Players you feel your club let go too soon?

Shame swp left when he did he was brilliant at the time and never replicated that form.

comment by I am gooner now (U16927)
posted 8 minutes ago
Its not always as straight forward as let go too soon.

There are so many factors at play that need to be taken into account, which include
Does the player want to stay
Is there another player competing for the place (and can you keep both happy)
How long is there left on their contract
Are you trying to get a transfer fee back on them
Do you have a replacement lined up to buy (and if you keep them will you get one next year)

Just a few without thinking too hard.

As an example Chelsea let Cech go because Courtois wasnt prepared to wait any more.
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The forum equivalent of the bloke at the pub who reminds you that there is work tomorrow

VDV for me. I know his wife was a big reason why he left but we could of still done everything in our power to keep him for another season. Might of not been the fittest of players but what a player VDV was in what was such an exciting Redknapp team. The fact that he's come out and said he regrets moving from Spurs justifies it really: I miss VDV

Duff and Gudjohnsen spring to mind. I thought they still had a lot to offer.

Basically, we shot ourselves in the foot with the whole Shevchenko deal.
We changed our system to adapt for him. I don't think he was a Mourinho signing. All the players he'd signed before that had been in early to mid-20's, guys who were making names for themselves but not established superstars yet.
Sheva and Ballack to a lesser extent were coming to the tailend of their careers.

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

Pat Jennings...I still haven't got over it.

Keith Burkinshaw felt that his understudy, A young Barry Daines, was being held back from fulfilling his potential and that Jennings was nearing the end of his career.

As much as I'm grateful to Burkinshaw for bringing two FA cups and the UEFA cup to White Hart Lane, I'm finding it hard to forgive him for letting Jennings go...and to our biggest rivals at that, helping Arsenal to three FA cup finals and the European Cup-Winners Cup final. He carried on for another eight years!

At least he's back home at the Lane now...

Robert Pires went on to have an excellent few years at Villareal after he left us.
He did suffer a serious injury after leaving though so he may never have played again if our hatchet medical team had been involved.

Totally agree in regard to Pat Jennings. We ended up getting Ray Clemence later on who was of a similar age.

Not in any particular order

bentaleb(Out On Loan)
Iago Falgue(Believed he had the ability)
Kanoute

All 3 good technicians. Particularly sad when Kanoute left. We tend to struggle to accommodate these type of players. Unsure why

Jimmy Greaves, Peter Osgood (at least we got him back for a while) and Alan Hudson!