them up, destabilise us. We've sent the message it works whereas we should have categorically slammed the door in Barca's face until they paid up. Not just because we had a contract with Fabregas but because we've got some lean times ahead and if we want to avoid being second rate on a permanent basis we need to know we can hang on to our better players. The whole Cesc saga proves we can't, we're weak and we're stupid in the transfer market. But who didn't know that already? Of course we suddenly find our strength when it comes to spending money - no way would we ever contemplate paying the going rate. Trouble is, we're no Barca either on or off the pitch so all our tough talk when negotiating to bring players in just means we miss out on the player. Maybe we should get a proper team in to deal with these matters?