True both sides have = arguements. I just see that if Robinho, or Baptista came in Vieira would've stayed because he would've seen that as a mark of a club that is willing to do anything to win during his time not a year or two from now becasue of last season's failure. I just see it that way imo. I mean imagine if he saw that midfield... Vieira, Hleb, Ljungberg, Reyes, Baptista with Henry up front. One word, deadly. And then you could use Gilberto as the converter or the stopper like he used to play at Atletico Mineiro when he played in Brasil. In other words he could concentrate more on defence which at the moment is unstable even by the Campbell comeback. Although that has made things much better.
What is with the Chelshi avatar? Did I miss an edition of the Kangaroo Court? Surely, you are not a repeat offender? Number 500 for me!
I'm just curious what more we could have done to lure Baptista and Robinho here. It's not like the players were all excited to come here, but their clubs stopped them. Both of them had their hearts set on Spain and, in Robinho's case, on one particular club in Spain. To sit there and say "Well, if we got them..." is fine, but you have to understand that it wasn't something we screwed up. At the end of the day, you can't make a player move somewhere he doesn't want to go.
That's true as well, but if you check my previous post I said any other big name player as well. I was just using Baptista and Robinho as an example. We can say Ballack, Diarra, or Juninho... Just using examples.
sorry phishy i thought i made it clear, but obviously i didn't. All I'm saying is do you think Vieira would've left for Juventus when the offer was accepted if we bought 2 new talented bright players one being Hleb? I don't think so. The reason Vieira left for me is that he wanted to win the CL within his time although I as I've said before, he would've stayed if he saw that we brought good, ready to go right now players.
the reason vieira left, is because Wenger wanted to give Cesc his chance... and that Vieira played like shite last season, thus, getting SOME money for him. Vieira didn't want to leave, he was forced to leave.
That might be why you think he left, but I think the real reason we sold him was because it had gotten to the point where he had flirted with Real the last two offseasons and we realized that, if we were going to sell him, now was the time. He also did not have the fire that a captain should have and his performances showed that. At the end of the day, we initiated things and decided to sell him. He didn't dictate to us what he was going to do. You also need to remember that we were going to use the money we got from him to buy Baptista, so it's not like we had already failed to get Baptista before he left.
Well...I couldn't disagree anymore. It was only last summer AFC showed an attempt at signing established players or those that showed the club was aiming higher than usual. For me, Vieira left or accepted to leave becuase he felt the club did too little too late with regards to strengthening the squad. I've always felt the total sum of AW achievements ultimately conclude to the new stadium. I don't see anyother sequence of events (other than those in recent times) that could have culminated in similar on the pitch successes with that of the pitch too. I honestly think AFC has been and could have been the kind of club to sign a £15mill player every other summer or so ever since AW came...but becuase of his prudency we have Ashburton Grove to look forward to in the near future. Perhaps Highbury was never suppose to see European Success?
But when have we ever been a club of big-name signings? Wenger's success has stemmed, not from reeling in the big fish, but from catching the little ones and turning them into big ones like he did with Vieira. We won a championship by having the right mix, bringing in the right people at the right time and selling the players who were past their prime at the right time. Maybe we need to change now but, as I've said before, signing a 15 million GBP player just because we can isn't the way to go. Chelsea can afford a screw-up here and there. We can't. One more thing on Vieira being disappointed that we didn't do more to strengthen the squad: he should look in the mirror to see who's to blame for last summer. If you remember, the saga with him dragged on forever, and Wenger got handcuffed because he didn't know if he would have to fill a huge hole in the midfield. The whole saga lasted until preseason training in Austria, and by that time it was too late to make a serious run at a top-notch talent.
I just wish we'd been able to sign some vets to help manage the midfield. So far, it's been our weak point and Vieira's presence has been sorely missed. The young guys are solid and have lots of potential, but they need some experience to work off of.
Vieira isn't saying anything wrong or even particularly mean. Just go to any bookie if you dont think Juve have a better chance of winning the champions league (even before Vieira left the odds were with the Serie A champions). People like to ignore that Arsenal didnt refuse the offer from Juventus. They did everything legally, contacted Arsenal, who told Patrick he could leave, which he chose to do. He didn't request a transfer, he was told he was expendable.