Over the years there have been many players to have left us that have felt like a dagger to the heart.
If we mentioned them all, you would still be reading this blog after the World Cup has finished.
The nature of the game, many more players will leave us than retire with us. Here is my list of most disappointing departures:
Most disappointing departure – Robin van Persie
What a player RVP was. The club could, and should, have done more to keep him.
Even now it still annoys me. He could have gone on to be an Arsenal legends.
His just sums up where Arsenal were as a club at that point. Unable to meet the ambition of any decent player.
I do not have as much animosity towards him as maybe I should. Football is a short career and we could not guarantee what he wanted, trophies. He was also not home grown like Ashley Cole
He says that we never offered him a new deal and that AFC got tired of him.
Surely this cannot be true, but whatever the truth, we should have done everything we could to keep him.
Most bitter departure – Ashley Cole
I really do not need to go too much into it. I do not think I have seen Arsenal fans throw as much hatred towards a single player for leaving.
In those seasons he played for Chelsea, you would never hear a good word said about him, never hear anyone trying to justify his decision.
Also rans…
Emmanuel Adebayor – That celebration when he ran the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the AFC fans was nasty, you don’t do that. Thinks that he’s misunderstood. No he isn’t, we just loathe him.
Samir Nasri – Another one following the money, very good player, but not as good as he thought he was.
Unhappy departure – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
I liked Ox.
On his day he was a very good player, but plagued by injury. I don’t think we’ve missed him, but I did want him to stay.
Bemused departure – Joe Willock
I always felt that he was a good player and that letting him go was a mistake that could bite us. I hope it doesn’t.
No hard feelings departure – Theo Walcott
He was a very good player on his day and a top bloke. His time had come to leave us. I wished him all the best on his departure.
Also rans…
Danny Welbeck – I always felt that he had real potential. He had serious pace, but he was injury plagued and lacking a that killer instinct that strikers need. Really liked him though.
Alex Iwobi – Promised much, but never really delivered. Glad to see he’s doing ok at Everton, even though they’re a crap team.
Who was your most disappointing Arsenal departure?
Paul
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
frank stapleton leaving annoyed and hurt me. i understood liam brady wanting to go abroad and show his skills. but like rvp, when a top players leaves to an enemy, it feels totally wrong. also cesc fabregas leaving was very annoying. we all understood him wanting to play for barca, but he was an incredible player.
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Most disappointing departure ever is Patrick Vierra, never able to find an equal replacement for years afterwards.
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For me the saddest departure was Rocky … never wanted to leave, buying Arsenal merchandise and crying in the shop when he was told he was surplus to requirements followed by his slow decline etc etc.
ALSO … Jose Antonio Reyes … if only every Arsenal player had encouraged him in the same, positive way that GOD10 did he might not have found London so inhospitable but … some players who offered nothing but negative criticism (maybe due to thinking that he could become their replacement?) is never going to help a young player to settle. His goal on 4 May 2004 saved us from a losing position against Portsmouth which would have ended the second chance of “Invincibles”. Possibly he might still be alive although driving at the speed he liked to will always be a serious risk to life and limb.
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Without doubt my most disappointing departure was Liam Brady, also rans Frank Stapleton, Patrick Vieira.
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Fabrigas,Alexander song,Hleb, and Nasri it was very painful when they depart from Arsena.
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When Chippy left I was gutted, took me (and the club) a good few of years to get over that one. Loved Chippy, he still makes my all time Arsenal eleven.
Rocky leaving was a sad old day but I was more gutted for him than I was the club. Rocky was a proper Arsenal man, every time he stepped out onto the pitch you knew how much the club meant to him and you knew how much that decision would have hurt. It was a brutally cold decision but it was ultimately proven to be the right one.
As for the rest, the older you get the easier it is to just move on. None of those mentioned bothered me in the same way. The only other one that left me gutted was Charlie George leaving, that was another sickener because he was another proper Arsenal man, I went to the same school and he was a good pal of mine.
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