Easily one of my favorite players of the last 20 years. He was almost always among the top in the league in terms of ground covered, assists, and when we were at our best, he was in the middle of everything. I get why people are upset at how things ended, but with the way the club and the media handle transfers, it's only going to be the players we don't rate that will leave on good terms with the fans anymore. Best of luck to him, I hope we don't miss him too much.
I think partially the club got too sentimental about a group of players,the time to move some on was 2 years ago,rose,eriksen,perhaps vertongen,however any manager doing so would have to trust buying like for like quality,and with the chairman you cant do that,so maybe we held on for too long.Personally if a player states publically he wont sign a new deal especially over a year before it expires,unless it is because they are retiring or within a year or two of doing so,its time to go.Fine to negotiate and tell the club in private you dont want to extend,but in the press,tell the world,your mind is made up and chances are your performance,commitment will drop.Its not the same even as bale or modric,berbatov saying I want a transfer,running down over 2 years makes you cancerous within the group,and we failed to address this,probably because of fear of not replacing with the same standard,or misguided belief we could swing them around.
The way the club treats loyalty is obvious,if we can push out greaves,mackay,perryman,jennings,chivers,gascoigne,poch,ardiles,perryman again,houghton,jol then we cant really expect blind loyalty in return.But having a longer term aim to leave,you`re gone already in your head and the body will follow.
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