Its easier to entice a player of Asharvin's quality, to play for Wenger, than it is to entice anyone to play for Ciro, or Zach for example. I am not at all defending Secco's negogiation skills, for they seem fairly poor. But it is quite clear to me, that Arsenal, a young, vibrant family of a team, who like to play football, not just win matches, with a manager renowned for getting the very best out of all sorts of players, is a more attractive option...I am sure there were more, likely better offers for Asharvin, but he decided on Arsene and Arsenal, and stuck to it. Which isn't solely due to the astute bargaining skills of the Arsenal transfer people...
I don't think we overpaid for Melo or Diego. Melo starts consistently for the strongest national team and was coming of a season in florence in which he barely put a foot wrong...Diego was amazing in the budesliga, consistently wowing crowds and scoring/creating wonderful goals. he was definitely in demand.
We overpaid horribly for Amauri. no doubt whatsoever in my mind for that one, and also for Poulsen. Andrade was unfortunate...and Tiago also, we had no idea he would turn out as fairy like as he did for us. But he is a player we may well recoup some of our investment for, if he continues to play well for atetico and they buy him in the summer...Perhaps his value could even go up if portugal do well in the WC...
Candreva for a total of 15m is ridiculous. half of that, fine. And I would be sickened to see Gio used as a bargaining chip. better to offload De Ceglie, Poulsen, Zebina, Legro, Paolucci, Amauri, grosso...