That might be the case, but we allowed this to happen by trying to lowball our best defender.
I completely agree with the second part and I have commented on it previously; it wasn't something that greatly affected us previously whilst Arsenal were/are notorious for letting it happen. Saying that, this sort of thing is starting to become a trend allowing players more options to choose their own career path. We need to tie some of our key players down (James being the standout) instead of this becoming all too common within the club.