The Emirates Move

[Arsenal Tone]

We sold vieira for 13m

Henry for 16m

I mean seriously wtf

Wenger should've gone then

Both were among the best players in the world and similar aged players were going for three or four times those amounts at the time too!

[Angelito]

We sold vieira for 13m

Henry for 16m

I mean seriously wtf

Wenger should've gone then

Both were among the best players in the world and similar aged players were going for three or four times those amounts at the time too!

Henry and Vieira were 29 when they left. Hardly in their primes like Cesc or Nasri (age-wise).

You also can't demand big money for players who sulk on the pitch and want out desperately. The saga of moaning to leave was started by one Thierry Henry. Since then, we've seen it happen all too often.

Nonetheless, the same applied with Cesc. City and Real were waiting there with £50m for Cesc, but he only wanted Barca, so Barca low-balled us.

While we haven't been efficiently getting top money for our players, we have to blame the circumstances as much as the administration. We never could take a stand and tell other parties to pay up or shut up because unlike other clubs, our top players desperately wanted to leave and would moan and sulk; sometimes on the pitch as Henry and Cesc did, if need be.

Finally, we haven't sold many players in the correct age bracket. The exceptions are the likes of Anelka, Overmars, Cesc, Nasri, Chamberlain, and Iwobi. Most players we sell tend to leave in their late 20s—Alexis, Henry, van Persie, Pires, Vieira, Petit, etc.

The only transfer that I feel we royally messed up was that of Ashley. A total disaster that was.

[VCC]

We sold vieira for 13m

Henry for 16m

I mean seriously wtf

Wenger should've gone then

Both were among the best players in the world and similar aged players were going for three or four times those amounts at the time too!

Henry and Vieira were 29 when they left. Hardly in their primes like Cesc or Nasri (age-wise).

You also can't demand big money for players who sulk on the pitch and want out desperately. The saga of moaning to leave was started by one Thierry Henry. Since then, we've seen it happen all too often.

Nonetheless, the same applied with Cesc. City and Real were waiting there with £50m for Cesc, but he only wanted Barca, so Barca low-balled us.

While we haven't been efficiently getting top money for our players, we have to blame the circumstances as much as the administration. We never could take a stand and tell other parties to pay up or shut up because unlike other clubs, our top players desperately wanted to leave and would moan and sulk; sometimes on the pitch as Henry and Cesc did, if need be.

Finally, we haven't sold many players in the correct age bracket. The exceptions are the likes of Anelka, Overmars, Cesc, Nasri, Chamberlain, and Iwobi. Most players we sell tend to leave in their late 20s—Alexis, Henry, van Persie, Pires, Vieira, Petit, etc.

The only transfer that I feel we royally messed up was that of Ashley. A total disaster that was.

Angelito
Have you ever given thought to the point Henry and Veira would have known what Arsenals long term vision was. Both would have been aware that should they stay it would of been at the expense of other players with market value with in the squad, with youngsters coming in. They would of been able to see the writing on the wall,
They took the option of getting out in Henry case it took some convincing hence the attitude, had the club shown a different plan I bet both Veira and Henry would have stayed and with correct investment into the football side of the club we would have been UCL champions and on a different path in history. But hey we become a bussiness and the Emerites become AW economic book library

[Salibatelli]

Henry and Vieira were 29 when they left. Hardly in their primes like Cesc or Nasri (age-wise).

You also can't demand big money for players who sulk on the pitch and want out desperately. The saga of moaning to leave was started by one Thierry Henry. Since then, we've seen it happen all too often.

Nonetheless, the same applied with Cesc. City and Real were waiting there with £50m for Cesc, but he only wanted Barca, so Barca low-balled us.

While we haven't been efficiently getting top money for our players, we have to blame the circumstances as much as the administration. We never could take a stand and tell other parties to pay up or shut up because unlike other clubs, our top players desperately wanted to leave and would moan and sulk; sometimes on the pitch as Henry and Cesc did, if need be.

