Friday Update: Hleb & Flamini latest 25 April, 2008

Happy Friday! And it’s a busy (I miss-typed that ‘busty’ there, no it’s not a busty Friday I’m afraid) one as usual so I’m just going to get on with it…

Wenger is sticking to his deadline of April for Flamini’s contract Arsene still believes that he wants to stay but Matty’s got 5 days and 5 hours to sign something or it’s bye-bye. Arsene has made it clear that there is an offer on the table; it’s now up to him:

“I respect our wages structure. We do not pay – a little bit more, a little bit more. We have made an offer. We think it is decent and that is it.”

Personally, I think Flamini is still deciding where to go. If the above is true, then Mathieu would’ve told Arsene that he’s not interested and we would’ve heard by now, unless we’re just not being told about it. If he still hasn’t made his mind up, then he’s leaving it very late and I’m sure a few of us are going to be a little bit pissed off with him even if he does stay.

It still looks like we won’t find out until the 1st May. I just want it over with to be honest.

Alex Hleb’s future is in doubt too and this week Inter have publicly come up saying they are interested. However at today’s press conference Arsene Wenger has told us he’s not happy about that. He says that he’s had no contact with Inter Milan and for them to come out with these comments “is not acceptable”. He says it’s actually illegal but he hasn’t reported it to FIFA.

Arsenal News Review is reporting that Hleb has gone but to be honest with you I don’t really listen to what he has to say. He says he has a trustworthy source where he has got this information but I’m not deciding anything until I’ve seen it on Arsenal.com.

After this interview with Thierry Henry there has been a bit of talking about him returning to England. He hasn’t had the best season with Barca but he’s going to put that right with a screamer at Old Trafford isn’t he? Yes he is. Wenger was asked today whether he’d consider taking back Titi and he didn’t rule it out. I think there is a lot of respect between the two guys and he says they often watch each other’s teams on TV and trade helping tips. I don’t think Thierry would ever come back to Arsenal in a playing role, however we could do with a left winger…

Next up we face Derby, that’s on Monday night. I’ll preview the game on Sunday but Arsene’s said he might play Fabianski. It would be nice to see him given a chance and I think this might be the right time. Flamini could return to action but I think that’s about as likely as him saying he’s play for us for free from next season.

Oh yeah, and just to add insult to yesterday’s post, we have another player out for the season. Bacary Sagna’s brilliant season is over. It’s been a tragic one with the loss of his brother but he’s moved to the Premier League in great form. He was one of our players of the season this year and we’ll all be looking forward to him returning in August.

Right, I think I should go down the pub now. Thanks for reading.