Not sure if this will cheer people up, put things in perspective or put a dampener on things to come but I found it quite interesting and it could hopefully shed a little light on where things possibly stand and what we've got in store for us over the next few years if things aren't done right with the long term in mind:
Since 2000 when Woolwich started buying land for the Emirates they have sold 19 of their players to clubs where the player went onto bigger things after leaving Wengers nomad clan. These players are:
Anelka
Petit
Overmars
Vieira
Ashley Cole
Diarra
Reyes
Henry
Hleb
Kolo Toure
Adebayor
Sagna
Clichy
Nasri
Fabregas
Alex Song
Van Persie
Vermaelen
Oxlade-Chamberlain
Tottenham in the same time have only sold 6 players to bigger clubs with those being the following:
Carrick
Keane
Berbatov
Modric
Bale
Walker
Two things I take from this are that we really may need to sell and watch our money transfer wise over the next few years in order to fund the stadium over the next decade as painful as that reality may be, that Woolwich really fucked themselves over by not drawing out their loans to be over a longer period of time or that they were extraordinarily stupid with a lot of their retention strategies when balancing football with business. A large majority of the players they sold once they were out of Highbury left on a free or with 12 months left of their contracts apparantly so were hugely devalued by the decisions Woolwich made when either selling them earlier or tying them down to longer deals when they still had peak years ahead of them.
16 of the players they sold were sold after they moved into their new stadium, with only Anelka, Overmars & Petit moving before they moved to the Emirates and with Oxlade-Chamberlain being the only one to be sold after all their loans had been paid off it seems (I remember reading somewhere that their debts got paid off in 2016 or something).
I'm not sure how well or much of player sales got reinvested for new arrivals but the fact they had to let so many top class players go for next to nothing with 12 months or less left on their deals shows how vital it is for us that Levy keeps getting all of our stars signed up long term. I get the feeling that this is a key reason why we've seen the club offer extensions so quickly after players signed previous deals, which seems to be a common trend with well performing players of ours. Reward the players, give them what they deserve and in doing so protect the club at a very delicate time of growth when all else around you is booming and going a bit berserk financially because of it.
Not sure if this is positive reading or a bit of a smack in the chops whilst you all eat your cereal but either way it could help hush those prick gooners that will be giving stick out for not buying anyone this summer. Most of our boys are contractually committed to by our club and transfer inflation is at an all time high compared to back then so there's far less risk of ballsing it up like their gormless lot seem to have done dwindling down superstar contracts. The only one we need to secure now is Eriksen. Get him tied down and all of our most prized assets are going to be valued at a genuine premium in today's market as all have at least 4 years left on their current deals at a minimum.
Not all doom and gloom boys and girls, stick the number 19 down their throats if any of them get lary with you today. Our contract extensions seem to be more valuable to us keeping within fighting distance than any new signing would at the moment, it might be wise to brace ourselves for similar over the next couple of years.
You forgot Wilshere.
