Quote Originally Posted by WES View Post
And had we accepted those bids the Invincible season and the 2005 FA Cup might never have happened

If we sold players for their maximum value we'd be selling them in their prime, which doesn't really reconcile with winning trophies.

Paddy we sold at the exactly right time, Henry could still have helped us but I get the feeling he didn't want any more part of the youth project so we didn't have much choice.

Plus, he came back and scored *that* goal #iwasthereandpissedasarat
Paddy's bid was after the Invincibles, so it would have only cost us the 2005 FA Cup. And Titi's bid was after we lost the CL final. We had Cesc, Ade, RVP and Reyes. And got TR7 in '06. That extra £30m could have bought us a CM to play with Gilby and Cesc in a 3 man MF, and a better CH than Gallas.

Yes, I'd have rather we kept both of them forever. But we turned down 10m for Mhikki and then sold him for 1m a year later. I have no idea why AW forced PV4 out. Thought that was silly. We didn't switch to 4-3-3 until a few years later, but imagine if we'd had Gilby, PV and Cesc as a 3 man MF, Titi, Bobby P/Reyes and Freddie up front, with TR7 able to cover the MF or wings.