My final plea to Flamini + Dimitrov to sign?

Six goals scored, two conceded and all-in-all it was a stroll in Pride Park for the Arsenal boys against Derby. So much of a stroll that I can’t really be bothered talking about it, so I won’t.

What I will talk about is how wonderful it is for the club to still be in with a chance of winning the Premiership with two games to go. However improbable the chances are of Arsenal actually winning it the simple fact that mathematically they can shows the improvement that Arsene Wenger’s side have made on last season. As such, they should be commended for their efforts. 

Hopefully Flamini’s mates will persuade him to stay at ArsenalMoving along to the Mathieu Flamini situation now, and the manager made a rather inconspicuous comment regarding his future as an Arsenal player in the press conference following the Derby game.

“I’m waiting for him to come back to me and tell me whether he’s going.”

As the blog was out of action for so long I’ve yet to give my opinion on this but essentially for the past two weeks I have been crossing my fingers, toes and various other parts of my body in the hope that Flamini will stay. I’ve said time and time again that I thought he was the best player at the club this season and and to lose him would be a real shame.

Nevertheless, the club does have wage structures in place and if they cannot keep him without adhering to what is in place then neither the manager nor the club can be blamed for letting him go. This is more down to how much Flamini really enjoys playing for the club and playing with his mates and I will be holding out until the last second that he will make the right decision, which is of course to stay at Arsenal. Either way, I’m sure we will see how things pan out very, very shortly.

In the off chance that Flamini might be reading this can I just say to him, “Please, please, pleeeeeeeease stay! Pleaaaaaaase!” Glad I got that off my chest.

Other bits and pieces to come out of the Derby game was news of another potential Robin van Persie injury and the manager’s praise for 30-goal Emmanuel Adebayor. It’s all quite run of the mill sort of stuff and not really worth going into in any more detail.

What is worth going into is the relatively exciting word on the street that 20-year-old Bulgarian winger Nikolay Dimitrov may be signing from Levski Sofia. I ran a story way back in January saying that Dimitrov was trialing with the club and given this report I just have a funny feeling that he will be signed soon. Having said that, I had a funny feeling back in January too and it didn’t amount to much so as with the Flamini situation we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully he doesn’t turn out to be another Rodrigo Palacio.

That’s all for today. Can you believe that the boys are still in with a chance of winning the league? It’s utterly, utterly bizarre in my opinion.

What do you think?

Have your say on the win over Derby, Flamini or Dimitrov by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. Pleaaaaaaaaaase stay Flam!!!! If not pleaaaaaaaaase look for another midfielder.

  2. Apparently the Dimitrov “signing” story was, as you feared, a hoax cooked up by some idiots at a blog site where somebody must enjoy torturing Arsenal fans with nonsense.

    The supposed news was attrbuted to the Sofia Echo, but checks there proved that absolutely nothing had been written and that quotes from the player were ficitious.

    I suppose it’s still possible that he could wind up at Arsenal, but several sources familiar with his original trial at the club suggest that Arsene didn’t feel the boy was good enough to make an impact at the level we need.

    Beyond all that, I guess we just wait and see.

    As for Flamini, I’ve considered for some time that he’s almost cetainly gone. If not, he’s picked a funny way to show his loyalty by dragging the club, the manager who gave him a chance and the fans through this period of uncertainty.

    On one hand, I can’t blame Flam for cashing in on the ONLY big year of his career because — simply put — he might not have another one.

    From the club’s point of view, despite Matty’s bust-a-gut attitude and everything he contributed, clearly he’s not a guy from whom AW should shatter the club’s wage structure.

    We’re watching team after team spend themselves into incredible debt and personally I’m delighted that Arsenal has not and will not get caught in that trap.

    Arsene has plenty of other young talents who are in the same position where Flamini found himself during the last close season. He fought for a job, won it and made the most of it. Good for him. But he is NOT a naturally gifted footballer who will turn a team around or — as Ancelotti supposedly said in Milan — the player around whom he intends to build his midfield. If Ancelotti believes that, he’s in more trouble than he’s got already.

    Sure, I’d like to see Flam stay — but only on proper terms and in the right situation. If he leaves, I suspect there will some angst — everyone loves to write off Arsenal — but Wenger has a queue of players dying to play who can play that role. Some of them might actually add scoring and playing more dangerous passes into the repetoire.

