He was sold for £30m, right? £25m up front, £1m per year until 2016 and an extra £5m if Barca win the CL a couple times or something like that.

His "market value" may have been closer to £40m, but that goes out the window when his destination is limited to a single team. Sure, theoretically, he could have been sold to Chelsea/City for an extra £10m, but #1 he wouldn't have left Arsenal for either club and #2 Arsenal wouldn't sell him to either club. So £30m with that massive chunk up front was a pretty fair price.

quote:
And we didn't decide we wanted Villa in the last two days.

Arsenal was slow doing business. You get the point. And then when they did enquire, they "offer" half what Barca want for him. Had they begun talks as soon as the window opened, this could be a very different scenario.

The only reason they sell him to City is if they pay enough for them to get a quality replacement. Villa is still at or very near world class. His scoring record this season speaks for itself. It may upset the Arsenal fans, but Barca can't just let a player like that leave for pennies late in the window.

quote:
Any emergency left backs out there??????

This post was edited on 1/31/13 at 12:25 am

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Posted by Friend of OBUDan

Member since Dec 2008

9963 posts

Posted on 1/31/13 at 7:27 am to LSUSOBEAST1

I thought it was 30m (split into two payments), Cesc waived some fees I think he was entitled to, we have ROFR if they choose to sell, and Barca promised not to come after us about Toral and Bellerin.

My disdain for Barca aside, glass, I don't blame them for not selling him at this point. He won't go to City either. Shame, because it means it won't happen ever for us. Too old for us to give a big, 3 or 4 yr deal to in the summer IMO. Money better spent elsewhere.

I have a feeling we buy someone today, but have no idea who.

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