Friday, May 2, 2008

Flamini Past His Due Date, Edelman Leaves

Hello all. So we're finally into May and Mathieu Flamini still hasn't signed a contract with us even though Arsene set him a deadline of April 30th, so it's safe to say that he is gone. He is healthy again so he may play against Everton Saturday in what would be his last home game with Arsenal.

According to the Daily Mail, Flamini has asked for the ridiculous sum of 144,000 quid per week, which is "similar" to what Milan offered him. Piss off then Flamini, it's as simple as that. If I was Arsene I wouldn't be offering him over 50,000 a week either. That's how Arsenal works and if you throw it off now because of one good year it's going to mess up our whole system. Flamini has been at the club for four years, and while he has been great this year, before that he was shite. Why would we give him that much money off of one good year? People say it will be hard to replace him but I've got the solution. Re-sign Gilberto and bring in a 22 year old that can learn from him. Gilberto did well against Chelsea and against United and clearly has something left to give, plus he is a true leader and loves the club. He isn't going to ask for ridiculous wages and he won't ever be a problem in the locker room. Get rid of Flamini, let him piss off to Milan for that kind of money and play in the UEFA Cup, ya mug.

The other big news currently with Arsenal is the departure of Keith Edelman. Now there are a lot of different stories surrounding this departure but I'll tell you what they all say and then I'll tell you what I personally think. The Mirror says that Edelman and Arsene didn't get along very well and Arsene sort of encouraged the other board members to get him out of there. ArsenalInsider says that not being able to re-sign Flamini may have cost Edelman his job, and also says that Stan Kroenke could be asked to take a bigger role on the board now. Remember when everyone hated Kroenke before Usmanov came along? Kroenke looks like a saint next to that pudgy twat. And The Times says that Edelman was just a penny-pincher and that Arsene never really had all the money to spend that we thought he had.

Now I don't think that Arsene forced him out of his job. I really don't. Keith was a big player in getting us our new stadium which has really brought in a lot of money for the club. I think what it really is is a combination, Keith is all about business and not football, so he tried to save a lot of the money that came in to run a better business and not caring so much about the product on the field. Feel free to disagree, this is just my view.

Arsene Wenger spoke about the wage structure of the club and reminded people that while Arsenal do bring in a lot of money there is 360 million in debt on the stadium that is being payed off, which is yet another reason not to pay Flamini ridiculous wages.

And lastly, in transfer news we have been linked with Sydney FC's Mark Milligan. He's apparently had a trial with Arsenal before and word is he was about to sign with us previously but couldn't get a work permit. I've never seen nor heard of the man and think that the A-League to the Premier League is quite a stretch but who knows.

Match report if I get time before I go coach tomorrow, if not enjoy the game. Cheers. I'll leave you with this video of Cesc Fabregas on fire. He's the greatest.

1 comment:

WEG said...

If Flamini was this good for the rest of his career, would he be worth 70,000 a week? I think so. He plays really well for the team, and it'll be hard to find someone who matches us as well. I think the doubt is whether this improvement will be lasting.

I agree that 144,000 is too much, but that's because Milan are effectively paying him the transfer fee as well.

And yes, Mark Milligan would be amazing for the Arse. The A-league is probably on par with the MLS (pretty shite). But he's Australian!