    Honestly, I’m FAR more concerned about getting our defense settled. In the end, we lost the league by leaking silly goals. Just look at the list of games we led and then either conceded to settle for a draw or went on to lose. We need stability with the centre backs — Clichy and Sagna are magnificent — because Gallas has gone backwards, Senderos appears on his way out, Toure might wind up as a midfielder, etc.

    Everybody loves buying strikers or thrilling wingers, and I confess that I’d love to have David Villa or Robinho. I think Robinho in particular would be a perfect fit in our side.

    But somehow Arsene has to get the defence straightened out. Fabianski looked uncertain — to say the least — against toothless Derby, and I can’t believe he’s ready to challenge for a spot.

    Centre backs? Is Nordveidt ready at a REALLY tender age. I’ve seen him and despite obvious talent and intelligence, he still lacks strength and savvy that comes with age. I don’t believe Gallas will be back unless there are no other options because if you look at tapes of the games later in the year when we struggled, he was the weakest link. He was responsible for both Derby goals on Monday.

    We need somebody solid and reliable there, so if Wenger is going to make a serious buy, I’m guessing it’ll be someone like Christian Zapata from Udinese. Lord, I hope so because we can win the title next year with the attackers already in house if we just stop shipping needless goals.

    That one area will determine the success of next year’s side.

    Cheers!

  3. please will everyone get a grip re flim flam. Yes he has had a good season, just like the one he had at left back. But now we have a better left back. I would like to keep the flampster but if honest only as a squad player. He is not world class and i dont think he would get in any other top team anywhere in the world. acording to much of what i read it would appear that some people think that he was the best player of the season, yea, better than fabby, cliche (cant spell) sagna addy eddy and so on. I hear today that a.c milan have offered him 60 grand after tax, bigger fools them and if he takes it bigger fool him. Could it be however that he knows something else. that arsen is bringing in a world class midfielder, KAKA!!!!!!!!!!!. Of course not wage structure an all. So i say stay and be a sqad player or go and watch your carear slide down the drain. either way we must move forward and sometimes that means getting rid of some that dont make it so open the emerets doors wide and let go of brentner gilberto boo boo sendy hoyte rasicknote , that will do for now. x

  4. Good points there by C Steve. Of course I’d love Flam to stay, but when you break things down he has only had 1 good full season for us. Admittedly he’s versatile, but to start demanding a wage that breaks our wage structure after one season….??? On the other hand I think that we should keep Gilberto. I know he’s been pretty bad for a lot of this season, but in the last few weeks he’s improved his game (does he know something about Flamini that we don’t?) and his experience can only help a young team. Add to that he’s a genuinely nice hardworking profesional.

  5. If we want the FLAMSTER sign give him £60k a week,thats what Milan are offering him.Think how much it would cost to replace him.He is without doubt our player of the season

  6. Why are we letting good midfielders go.First Diarra which was a huge mistake and now Flamini.Dont forget if Flamini goes to AC Milan we wont get a penny.Bad buiness management

  7. Why does everyone want barry and robinho??
    Barry isnt good enough and robinho has a bad attitude, which is the last thing we need.
    Id rather have djourou in midfield and sign a new centre back replacement. Also we really should go for villa if he wants to come. Hes that extra bit of class we’ve lacked this year when rvp and eduardo were both injured

  8. all i want to say is that pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! flamini this is coming from all arsenal fan from africa pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! flamini stay remember the faith the manager have on you to play you this season please do stay and make arsenal ploud. i believe arsenal can win they league but we need to pray hard.

  9. please tell arsenal wenger who ever is close to him to please try and sign a player because you have faith in this young player one day they we definitely go! please sign barry, robhino, amauri or villa please

  10. Gooners,

    Dont be too worried about flamini. he’d be a no one without MR Wenger so if he wants to throw that in le boss’s face let him-it’ll be the biggest mistake of his life. Wenger is always ahead of his game, he’ll have someone in his place already. and remember Gooners, if matty left in august, we wouldnt have cared at all.

