Flamini’s one who’s most certainly off

Already, and the summer transfer season’s not long begun, we’ve been linked with what would seem to be every player under the sun. At the same time, according to certain media, the majority of our players appear to be on the way out. One such player is Mathieu Flamini and sadly, this is the one with some weight behind it. He’s no longer happy at Arsenal and when he says he has to think about his career, he’s probably right. He hasn’t played since February after all, partly down to injury but more down to the emergence of Denilson who Wenger is likely to mould into our new utility squad player and a better one than Flamini at that. There’s also the return of Alex Song to consider, who’ll no doubt be used as further midfield back up if called upon.

All in all, the central midfield department’s beginning to show the signs of some serious congestion, something which I think is enough to put the lid on rumours linking us with central midfielders for the time being.

Flamini was never a brilliant player, never an automatic choice for us. However, his role remained an important one and his being here has made a difference. He’s racked up a nice amount of goals this season and let’s not forget his filling in at left back for Ashley Cole last season which worked so well. It’s a shame that he’s off but an inevitable shame. He’s good enough to ply his trade elsewhere where he’ll be granted more first team opportunities after all and I can certainly see his future lying with a French club who do alright for themselves.

You can understand his frustrations which stem, he himself has claimed, from not playing a part in any of the cup finals we’ve been involved in during his stint as a player, notably the Champion’s league final because while he wouldn‘t usually be considered for such an important fixture, he’d been heavily involved in getting us there. There’s the argument he deserved to be there on that merit alone though it’s not a game to be taken likely and with Cole’s availability, you can understand the gaffer’s decision to drop him, though it must’ve come as a blow.

Just a shame that we’re unlikely to make a profit as Flamini can legally buy out his contract if he wants and will probably do so.

•  Word from the Star on Sunday is that we’ve made a cash plus player offer for Fernando Torres. I doubt the validity of this being the first I’ve heard about it all, that I’m sure a striker is not Wenger’s priority and Torres will probably cost too much.
• Peterborough are leading the chase to sign Jay Simpson, a player in our youth ranks who made history by netting the first hat-trick at The Grove.
• William Gallas and Abou Diaby have both been called up to the France squad for the Euro 2008 qualifiers where France will face Georgia and Ukraine next month. No surprise with Gallas but it’s nice to see Diaby continue to be selected and deservedly so. He’s made two recent appearances for the international side already.
• Birmingham City are hoping to seal a loan deal for Johan Djourou and are waiting on a response from Wenger. I don’t see it being accepted though as that’ll result in a shortage of central defenders, something we won’t want especially when we could be losing Kolo Toure for up to six weeks to the African Nations and given Gallas’s injury history.
• There’s a nice bit about Pires’s return from injury and how he’s been doing well with Villarreal here. I saw him play against Barcelona and for someone who’d been out for a long time, he did exceptionally well. All the best to him and may he stay injury free in the future.
• No longer is he on the move to Barca. Nope, Henry’s now off to Inter and in exchange, we’ll be getting Adriano. This seems all the more logical because president of Inter, Massimo Moratti has come out and said ‘I can say we will be making a major signing this summer which will excite the Inter fans.’ That should be enough proof to suggest that Henry, despite having claimed his future’s with Arsenal numerous times, will be used as bait for Adriano.
• Franck Ribery will decide his future next week, with ourselves and Bayern Munich thought to be leading the race for his signature. Ribery had this to say, ‘At the end of next week we should know more about my future. It is possible that I stay at Marseille, with the prospect of playing in the champion’s league. That can attract me.’ I honestly don’t know where he’ll end up and I guess we’ll just have to wait until next week and hopefully learn more then.

Woo-Kash Fab-Yan-Ski

As has already been reported by the media, we’ve managed to snag Lukas Fabianski. Only, this time it’s quite official. From what I’ve seen of him he doesn’t seem a half bad purchase either. He looks comfortable catching the ball and seems very much an excellent shot stopper, managing to keep efforts out of the net that you don’t expect to be saved. He’s made four appearances on the international scene and he’s been voted the best goalkeeper in the Polish Premier Division for two seasons running. Obviously there’s a slight difference in quality between the English Premiership and the Polish equivalent but he’s only twenty-two and that’s quite a feat. However poor the league may be, you can’t do much better than be named the best in the league for two years running. I think he sounds like a talent and one that could potentially replace Jens Lehmann and what’s more, at twenty-two, solve our worries about the position for some time to come.

