Would you take 15m for Adebayor?

[g88ner]

making him an established part of midfield which has subsequently come up woefully short and then selling him directly to someone like Real for £20m and taking all the money. Come back to me with a decent response next time

Diarra left because he couldn't get in the team.

Wenger preferred Flamini, and I can't blame him for that.

It would have been crazy if Wenger were to pick Diarra with improving his sell-on value in mind... that would be dishonest to the supporters who expect the manager to pick the BEST team possible... and that meant playing Flamini.

I'm not angry with Wenger for letting Diarra go to Pompey, as he probably wanted to get a bad egg out of the club asap... but who knows. I suppose hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Either way, losing Diarra and Flamini may have been a blow, but ultimately it was the decision NOT to replace them that has cost us.

[SteveO 35]

making him an established part of midfield which has subsequently come up woefully short and then selling him directly to someone like Real for £20m and taking all the money. Come back to me with a decent response next time

Diarra left because he couldn't get in the team.

Wenger preferred Flamini, and I can't blame him for that.

It would have been crazy if Wenger were to pick Diarra with improving his sell-on value in mind... that would be dishonest to the supporters who expect the manager to pick the BEST team possible... and that meant playing Flamini.

I'm not angry with Wenger for letting Diarra go to Pompey, as he probably wanted to get a bad egg out of the club asap... but who knows. I suppose hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Either way, losing Diarra and Flamini may have been a blow, but ultimately it was the decision NOT to replace them that has cost us.

Do you really think Diarra was a bad egg ? I've heard that said a lot. Whenever I saw the guy play I thought he worked his bollocks off, had a heart as big as a bucket and great talent. I don't blame him for being frustrated at not being able to get into the team. I wasn't suggesting that AW should play him just to get this sell-on value up, obviously I agree with you on that. My point is that he would naturally have produced a higher value at some point in the future - the boy was a class act and Real's price for him proved that.

Whichever way you chose to look at it Wenger let 3 international class midfielders go in the space of six months - Diarra, Gilberto and Flamini, and paid out the same amount to get Ramsey, Bischoff and Coquelin.

[g88ner]

Do you really think Diarra was a bad egg ? I've heard that said a lot. Whenever I saw the guy play I thought he worked his bollocks off, had a heart as big as a bucket and great talent. I don't blame him for being frustrated at not being able to get into the team. I wasn't suggesting that AW should play him just to get this sell-on value up, obviously I agree with you on that. My point is that he would naturally have produced a higher value at some point in the future - the boy was a class act and Real's price for him proved that.

Sorry, by bad egg, I meant that he clearly wasn't happy sat on the bench and had become restless.

I doubt it VERY much that Wenger wanted to sell him... so it would make sense to me that Diarra was the one who demanded to be sold. And with Arsenal's season going so well, maybe Wenger decided to let Diarra go before his frustration and anger was felt by the rest of the team.

I have no problem with that.

It's difficult to keep a player when they want to leave, so maybe selling to Pompey was the best thing... especially as Wenger said he expected Flamini to stay

Obviously, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and losing BOTH Flamini and Diarra now looks ridiculous, but Flamini was in wonderful form and Diarra was going to have to wait or leave; he chose to leave.

No, I have no gripe with Diarra because he was a young player who wanted 1st team football, but I equally have no gripe with Wenger because Flamini's form made him undroppable... and that was bad news for Diarra.

But, again, Wenger's decision NOT to replace either of them (or Gilberto) over the summer remains one of the huge mysteries of Wenger's reign