I'd be happy to follow the example if we had 100m+ per year to spend on wages. Part of the reason they can afford to sell those players (Arsenal especially) is they spend an absolute fortune on wages to lock up some of the best young talent around. We simply don't have the talent right now (despite an improving academy) to replace those players.
As any Arsenal fan will tell you ... they don't buy players (an exaggeration but they do turn a profit most years). They are sustaining themselves not by sell to buy but sell and replace with youth. We simply cannot afford the wages they pay so we can't follow their model.
I think it's a bit of both. I've found a list of their academy graduates who have gone on to be internationals. It includes:
Bendtner, Adams, Bentley, Bothroyd, Ashley Cole, Andy Cole, Gibbs, Keown, Merson, Parlour, Thomas, Wilshere, Frimpong, Szczesny, Dickov, Traore, Fabregas, Larsson, Djourou and Hoyte.
I think only Ashley Cole and Fabregas went for big money. They seem to have sold a lot of their youth products for little or no fee:
Djourou £660k, Coquelin £176k, Bartley £1.1m, Lansbury £1.1m, Bendtner Free, Watt Free, Emmanuel-Thomas £1.1m, Cruise Free, Bentley Free
They trade quite well though:
Nasri £14m> £24.2m
Adebayor £8.8m> £25.5m
Song £3.5m> £16.7m
Van Persie £3.9m> £27m
Toure £162k> £16.4m
Vieira £4.7m> £17.6m
Anelka £660k> £30.8m
Overmars £6.6m> £35.2m
Petit £3.3m> £13.2m
Henry £14.1m> £21.1m