Friday Update: Hleb & Flamini latest 25 April, 2008
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News.trackback
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.
lets ship hleb and flamini out, flamini is trying to hold the club to ransom for one “above average” season, whilst hleb has obviously had his head turned by so-salled italian giants. Why we are on the subject of players leaving then perhaps we should off load sicknotes messrs rosicky and van persie, the pair have contributed very little to the team over the past two seasons and are no more than a drain on our resourses. And does anyone agree that wenger has cost us the title this season with inept tactics and a failure to strengthen the squad which exposed us since christmas.
yeah, i suppose we will be told these players need another season to shine………yawn!
i reckon we need a centre half, preferably not of the luzchny, whyte,meade or pated or that latvian dohnut……..was he latvian? We alsso could do with a lightening winger and a top drawer striker, im still not convinced about adebeyor but think he deserves another season. Hopefully vela will come into the squad as he is the real deal.
pated or pates?
colin
Personally I dissagree and think you’re talking bollocks
how about ben arfa, villa and richards for a start, a decent goalie and perhaps a new away strip!
Hleb can go as far as I am concerned. About 8 goals and 10 assists in 3 seasons is just not good enough no matter how skilful he is. Robert Pires he aint and never will be.
Flamini would be a huge loss. He has been awesome this season and to be honest 55k a week for a top midfielder is not very much these days – no matter how much money it is to you and me.
Arsenal seem to be happy being financially sound, gallant losers. Until we pay better wages we will always be vulnerable to bigger clubs paying them more. If we can’t afford it even with the most expensive tickets in the world then I question how much the move to the Emirates has benefitted us currently. It will pay dividends I assume in the long-run but by then Cesc and Wenger will be long gone.
well said kos although i disagree about flamini, in my opinion he has had a great season but still isnt worth breaking the bank for. its somewhat of a miracle that we maintain our top four finish year after year with our outdated wage structure but i believe it needs total restructuring before we will win the league again.
I agree with you willie. I don’t mean for us to crazy and pay ridiculous, Chelsea-style amounts, just enough to compete for the players that we need either to buy or to keep.
Flamini would be hard to replace for less that nothing in transfer fees and 55k a week. He also has a great understanding with Cesc which is priceless. He is a leader and he gives the team urgency which they lack without him. Losing him for nothing would be a disaster.
Why did we sell Diarra when he was a ready-made replacement and for £5.5m which is nothing these days?
But isnt flamini showing a lack loyalty to arsenal, we have made him the player he is, i mean this time last year he was contemplating a move to birmingham!!
I think Hleb and Flamini would be a serious loss. Everyone seems to think Arsenal have tons of money to throw around. In fact it’s run more like a gentlemens’ club. Staying within budget, making a profit et al. That’s why the big names don’t come to Arsenal because they don’t pay big money for players despite having a couple of billionaires as shareholders. As long as the structure stays the same, don’t expect any big name signings but discoveries a la Hleb, Sagna et al.
You sad bastard glory-hunter placcy fans masquerading as Gooners get on my tits and no mistake.
running a football club ain’t the same as playing Championship manager computer games. We finish a very respectable third inthe league the season after losing maybe our greatest ever player and all you lot can do is reel off a load of Billy Big Balls star names that we now supposedly have to buy. You’re like a stuck record: Villa, Huntelaar, Richards, blah, blah, blah.
What will be will be and whatever his failings this year, Arsene knows a damn sight more than any of us how to run a club, so leave Le Boss to it.
Or piss off up the Bridge.
They try and buy titles there, y’see.
the trouble with dicovering players and then turning them into world classs ones is that we are always going to be a nearly team because just as we get any sort of team to take to the next level they all leave. Admittedly they all usually regret leaving but that is small comfort to us suffering fans. The most ardent fan must surely know that its only a matter of time before our crown jewel gets itchy feet and once the daily rags get there grubby hands on the case it will be season after season of speculation until we all get fed up with it and just want him to leave. That is Arsenal FC.
Calm down hugh.
Of course Arsene knows more that us! I am just not convinced that we have enough money to compete with the biggest clubs whether Wenger wanted to spend more or not. I want Arsenal to be at the top and winning trophies – surely you want the same.
Please, just because we dare to criticise the club does not mean we should “piss off up the Bridge”. I have supported Arsenal, actually going to games, for 30 years and I find your suggestion extremely insulting.
hugh,
take your head out of your backside,
Mugs like you who are happy at finishing 3rd and 4th season after season are deluded. I have followed Arsenal for 40 odd years and every year i expect Arsenal to win the league not just finish in the top 4.
Give me 1 good reason why any arsenal fan should put up with your vision of success?
Dohnut
Hughie,
You are wrong!
Well said rourkes drift.
I am sick of finishing behind Chelsea and United, underachieving as ever in Europe and losing players every season. I am not saying we are hopeless, I remember the Don Howe days, just that I want us to take that extra step and be the best in terms of Titles and Champions Leagues as well as style.
Right on hugh dellar, glad to know there are still some real supporters out there.
Another one that walks around wearing blinkers!!
