what a thread.
Lets us first consider families. unsworths wife wasnt happy and made her husband come back to merseyside. carsley has regularly stated its sometimes difficult with his family in the midlands. vdm has on occasion pointed out that it has been difficult to settle with his family still in italy.
i'd be interested to know the source of the rumour about AJ's wife, being fair they havnt been in the northwest/merseyside/cheshire for 12 months yet.
ok, now lets tackle selling. we sold kilbane, we sold davies, we let weir go and had to accept a token sum for the deal to actually be legal, we sold gravesen, we sold bent, we sold kroldrup. All clubs sell, all clubs buy, i dont reckon west ham are in for AJ for 20million, there are a couple of spanish lads that are currently hot property that could be signed for that region of fee, and it appears west ham have the resources to compete with wage demands also (david villa, and another lad)
would selling AJ be a sign of lack of ambition? i suppose it depends on the fee and who was brought in to replace him, part of the moyes side has been how a player fits in with the side, he doesnt buy individuals, rather - pieces of a side that work well together. for this reason i have heard sighs of relief that barton wasnt brought in, me personally i wouldnt like jermaine defoe anywhere near goodison because of his attitude.
finally, in the pompey game moyes raised AJ's arm to the gwladys as a tribute to all he had done this season, score the goals, play on through referee and press persecution, play on through injury, and never once complain. lets also remember that AJ has had to play with not the best midfield providing chances for him, with a solid left footer to balance the side, our attacks wouldnt be so lop sided and allow the opposition to simply stifle arteta. we will get more from AJ when we address the balance of midfield.