Finally, we haven't sold many players in the correct age bracket. The exceptions are the likes of Anelka, Overmars, Cesc, Nasri, Chamberlain, and Iwobi. Most players we sell tend to leave in their late 20s—Alexis, Henry, van Persie, Pires, Vieira, Petit, etc.

The only transfer that I feel we royally messed up was that of Ashley. A total disaster that was.

I've seen plenty of 29 year olds going for big money, Koulibaly for example is 29 and the fee for him would be huge, so your point about the age is not that relevant given their quality and actually 28-29 is when a footballer is supposedly in their prime so your comment about not being in their prime isn't correct.

Look at Liverpool and Suarez, they stood their ground and got good money, Chelsea got loads for Hazard, Spurs got a huge amount for Bale the list goes on, our negotiating was horrendous no question and it remains horrendous today, it's nothing to do with circumstances it's to do with poor dealings.

[theHotHead]

The Emirates move was terrible, Abhramovic was interested in buying us but the stadium debt put him off and he bought Chelsea instead, had we not had this poison chalice we might be in a much better position now.

Stadium money is small fry nowadays anyway, we've had the stadium 14 years now and it's not exactly helped us, in fact we've gone from title challengers with lots of top players, to midtable mediocrity with mostly average players.

Where did you get this info from ? If you Google why Abramovich didn't buy Arsenal almost every single article that comes up states because he was mistakenly told that Arsenal was not for sale.

[theHotHead]

We sold vieira for 13m

Henry for 16m

I mean seriously wtf

Wenger should've gone then

Both were among the best players in the world and similar aged players were going for three or four times those amounts at the time too!

The galling thing about both of these sales were the pattern that they both followed !!

Vieira wanted to win the CL and I dare say was fed up with coming up short with Arsenal time and time again. Interest from Juve prompted Wenger to make Vieira captain, but the same failings persisted and in the end we had to let him go. Henry wanted to win the CL, he stated as much. There were murmurings of a transfer so Wenger made him captain. The CL final loss was the point Henry knew he had to go if he was to ever win the CL.

the same shit happened with Fabregas, he wanted to go back to Barca, so Wenger made him captain, but he left in the end anyway. At least we got £35-40m for Fabregas, what we got for Vieira and Henry was a piss take.

[Salibatelli]

The Emirates move was terrible, Abhramovic was interested in buying us but the stadium debt put him off and he bought Chelsea instead, had we not had this poison chalice we might be in a much better position now.

Stadium money is small fry nowadays anyway, we've had the stadium 14 years now and it's not exactly helped us, in fact we've gone from title challengers with lots of top players, to midtable mediocrity with mostly average players.

Where did you get this info from ? If you Google why Abramovich didn't buy Arsenal almost every single article that comes up states because he was mistakenly told that Arsenal was not for sale.

That's what came out around the time he bought Chelsea, basically that he didn't fancy the stadium debt, Arsenal was sold not too long after anyway.

[Marsbar100]

The yeat before henry left we turned down 50m for him http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 001674.stm

[Ach]

We sold cesc for 25m after Wenger went to the board and told them to lower the asking price. Should've been sacked then and there. Couldn't give a shit if he wanted to go to Barca, we should've sold to the highest bidder.

Shevchenko was of similar age to Henry and Milan sold him for 30m to Chelsea. Why we sold Henry for so little, I have no idea.

At least with Cole we got Chelseas best defender in return as Gallas was at the time.

[StLGooner]

We simply just unlucky with the owner we got, luck of the draw really, we go the short stick, the emirates move made perfect sense at the time.

Yep, as said previously, it made sense at the time and not many could have foreseen how the financial part of the game was going to change so quickly. It didn't work like we wanted, but it was still needed. We'd be worse off without it.

Made sense to move, made no sense to disband the best players from the very thing it's all about FOOTBALL

Agreed, but that is a totally different discussion imo.

[StLGooner]

We sold cesc for 25m after Wenger went to the board and told them to lower the asking price. Should've been sacked then and there. Couldn't give a shit if he wanted to go to Barca, we should've sold to the highest bidder.

Shevchenko was of similar age to Henry and Milan sold him for 30m to Chelsea. Why we sold Henry for so little, I have no idea.

