Bard
If all the reports are true Arsenal have turned down the chance to resign Cesc. He is currently being courted by Chelsea but others may join the bidding war. We had the chance to buy a world class midfielder for a knock down price by that I mean approximately £12m less than Ozil. We have too many similar players seems to be the reason. That might hold some water if they were all fit but with our injury record we are always light, hence the ludicrous loan signing of Kallstrom.
The counter argument is that we could sacrifice one of our other midfielders - Carzola, Rosicky or Diaby - to make space for him. None of them are as good as Cesc so why not sell them. Maureen comes to mind here, Mata was twice voted player of the year for Chelsea but Maureen got rid of him because he had a bigger picture in mind. What is Wenger’s bigger picture? Cesc is an Arsenal legend, a World Cup winner and a real warrior, he is 27 years old. The counter argument is that we already have Ozil. I like him but he is as yet not in Cesc's class. He may step up next year but he also may not.
Now comes the nightmare scenario, Cesc joins another of our rivals and becomes part of the growing band of Arsenal old boys who come back to haunt us. How do Wenger and the board assess the impact on us as a club and on the fans? To my mind this seems a PR disaster. The arrival of Cesc would have sent a message that we keep our own. That although the grass seems greener elsewhere our heroes always have their heart with us. This is the essence of belonging to a club.
But no, Cesc is deemed surplus to requirements and instead we will attempt to sign other as yet unknown players. Whoever they are they will neither love the club like Cesc does nor be half as talented he is. The question that the Wenger needs to ask himself is whether our other rivals would veto such a move.
