Clrnc might be wrong, but I think Ramsey didn't actually want to leave Arsenal, his aim was to leverage a better contract - and maybe Arsenal (correctly as it turned out) worked out that they'd had his best years and called his bluff. But who knows for sure?
I love Bac Sagna, even ten years after he left, but again probably the right decision for club and player to part ways.
Mirth think Arshavin just came back to the club last year to watch one of the match. He gave an interview 3 years ago saying he had the best time of his life at our club as he loved life in London 
RocktheCasbah Yeah you're right. One of Emery best thing he did for our club is to call his bluff and rescinded the contract offer. If we signed him on that massive wage he would have been equivalent to the latter years Ozil. Agree about Sagna too but we wanted to keep him and he chose to join Citeh. He was absolutely horrible there too. City fans hated him when he started
Unretired
Wish we went for him instead of Neto
We apparently did talk to him and Chesney didn't want to move his family and he didn't want to be backup. This Barca gig just fell in his lap.
I still love Cesc. What a player. I'm not that bothered that he played for Chelsea. There are only so many clubs that could've afforded him and we weren't an option. So many people seem so hurt by it still, but big players leave big clubs for other big clubs all the time.
starting at barca vs backup at arsenal no matter how much you love the club is a no-brainer.
Hleb and Fabregas epitomised to me how much Arsenal fans overrated our players in that era. Excellent players on their day but not among the world's best and were lacking in physicality.
Looking back the devotion and cultism surrounding Fabregas in particular was ultra cringe. Van Persie's sale hurt me far more because he was one of the world's best and Wenger sold him to Ferguson of all people. He should've been forced to see out his contract. If he went on strike, then fuck it. That never ends well for a player and they eventually have to get on with it.
That is a lot of revisionism. Fabregas ran games for us for seasons when the talent around him was waning. Come on, we can hate him now but there is no need to say we overrated fabregas
Dom Hleb and Fabregas epitomised to me how much Arsenal fans overrated our players in that era. Excellent players on their day but not among the world's best and were lacking in physicality.
Cesc was kept out of the starting lineup by Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets. And still he racked up minutes and stats in his time at Barca.
I don't think there's any revisionism. Together they tore a top Milan team, United team, Chelsea team apart etc. There were legit unplayable. When I watched back the matches in 2008 the quality of football is really insane.
Fabregas was very clearly among the world's best.
Dom agree in general on players being overrated around then, guys like Vermaelen, Hleb, Pololski, etc even someone like Rosicky was brilliant in moments but never really gave us enough. Fabregas though, come on. He was sensational for us. His issue were his bad career choices, he went to a Barca team that he couldn't get into the first XI of and then to Chelsea where he was just another big name they ran through. When he and Modric were both in the PL Fabregas was clear but Modric had a much better career because he kept getting better. Fabregas never improved after he left us. When he was here he was one of the best though.
This, I don't agree with. Was Fabregas our best player for a number of years and one of the PL's best midfielders? Yep, no doubt about that at all. But compared to the very best midfielders around the world at the time, I don't think he was at a level to be regarded as among the world's best.
His midfield contemporaries at the time, from the top of my head, were Pirlo, Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso and Kaka as the best of the best and then, IMO, Lampard a level below them and then Fabregas, Sneijder and Gerrard behind Fat Frank. Modric levelled up and up after these lot had declined so I haven't included him.
Cesc was a fantastic player at his best but he'd begun to miss a third of each season through injuries and I felt after 2008 he struggled against the physical beasts of Man Utd and Chelsea.
With Henry, Vieira, Bergkamp, Cole and Van Persie they were inarguably the world's best in their positions and only a United plastic would disagree.
Yeah that's a wild take if ever I've seen one on Fabregas. He was a freak. I'd go as far to say in some ways he was perhaps underrated, the way some talk about him although I think the way he left and the Chelsea connection is the reason mostly for that.
07 to early 09 before he was moved forward he was unreal. The weight on his passes and his final ball were the best around. He had some weaknesses just as all players do but Fabregas was world class, there isn't any debate to be had about that.
All the judgements about Fabregas and Van Persie at the time they deserted are pretty done to death, but my observation since is that both are somewhat stupid men. Despite their football talent, both have a below average understanding of how the world works and people work ...
Dom it's a funny one. I've always felt Barcelona signed him without really knowing what they wanted to do with him (although maybe that would have been different in the long run had Guardiola not bailed), but they just didn't want us to have him.
Anyway, I thought he was a brilliant footballer, maybe as Burns says, not quite as smart as he thought he was but I can only say I loved most every minute of watching him play for us. Just a shame Wenger failed to build around him.
^ every goal scored by Van Persie in the Premier League.
Have to admit I was taken back rewatching all of these. Damn near every goal has a high level of quality in either great footwork (to open up a shooting angle) or in the shot (curl). RVP really was the definition of a technical striker.
Would be curious what goals impressed others but even "simple" looking goals had me impressed. Take this goal for example, made the angle and then used it for a simple placed shot in.
