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.