    Manuel
    Sagna-Toure-Gallas-Clichy
    Hleb-Cesc-Pirlo-Ben Arfa
    ADE-RVP
    In Arsene we trust.

  11. The club should do anything possible to let Flamini stay.
    He is a great player.
    I believe Arsenal still have a chance to win premiership.
    Clovis from Uganda

  12. Great comment California Steve. At the end of the day I want Flamini to stay but as you say – only for the right reasons. I think he was cleraly our best player this season and I have a feeling he will maintain his level for some time and for that reason I’d like to see him stay.

    But as I said I don’t think the club can change their policies on contracts to match what he wants. It’s unfortunate he wants so much, but I guess that’s football these days.

    I will be devastated to see him go because personally he’s always been one of my favourite players at Arsenal and I’ve loved watching him play all these years.

  13. Clearly our best player? People get a little over excited about the Flamster. His all-action style brings something to the team, but would anybody here actually trade him for Cesc, Clichy, Kolo, Sagna, or Adebayor? As Arsene would say, “I rate him”, but people seem to go overboard.

  14. I don’t agree vlcgooner. He was more important to our season than Fabregas in my opinion. The urgency he brought to our midfield made the defence more cohesive and made the attack more effective.

    His record is amazing – if I remember correctly Flamini never played a full 90 minutes when Arsenal lost. Maybe just the Chelsea game actually, but even so, I think that says a lot about his impact. I don’t feel I’m going overboard. I don’t think he’s our BEST PLAYER per se, just that he was the most consistent and important performer this season.

  15. Spanish Fly

    you are correct.The Flamster is not our best player but over the whole season he was the one player whose form did not drop.unlike Cesc,Clichy and Ade.We will miss him if as likely he goes

  16. Flam doesn’t own Wenger anything.

    Arsene played him out of his position most of 2006 and used him sparingly in 2007.

    He’s playing better this season because he knew he was out of contract and wanted to get a better contract–and arouse offers from the other big clubs.

    So he’s got we he wanted by working very, very hard and I wish him the best where ever he is playing next season.

    If we pried him from Marsaille then Milan can pry him from us, good riddance.

  17. Flam doesn’t owe Wenger anything.

    Arsene played him out of his position most of 2006 and used him sparingly in 2007.

    He’s playing better this season because he knew he was out of contract and wanted to get a better contract–and arouse offers from the other big clubs.

    So he’s got we he wanted by working very, very hard and I wish him the best where ever he is playing next season.

    If we pried him from Marsaille then Milan can pry him from us, good riddance.

  18. C Steve summed up my thoughts on Flam. He’s quite consistent but in the end if the money is forked out for him I believe the club is paying for consistency and chemistry with Fabregas more that pure football talent.

    Now chemistry is quite hard to achieve but in the end but if I’m going to break the bank to sign a player I’m going to do it because he has amazing football skills and athleticism not because of his chemistry with my current midfield. That might be the wrong approach and I’m no manager but it would seem I agree with Wenger.

    Now looking from Flam’s point of view I see no reason why he wouldn’t walk. Sure he’ll still have respect and admiration for Wenger and his mates but ultimately football is not just something he loves it’s also his living and if another quality team is offering 10,000 or more a week. That all adds up and I think it would criminal to say it’s in his best interest to stay.

  19. Actually C-Bass, that doesn’t quite make sense. A team probably should pay for chemistry unless it thinks it can find it cheaper elsewhere. In the end, you win and lose as a team. If Flamini makes Cesc 20 percent better than he would be with another midfielder than actually he is worth 20 percent more to us than he would be to another squad. Now that doesn’t mean that he is worth what Milan is paying; that I can’t decide.

  20. Perhaps but I’d like to think that a top flight manager and time will build chemistry where as a top flight manager can’t do to much to make a player bigger, faster, stronger and quicker.

  21. Flamini should not be allowed to hold the club to ransome , we all saw how it took Henry 2 full seasons to decide whether to join Barca or not cos he loves the club ,he was willing to stay even with his low wage ( when compared to other players of his class), if fla wants to stay he is welcome but if he chooses to go then I am sure someone will replace him and we will not have to miss him …I am hating him already…any soccer lover who will like to interact with other fans and dicuss any soccer related issues should check out Soccer fan base dot com it is free to join.

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