January 13, 2009 – ArseSpeak

Mathieu Flamini’s emergence at the heart of the Arsenal midfield last season was a revelation. Previously used as a squad player, and with is contract not renewed at the beginning of 07/08 he was available on a Bosman last summer and AC Milan snapped him up.

Image courtesy of tpower1978

This dismayed many Arsenal fans, myself included, and this year, rightly or wrongly, Flamini’s absence has been blamed for some of our inconsistent results.

He did form a great partnership with Fabregas, but don’t forget we also lost Hleb, another key midfielder, to Barca, during the summer – and this has weakened our team further.

Some pundits and many Arsenal fans said he was a fool for leaving, and wouldn’t get games in an AC Milan team with the likes of Gattuso and Pirlo, and he would be playing lowly UEFA Cup football to boot. I thought the same, and above all I was sad to see him leave Arsenal.

At AC Milan he has had ups and downs, but is starting to look like a real bargain.

Ancelotti, the manager under whom Henry had a miserable time at Juventus before joining Arsenal, is the Milan manager now, and at the beginning of the season he was looking to see if Mathieu Flamini could be pushed into a full-back role. This utility player label was the one he had tried to shake off at Arsenal, and it seemed like he was back to square one at the San Siro:

“I had also played this role a couple of times at Arsenal, but I discussed his matter with Arsene Wenger and told him my natural position is in midfield.”

Flamini has started to get more games in central midfield, after a stint where Gattuso was injured, and is becoming a regular, although he only came off the bench in the 88th minute against Roma at the weekend. He has played in 13 games this season and Milan are 3rd in Serie A, 9 points behind Mourinho’s Inter. Their UEFA Cup campaign is also going well, they face Bremen in the round of 32 in February.

So Flamini isn’t doing badly – he has put in some of his commited performances for Milan – but he has sacrificed Champions League football and a guaranteed first team place. Arsenal’s form has been inconsistent this year, we might not even finish 4th, so although I hate to say it, if Flamini can hold down a place at AC then the move might have benefitted him.

A note: Read Flamini’s stats for AC Milan this season here (i.e. games played etc.!)

According to news reports Nicklas Bendtner told Fabrice Muamba of Bolton the Arsenal line-ups on Saturday, before they were officially announced. If true, this reveals an unprofessional streak in Bendtner, as dressing room confidentiality is essential to the workings of any football club. Bendtner and Muamba obviously know each other, having played in the youth system at Arsenal and at Birmingham, but even between friends you cannot act unprofessionally on the match day.

The quotes are dubiously sourced from the Sun:

“One of Bolton’s staff told Arsene after the game they knew their team well before the team sheets were handed in. When Arsene asked how that was possible the Bolton coach replied Bendtner told them.

In the end Bendtner scored the winning goal, and I hope that these rumours aren’t true, because it will only reduce his popularity among Arsenal fans, a misguided few of whom are already on his back anyway.

I think he is a great young player, with potential to go far, but like all players he is going to have to work hard to be consistent. He isn’t first choice yet, and only good performances can change that.

Meanwhile Arshavin has been fueling more transfer speculation:

“In some games last season, we played football which was very similar to that of Arsenal,”

“I would prefer my present No 10 but in the team where I hope to move it’s not vacant. So I’m ready for any number they are going to offer me.”

This doesn’t neccesarily mean Arsenal, many clubs have already assigned their no. 10 shirts, but he is hinting at something here. The fact that it’s so blatent makes me think we won’t sign him, and that this is just his way of finding a buyer who will pay Zenit for him – he is obviously desparate to leave and play in a more competitive league.

There’s not much point listening to any of this speculation because it is all just posturing for the media for alterior motives. Until deals are done nothing is certain!