Passenal, it amuses me that rourks drift and I do not appear to qualify as “real supporters” having supported the club for a combined 70 odd years. It seems that you need to be content to be the gallant loser with low ambitions who never wants to hear any criticism to qualify as a “real supporter”
According to this, Senderos is leaving and Arsene actually has a spending kitty of £64m but is trying to keep quiet about it:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/senderos-set-to-join-arsenal-exodus-815318.html
Kos, you’re a confused guy. One minute you say Arsenal is underachieving, the next minute you say we’re a small club. If we’re a small club, then maybe we’re actually over-achieving?
Seriously, that small club in SW6 needs more gloryhunters. Go on.
Ole
Not sure when I said we were a small club. I can’t find it anywhere on this page. If losing to the likes of PSV is not underachieving then I am not sure what is.
You are in denial and any suggestion that goes against this is met with orders to go and support the blue scum. I would not wish that on anyone. We are all Arsenal supporters (supposedly) so lets stay together and have lively debate rather than get nasty. We obviously do not agree, which is fine but please don’t mention the blue scum again and also learn how to discuss things
You lot just panic and freak at the first sign of damage.
The margins between success and failure are so small and had Eduardo not had his leg snapped nigh-on in half when he did, so much could’ve been different.
We;ve played most of the season without our best striker – RVP – and yes, of course his fitness is a worry – and then lost another who was just coming into a rich vein of form. Take two top strikers out of Man U or the Chavs and they’d have had similar problems.
Luck – or the lack of it – defines so much of what happens at the pressure end of the season and you lot moaning don’t seem to have any awareness of how close we came.
If we came that close with the shocking luck we got doled out, keep the faith and see where we get next season with a couple of decent new signings, Nordveit, Vela, Wilshire et al coming through and hopefully Eduardo back at some point and a fitter RVP.
Asthe Chavs have shown so hilariously, pissing £80 million and winning sweet FA is easy. For all those of you who think buying a team is the answer, look at all the other teams who out-spent us by a mile – Man City, say – didn’t do them much good, did it?
And if you think the mark of a real fan is just bleating on that you want to see Arsenal win every year, then fine, but life don’t work like that. Wenger’s plan is long term and it’ll come this coming season or the next – and when it does, it’ll be the sweetest sweetest season of ‘em all as it’ll shove it to the doubters and the dreamers.
Patience folks patience.
Or are you those types that press the lfit buttong 55 times in the dream it’ll make the thing come quicker?
Kos-you said our players go to bigger clubs.
i think flamini should make up is mind about staying or living and stop holding us to ransom, the manager should also talk to helb and more importantly we should sign experience players to compliment what we have right now. we should also improve our wages to atleast match other big team in the premiership.
Hleb Gone ? I dont buy it
http://www.arsenalnewsreview.co.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=959&cntnt01origid=30&cntnt01returnid=42
cally gooner 25 April2008
The key isssue if both leave ,is whether Wenger does or doesn’t have funds to buy equivalent replacements.We dont know how good Vela will be next year, nor Song, although both are undoubtedly promising. Ferguson who knows a bit about winning has used Anderson and Nani, both real quality, intermitantly.He hasn’t put the house on them.
If Wenger gets it wrong then the next man out will be Fabrigas, and loyal but deluded,(I mean thick ) , supporters will be telling us thats O.K ‘cos Wiltshire is coming through. And so on.
Some one some where suggested that a combination of forwards made up of Henry, Van persie,Walcott, Bendtner, Eduardo and Adebayor would put the fear of God up Man, Unted.. MAYBE?.. but we`ve had this combo available before. Never the less I have to agree that water has passed under the bridge and they are all wiser and with the backing of Fabregass, Rosicky, and Helb/Famini (if they stay) it could be a formidable force. Add a world class centre half plus a pro winger and I`m sure we could give the tree a shake.
Which brings me to Henry. After much reservation – Yes – but in a reduced role and for one season at a time.
Fabregas could benefit, given the captains role, with Henry acting vice captain and giving him support but a lot would depend on his acceptance in the dressing room and to an extent by the supporters.
I`ve had my say, let`s see what the Boss has in mind……
Personally, I would like both to stay. They are an excellent players. But if their minds are not in our club anymore then we have to let them go. Otherwise, they will play without passion anymore. It is not easy but we have to take.
For Flamini, I do not know what the main issue is, is it about his salary? Or he is sill thinking whether we would like to stay or to go some where which gives more salary.
I hope they both stay.
Mr Wenger, please spend your money. You should look back your past two session. You always ended with something that you do not want. Every year Arsenal has injured player. We shall have reserve player with same level of skill. Other wise, you will end up with the same result.
Look at all the top teams – they spend money galore and play great football- thats what makes them top-and they make great profits lots of full stadiams -the flam can go song is far better- but we need to buy villa or somebody in that mode – or we will stay the has beens which seems to please guy like dellar(narrow minded). or we will never be a great team-look at spurs already signing now even Berbatove thinking of staying-see what good signings can do for a team raises the moral-so dellar you f/off down to the blues – sorry they are winning you wont like that maybe birmingham would be a better choice for you.
I LOVE ARSENAL AND BY GOD HELP US,”SOLDIER GO,SOLDIER COME,THE BARRACK REMAINS SOLID.
thierry henry left,p.viera left,antonio reyes left,nicholas anelka left,sol campbell left…do you hear the MEDIA say anything about them as regards success as compared to when they were at arsenal? its not the players…its the coach,proffessor ARSENE WENGER