All summer long almost every other transfer story was either about a big club trying to sign a player away or an unhappy player wanting to leave their club. From Tevez at Man City, the Fabregas and Nasri sagas at Arsenal, Luka Modric and Tottenham to the Joey Barton explosion at Newcastle, it seems that there are players that can be sold for a lot of money that just cannot seem to break away from their clubs.

It’s a strange fear. the clubs get a feeling that their star is unhappy and know that if they have to leave, the club would like to turn some a profit on it. It’s simple and smart business and while it seems that teams will pay the exorbitant amount of money to get these guys, the original club always grows gun shy about selling them. Even Man City who usually is never shy about buying people begins to wring their hands together when it comes to letting go.

I guess the question in all of this is why? Obviously you never want to lose one of your top guys, but if someone is willing to pay you can always pick up others and most importantly, wouldn’t you want to keep that all important team chemistry intact by cutting lose the guy who doesn’t want to be there?

I look at the Cesc Fabregas story and scratch my head at how Arsenal will not only not accept the slightly lower (slightly in terms of the millions of pounds offered) bid from Barcelona, but also risk Samir Nasari leaving over the whole saga. It’s simple psychology; Fabregas wants to leave, you want to keep him but you know deep down that forcing him to stay leads to issues that you cannot fix. So you sell, you cut bait and break it off and you use the money you made to grab youth or bargains.

Liverpool was ahead of the curve when they sold Fernando Torres last season. We heard rumblings of Torres being unhappy, the team was in an ownership transition and changes were afoot. Liverpool got to unload Torres to Chelsea for a lot of money and effectively turn Torres into Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll, two guys who can essentially cover the burden that once rested on one. The culture was changing at the club and they chose to perform a brave stance to usher in a new era; success or failure be dammed.

Sports, no matter what sport, are a series of eras. You watch your team hopefully climb from the gutter to the stars by a series of development of youth or the right signings and you know during your successful period that eventually it will end. The hope is knowing and having the foresight to see it early and plan for the future so you can keep a somewhat steady flow of success. It never works to have an unhappy player in the club, and making that move to unload the player is not only a smart decision but a sign that you are entering into another era for the team. It’s all timing and the art of letting go.