About the price...

[emmagicaleboue]

i doubt they would have stretched further at all. im sure the arsenal board didnt recieve an offer of 16mil and go "yeah sure, why not?". Barca probably offered around 12 and then we stretched them to 16. in Spain they consider Barca to have over paid for him at 16mil.

[She_Gunner_Wales]

TBH i personally think it was more to do with a clause in Henry's Arsenal contract, rather than the board letting him go for so little.
And they have just kept stumpt about any clauses.

The 4yr deal he signed should have bumped up the price, when a year previous they were offereing £50m with hardly anything left on his contract, despite the fact he had injuries last season, as the old saying goes, form is temporary, class is permanent.
So i really do think there is more to it than just the board allowing him to leave for £16m.

As said Thierry shot us in the foot by saying the only club he would go to was Barca, so they knew they had no competition too.

I highly doubt Barca would let the likes of Guilly or Deco leave for that amount, considering they are about the same age as Titi, if you want to compare.

Its a scary combination they have now, Thierry & Eto up front with Messi & Ronaldhino on the wings....plus when you add Guilly & Inniesta to the set-up who between just those two scored 28 goals last season.

:(:( hope we dont draw them in the CL.

[emmagicaleboue]

lol i'm not sure if they every offered us £50m for him!! maybe 50mil euros.

I'm not sure that attacking quartet will work on the pitch at the same time either...but they will certainly have options on the bench if they decide to start with 2 or 3 of them!!

we'll still do them in the champs league though! haha

[She_Gunner_Wales]

lol i'm not sure if they every offered us £50m for him!! maybe 50mil euros.

Which still works out about £35m sterling. :S

[emmagicaleboue]

yeah to be fair, they have basiclly got him for half the price they would have had to pay last season which sucks a bit! but i suppose we should just be thankful we didn't hold onto him another season and then got a few pennies for him when he's 31!

[rvtheace]

we should just be thankful we didn't hold onto him another season and then got a few pennies for him when he's 31!

He might have won the League for us by then.

[emmagicaleboue]

i'd bet a few quid that a lot of mancs were saying somthing similar at the beginning of last season when they sold van nistelrooy...look how that one turned out...

[rvtheace]

i'd bet a few quid that a lot of mancs were saying somthing similar at the beginning of last season when they sold van nistelrooy...look how that one turned out...

It just so happened that Ronaldo turned into a 'Best Player in the World' material all of a sudden. Who could have seen that coming? I think every manc, even SAF would have been pinning their hopes on Rooney more than anyone else!

We have enough quality players with us who could win us the league. RvP has everything it takes to end up with the Golden Boot, like your sig says, our midfielder may start scoring more, Fabianski might prove to be better than Cech... but Henry has PROVEN abilities.

Even if he had wanted out, and we had sold him, we should have done so for an amount that would give us a chance at finding a great replacement.

And BTW, horseface did win the League where he went.

[emmagicaleboue]

haha i find it incredible that everyone seems to think football business is as straight forward as demanding 25+ mil for a player and recieving a positive response. Barca would not have paid more than 16 mil for him, if they would, do you not think the Arsenal board would have thought to try?! or are we all so special in this forum that our skills in the football transfer business surpass that of the combined years of experience in Wenger and the Arsenal board?...i thought not.

Wenger knows the team better than anyone; what he decides is best. If he saw now as the right time to move on, then I have faith that it is the right time. Stop clinging on to memories of the Henry who used to enjoy playing for us and who actualy put a shirt on every once in a while and got himself on he pitch.

I'm fully aware of Van Nistelrooy winning la liga, i don't believe i ever commented otherwise. In fact, i seem to remember saying that the man is obviously still capable as he won the golden boot in Spain...hence my likening to the Henry situation as Henry is also still very capable.

As for Ronaldo, i think a lot of people could have predicted his rise to footballing supremecy. I could see from a mile off that his skill, strength and pace were always going to take him to the very top as soon as his end product was fine tuned. And as for Rooney, the kid is barely even a striker, more of an attacking midfield player...so to sell Van Nistelrooy and justify it by pinning hopes on Rooney, in my opion, would not hold either. Rooney is not a proven out and out goal scoring machine as many people believe is essential in a team (hence all the whining about Henry leaving) Instead, he plays as part of an attacking formation which provides goals from everywhere.

Personally, I would rather see our team work as an attacking unit and get more goals from all round (Cesc was coming on leaps and bounds towards the back end of the season with his shooting...as was Rosicky who i feel could finally fill the boots of pires in terms of goal scoring) as opposed to relying on Henry and functioning our entire team around him.

[emmagicaleboue]

i'd agree that jose or sir alex wouldn't sell drogba or the roon or ronaldo. but these players are at the peak of their careers and are fitting in well with the rest of their team. a good example which fits in with cole and henry leaving would be van nistelrooy. the guy just won golden boot in spain and is clearly still capable of banging in goals. but he wasn't working for the team at utd and fergie decided to push him out...one year later, they're crowned premiership champions.

just goes to prove that football is a team game, it's not all about one man and sometimes the best players need to move on for the good of the team.

there you go

[Windass10]

16m its alright, RVN went to Real for 11m and he was world class when United sold him wasnt he so they you are.
as for Messi She Gunner he plays upfront and so does Ronaldinho not the wing if am correct lol.

[gunnermikey]

in a way its a good thing he's moved on. nobody ever really tried much in fornt a goal when he was there, it was more "get the ball to henry and let him to the rest". when he got injured earlier in the season we did well because we played more as a team but we still had van persie. because of this, we had no problem with most of the teams we played in this period where henry weren't there. we beat man utd without him and nearly chelsea too. maybe it's better that we start playing this way now before they grow too dependent on one man and in the long term, affecting our way of playing.

[rvtheace]

[quote="emmagicaleboue"][/quote]
I think most of us would have put more money on Henry selling for well over 20, than Ronaldo becoming Player of the Year, despite Ronaldo's obvious skill, and Henry's interest in leaving.

[ken day]

As you may have noticed i have kept quite on all this. I dont think any world class players will join Arsenal untill AW has sorted out his future, added the fact that there is not much money spare at the moment.
If Fabrigas leaves you could struggle next season, FFS dont let the spuds in next season

[She_Gunner_Wales]

As you may have noticed i have kept quite on all this. I dont think any world class players will join Arsenal untill AW has sorted out his future, added the fact that there is not much money spare at the moment.If Fabrigas leaves you could struggle next season, FFS dont let the spuds in next season

Hit the nail on the head there Ken, ive been saying that since the speculation over Wenger started.

Windass, Messi, although prefers to be more of a supporting striker, he can & has played on the wing for Barca, much like Ronaldinho can play on the left wing or as an attacking midfeilder,as he did so for most of the 05 campaign. Either way they have a formidable strike force, where the positions can be swapped around with ease to accomodate the starting XI.
And its easy to see where the goals will come from. Even if they resort to playing Henry as a winger, as he was when he originally signed for us back in 99.