diarra wasn't so senior that we didn't tack on a sell-on clause like we do with the other young players (and don't do with every other senior player).
if sidwell was good enough for chelsea to take a flyer on when they had a much better team than us then he certainly would have been a better buyback option for our midfield in 2006 than getting denilson. just because he proved not good enough for the big time later doesn't mean we shouldn't have tried. that's no different from bentley who wenger basically admitted he would have bought back if the option was there and he later proved to not be good enough. i doubt that the option was there for sidwell (like bentley). and if it's not there for any of the players that could potentially be worth buying back then we might as well not claim we do it because what's the point if you're only attaching it to the justin hoytes of the world.
and i didn't say slap it on every player. just the young ones who clearly have a lot of potential and really need first team action and not in a loan capacity where the team doesn't have a financial incentive to see that player develop.
