It's a fine line though Peter. Regards the Arsenal comparison, Wenger got rid of Overmars and Petit when both were on the decline, and it was proven by them not doing anything near what they did at Arsenal once they left - Fergie applauded this and said it was the sign that Wenger was a top manager, because he sold them when he knew they'd hit their peak and were on the wain.
Their policy in recent years has been different. They've had their hands tied financially, so they have lost their top players consistently. Wenger is a specialist case because of his scouting skills and ability to spot a player, it's a policy sustained well in that sense by his own strengths, rather than the strength of the policy. Like David Moyes doing well on a shoestring with Everton, the policy of them spending next to fuck all each year and eventually losing what good players they have is a poor one, the strength of their manager's ability to work within that structure goes someway to counteract that, but it's never given the benefit of being used in tandem with building and investing, so it's a policy that's essentially in place to help balance the books without any 'actual' success in terms of silverware. That might be of benefit further down the years, by providing the foundations when they might be on a better footing, but in the meantime...
Back to selling players at their most profitable stage - at the end of the day, you have to be shrewd enough to accept that selling players at peak age and bringing in top quality youngsters is a system you can rely upon - it rarely is, because selling is always a gamble, as is buying, as we well know. People advocating this are the same ones who are unhappy with us losing Masher, Torres, Alonso and replacing them with players like Henderson. In turn, you have a Fernando Torres in your team, at his peak. A Ronaldo wants to join you, wants to join up with such players and then finds out your selling the Torres to fund their move. Happy? I'd doubt it. I know it doesn't always happen that way, but it's a factor, you sell your best players enough times then you start to get the tag of being a selling club, no matter how many good players consistently go through your books. We've seen it with us. We lost Macca and Owen, we nearly lost Gerrard, then it really started with us losing Alonso, Mascherano and Torres, we became a club that was easy fodder for the Madrids and Chelsea's of this World.
Every player has their price, you just don't say it and you certainly don't get to a point where everytime a team offers to buy your player at your 'head' price, you say "ahh well, that's good money that". Good money can be wasted in one fell swoop. Meanwhile you've created another fucking big hole in your team that needs filling, and the never ending jigsaw scenario continues.
