I think some have convinced themselves that EVERY transfer we complete these days comes 'out of the blue' when in reality that's only happened a few times. Therefore this kind of protracted affair seems bad, even though it's pretty normal for any transfer of a first teamer from a club that doesn't need to sell.
Aye exactly. For every out of the blue transfer like Cabaye & Cisse, there's a Ben Arfa & Debuchy. When a club doesn't need or want to sell it's harder. I think we'd be pretty p*ssed off if some club bid £15m for Cabaye and we just went, "oh, go on then".
Cabaye wasn't out of the blue.