swipe right wrote:It’s very easy to criticize the club now. But back then there was no choice.
If we hadn’t renewed all the typical tropes would have come out.
- Arsenal can’t hold on to their best players
- Kroenke doesn’t pay
- Arteta can’t attract big names
- etc etc
The pressure from the fans and media would have been unbearable.
Moving forward we should follows Wenger’s earlier policy. One year for anyone over 30. Take it or leave it. Set it as the standard so there are no surprises when we don’t renew.
It was pretty easy to be critical of the deal at the time and there were reasons given as to why the deal was horrendous. At the time it was actually all the usual tropes that were thrown around as to why we had to keep him..
'would get relegated without him'
'he's one of the greatest ever'
'no one else can score goals'
'he's the only top player we have'
etc..
It was all bullshit driven by FOMO, which Auba marketed very well in the signing saga.