Speedster You should credit him for coming here for free.
We signed him as a 16 year old. Gave him an opportunity at one of the best clubs in the world at the time with some of the best players. I'm not sure but I also think I remember we took advantage of the fact we could give him a pro contract when Barca couldn't. It wasn't charity why he joined us. He obviously saw us an opportunity to thrive and develop among some WC players and under Arsene who was one of the most respected managers in football then.
Speedster It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to think he couldn't have left sooner.
For this, yeah, if he wanted to just leave for the sake of leaving he could have. He only wanted to go to Barca though. I think it takes much more mental gymnastics to convince yourself that Barca were coming in for him and he was turning down every year when the truth is all Barca did was try to unsettle him for a potential future purchase on the cheap.
Aside from that for everything else we've been over this before. Clearly we have differing opinions on this. You aren't gonna convince me he could easily have joined Barca and instead turned them down to stay loyal. And obviously I'm not going to be able to convince you that he jumped ship the first chance he got to join them.