Players you wish your team had kept?

Players who have now gone on to bigger and better things.

Ronaldo, all though he's not gone to bigger and better things

Shearer, Walcott, Bale, etc..

Robben

Magno Alves

Arjen Robben. No doubt about it.

Ballack & Deco were missed this season IMO.

Also wish we signed Cristian Eriksen after we had him on trial twice but we rejected him.

Agree with Ballack, not so much Deco

Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira (for another two years at least), Kolo Toure, Gilberto Silva.

I would've said Ashley Cole, but I wouldn't welcome him back.

John Terry**, SWP*, Joey Barton*, Tom Huddlestone*, Michael Dawson, Jermaine Jenas



* Left our academy or younger groups before the academy
** Only on loan

Steve McManaman and Xabi Alonso Real Madrid

Tierney, Fox, Halford, Iwulemuo, Lua-Lua, Richard Garcia, Fagan... the list goes on.

Marcelo. Was a great defender.

Gilberto, others left at a good time

Xabi and/or Masch.

Kleber, but he wanted to play in the Libertadores, so it there wasn't much the club could do. We have two great replacements now though.

Also Marquinhos.

Gallas tbh
Hate that he went to Spuds, but he'd be great for our crappy defence, a real leader

Alonso, Masch, San José.

Fine Shagger wrote:Alonso, Masch, San José.

This. Riise too. Probably Hyypia, Benayoun and Riera.

Bentley,Santa Cruz and Warnock.

Grant McCann.
Bryan Wilson
Shane Higgs
Martin Devaney
Kayode Odejayi
Michael Duff

Ryan Giggs.

Henry Gilberto Silva and Kolo Toure.

Hyypiä, San José, Alonso, and Mascherano.

Freddy Adu, Ryan Neilsen, Bobby Convey. That team would mmmmmmm mmmmmmm good.

Javier Hernandez, Carlos Vela, Carlos Salcido, Maza Rodriguez, Omar Bravo, Ramon Morales. We'd fucking own.

Gegilworld93 wrote:Gallas tbh
Hate that he went to Spuds, but he'd be great for our crappy defence, a real leader

No, no, no.

If players have gone on to bigger and better things, then it's unrealistic to expect to keep them.

Most players who leave us simply haven't been good enough, or the money/their quality has been too good.

I'd say the last time I had regrets was in the 2002-2004 period where we spent too much and had to sell up good players who went for peanuts.

Not many players leave and go on to better things.

Only two players recently. Mascha and Alonso.

Similar to Lux really, since we got relegated any good player that has left has gone on to do well in the Premiership so it'd be completely unrealistic. It'd be naive of me to say oh I wish we'd kept Beckford, Delph, Smith, Lennon and Milner.

I suppose though if I went further back I'd say I wish we kept Ferdinand. His departure essentially led to our downfall. O'Leary said he wouldn't get in Ferdinand's way of moving to Man Utd, Ridsdale sacked him as a result and brought in Venables. Venables then sold Rio. Under O'Leary we were doing well and despite our financial trouble I suspect we'd have been absolutely fine, with or without Rio. But no, Venables fell out with players such as Dacourt, Fowler, Batty and Kewell and subsequently left us in the relegation zone in March.

Pique and Rossi, would say Ronaldo but I don't think he really fits it.