If I'm honest (and I try to be all the time) Raul had nowhere to go. He wasn't getting what he'd be promised, he wasn't looking like getting on the pitch often, and a deal that could see him playing more football was stalling over his valuation. I do not for a second believe that a submission of a transfer request by this guy was in any way a mercenary act. He wasn't happy because of the way we as a club were treating him.
While it's true that he left because he wanted more money, that was money we as a club undertook to pay him. He's been extremely unfortunate and actually I feel a bit for the guy. He was hired by people who didn't know what they were doing, most of whom did not have honest intentions about much of anything (would H&G really have given him a wage increase were they still here?), be played his guts out for the club even though his field position changed from game to game, and scored some REALLY important goals for us. And now he realizes he's actually been screwed over. Don't forget that he left Porto to join us, the same Porto who won every competition they entered last season.
This is as far as one can get from Torres or Mascherano who put personal interest above football or the club; this is a guy we cheated. He can hold his head high, and I hope he has a more successful spell at Chelsea because he's a good player who deserved a lot better than we gave him.
