The King is dead, long live the King. So it looks certain that our Spanish talisman is on his way. But I for one think there is still room for optimism even in our darkest hours, of which this is obviously one. I am as sad as anyone that he is leaving but like TH14, Cesc is not bigger than our club.

The major difference between his sale & that of TH14 and Liam Brady is that Cesc will be leaving for a really significant sum of money which can help us rebuild the squad and afford us the opportunity to invest in some quality established players, instead of the untried wunderkind that we have endured in recent seasons.

There are very few players of Cesc's quality in the world so he will obviously be very hard to replace but if we sign two quality midfielders it could make up for his loss. In the periods without him last season it was obvious how important, but that type of reliance on one player is not good. We need to make sure that the loss of one player does not mean we cannot win or compete with our main rivals.

Unfortunately the same can be said for RVP. The minute he got injured last season it felt like our silverware hopes were over, and this needs to be addressed. As long as Arsene Wenger spends the money he said he was already going to plus whatever we get for Cesc on buying quality proven players, such as Buffon and Yaya Toure, we should actually be stronger next year.

Losing Cesc's spark will hurt but to be more solid in the big games, which we definitely were not last season, can only take us forward. What has been proven is that you need to balance flair with steel to have any chance of securing domestic honours and I would rather we try to remedy that situation than try to hold on to one great player who cannot win trophies on his own.

If we get players who help us defend collectively rather than as individuals, we could offset the loss of Cesc’s goals and influence by keeping clean sheets, which at the end of the day is what makes champions.

Keep The Faith