At least with Cole we got Chelseas best defender in return as Gallas was at the time.

It's not that simple. Cesc would have just turned down a move anywhere else and let his contract run out and then left for free.

[Salibatelli]

We sold cesc for 25m after Wenger went to the board and told them to lower the asking price. Should've been sacked then and there. Couldn't give a shit if he wanted to go to Barca, we should've sold to the highest bidder.

Shevchenko was of similar age to Henry and Milan sold him for 30m to Chelsea. Why we sold Henry for so little, I have no idea.

At least with Cole we got Chelseas best defender in return as Gallas was at the time.

It's not that simple. Cesc would have just turned down a move anywhere else and let his contract run out and then left for free.

Barca would have paid more if we’d pushed it, problem is Wenger was a soft touch. As for Henry. As mentioned above Shevchenko went for a lot more, there was no excuse for getting so little for him, I was shocked personally, likewise Vieira, we seem to be the only big club selling our best players on the cheap.

Do you know what, it’s got worse too, RVP, Ramsey, Alexis, now Aubameyang, then we compound it by wasting loads and overpaying on rubbish players as well.

Nothing ever changes at this club, same problems year after year.

[StLGooner]

We sold cesc for 25m after Wenger went to the board and told them to lower the asking price. Should've been sacked then and there. Couldn't give a shit if he wanted to go to Barca, we should've sold to the highest bidder.

Shevchenko was of similar age to Henry and Milan sold him for 30m to Chelsea. Why we sold Henry for so little, I have no idea.

At least with Cole we got Chelseas best defender in return as Gallas was at the time.

It's not that simple. Cesc would have just turned down a move anywhere else and let his contract run out and then left for free.

Barca would have paid more if we’d pushed it, problem is Wenger was a soft touch. As for Henry. As mentioned above Shevchenko went for a lot more, there was no excuse for getting so little for him, I was shocked personally, likewise Vieira, we seem to be the only big club selling our best players on the cheap.

Do you know what, it’s got worse too, RVP, Ramsey, Alexis, now Aubameyang, then we compound it by wasting loads and overpaying on rubbish players as well.

Nothing ever changes at this club, same problems year after year.

I do agree with all of that, and not only did we let RvP go for cheap, he went to a direct rival. Even more frustrating, that one pissed me off big time. We need big changes, starting from the owner.

[theHotHead]

Henry and Vieira were 29 when they left. Hardly in their primes like Cesc or Nasri (age-wise).

You also can't demand big money for players who sulk on the pitch and want out desperately. The saga of moaning to leave was started by one Thierry Henry. Since then, we've seen it happen all too often.

Nonetheless, the same applied with Cesc. City and Real were waiting there with £50m for Cesc, but he only wanted Barca, so Barca low-balled us.

While we haven't been efficiently getting top money for our players, we have to blame the circumstances as much as the administration. We never could take a stand and tell other parties to pay up or shut up because unlike other clubs, our top players desperately wanted to leave and would moan and sulk; sometimes on the pitch as Henry and Cesc did, if need be.

Finally, we haven't sold many players in the correct age bracket. The exceptions are the likes of Anelka, Overmars, Cesc, Nasri, Chamberlain, and Iwobi. Most players we sell tend to leave in their late 20s—Alexis, Henry, van Persie, Pires, Vieira, Petit, etc.

The only transfer that I feel we royally messed up was that of Ashley. A total disaster that was.

I've seen plenty of 29 year olds going for big money, Koulibaly for example is 29 and the fee for him would be huge, so your point about the age is not that relevant given their quality and actually 28-29 is when a footballer is supposedly in their prime so your comment about not being in their prime isn't correct.

Look at Liverpool and Suarez, they stood their ground and got good money, Chelsea got loads for Hazard, Spurs got a huge amount for Bale the list goes on, our negotiating was horrendous no question and it remains horrendous today, it's nothing to do with circumstances it's to do with poor dealings.

This ! RVP was 28/29 when he left Arsenal for £24m. Considering he only had 1 year left on his contract he would've easily gone for double that had he had 3 years left, for example.