The other news on the goalkeeping front is that Mart Poom has paid a trip to the departure lounge and has made a move to Watford. With three goalkeepers on the books already (Jens, Almunia and Poom) and the arrival of Fabianski it was inevitable that someone was going to have to make way. I thought it would be Almunia, in that he had a much better season this time round and proved himself capable enough to play a regular role in a midtable side. With the competition of Fabianski, I assumed Almunia would be off and Poom would remain a third choice, and would be lucky were he to put in another performance for the first team, ever. Although, there’s still time to see off Almunia and it’s certainly something of a possibility. Wenger could turn to Vito Mannone, the young Italian, to play Poom’s role. Mannone spent three months of the 2006/07 season at Championship side Barnsley. He’s barely nineteen but has himself acknowledged that keepers tend to break into first team football later than outfield players and will wait for his chance. With a bit of experience now under his belt, he could be ready to be called upon if needed for the first team squad, though even then it’s unlikely Mannone will get much first team playing time.

It’s difficult to predict what role Fabianski will play this season. If Wenger does intend to keep hold of Almunia, it’ll mean some strong competition for Lehmann. Fabianski is seen as the more likely successor and the prospect of a starting berth in the Germany squad for Euro 2008 will mean motivation for Jens. I think Almunia’s performances will have attracted attention though and the addition of Fabianski could see him being all for a move to pastures anew. I’ll speculate further on what roles our goalkeepers will play in the coming season once we know just who we’ve lost and gained. As yet, I’m not entirely sure business is done for Wenger in the goalkeeping department. So it’s a good luck to Mart Poom who might not have played all that much for us but was there if we needed him and a warm welcome to Lukas Fabianski.

And in other news…

• Barcelona won’t rule out the purchase of Henry says Sky Sports News, which is fair enough. They might well be interested. I doubt highly of course that they will get their man. Last season he hadn’t decided on his future, he hadn’t signed a new contract. This time round both he and Arsene Wenger have consistently told us that he will be going nowhere. He stayed with us last season and I don’t think we’re about to see him do a U-turn in the near future.
• Rio Mavuba has said, in response to speculation linking him with a move to Arsenal, that there’s much competition for a place at Arsenal in the role he plays and that he’s looking for first team football so as to earn himself a place in the national side for Euro 2008. Not that I see it happening anyway. As good a player as he sounds, there is already enough competition and you’d first have to  see some players going the other way before we consider signing him. I’d be all for him staying at Bordeaux another season and keeping tabs on his progress though, something which could well be on le boss’s mind too. Gilberto Silva’s not getting any younger after all.
• According to The Mirror, we’re after Joao Moutinho. A very promising talent, I‘m sure there are a number of clubs out there keeping an eye on him. Word is that we are preparing a £15M bid. He can play pretty much anywhere in the midfield and that will be seen as a bonus. Position wise, he‘s more often than not employed as a central midfielder though of course Wenger could always convert him to the wing if he saw potential there. Reports coming in suggesting that he’s signed a six-year contract at Sporting however kind of dispel this rumour, which quite probably had little truth in the first place.
• Nigel Reo-Coker’s handed in a transfer request. We apparently had a bid for his services rejected in January but even if that was true, I doubt now, with the emergence of Denilson, Wenger will look to further strengthen the central midfield.
• Bayern are supposedly leading the race to sign Franck Ribery. They’re rebuilding the squad after a disappointing fourth place finish and it’s being touted that they’ve made the first bid for his services. The sale of Hargreaves will provide them with some well needed funds and along with a host of other clubs, Bayern have reportedly been looking to sign Ribery for a while.
• Lastly, Togo have lifted the international suspension of Emmanuel Adebayor and two of his team-mates. There was an argument over bonuses owed to the players for reaching the finals of the world cup which now would appear to be resolved, or more to do with Togo not wanting to lose their best players as the African Nations approaches. That’s bad news for us by the way, meaning we’ll end up likely losing another playing to the tournament which runs in the early part of 2008 and could result in losing certain members of the team for a period of up to six weeks.

And so it begins

I’ve been waiting for this, the opportunity to set up a blog and all that. I decided though that I’d wait until the end of the season rather than kick off midway. Well, the season’s finished. We played out our last game along with the rest of ‘em and it will no doubt be long before the lack of football gets to us all. Odd time to begin a blog? I think not. I’ve got plenty to write about this preseason (transfer speculation, actual transfers, weighing up our future chances, season analysis, friendlies etc.) and that’s just getting started.

Second, Arsenal are something of a big club these days. There are plenty of other blogs doing the rounds that follow our fortunes and write better than I do. I know this’ll never become a big thing, basically and the best I can hope for is the odd reader who likes hearing what I’ve got to say. I’m not doing this to become the best or most visited Arsenal blog around and I know there are better alternatives. I’m doing this purely because I want to and as a hobby. I want to get my views on the net and if no one else wants to read them that’s fine. I’ll probably still trudge along. And hopefully, when I begin to grey, I’ll still be here, still writing, and talking about how once upon a time Arsenal played beautiful football. That’s a far fetched ambition maybe but I love writing about the club and don’t envision ever getting bored with it. There’ll always be something to talk about, as far as I’m concerned, and I look forward to talking about it all.