Bye Bye Mathieu 6 May, 2008

Well it has been officially announced on the AC Milan website for some time now but tonight they’ve finally decided to update Arsenal.com with the news that Flamini will move to Milan in the summer. My current thoughts are: Well thank fuck that’s over. I’ve been waiting for them to announce it on Arsenal.com for bloody ages so I could talk about it on here but AC Milan’s site beat us to it.

It’s been a very long process, the decision on Flamini’s future has gone up and down, left to right and every possible outcome discussed. It’s a shame he’s decided not to stay with us but at least we’re still not left in the dark about it.

Flamini has had an incredible season with us this term; I would even go as far as saying he was probably our best player this campaign. It looked like he was certain to leave last summer but for some reason he didn’t and he actually ended up starting our opening games of the season. At the time, the explanation for this was that Gilberto Silva was still tired from international duty.

Mathieu got a little run in the side and he never shifted since. Gradually, but quickly, people started to realise that Flamini was some player. After a couple of months, he became irreplaceable, forcing Gilberto to the bench, the man who was favourite to become the new Arsenal captain after the departure of Henry.

Flamini was technically brilliant but the thing that stood out for me was his commitment. He gave more than 100% every single game, despite the opposition and chased down every ball. He formed a great partnership with Cesc and it was no surprise to see us rise to 1st in the league.

He became a fans favourite and Gooners were calling for a new deal. However, as time went on his situation became more worrying. I was always confident he’d stay; I always thought that the contact just hadn’t been sorted out yet. However by about March I just realised it was never going to happen. We were all praying for him to stay, but it came apparent that Mathieu was after a very generous salary and was not afraid to look elsewhere for it.

We could never compete with Europe’s elite and a move to Italy or Spain looked likely for the Frenchman. There’s one thing I’d really like to say though, I totally admire the way Flamini has gone about his transfer. He has been incredibly committed in every game he was selected for, even though his future was in doubt. That is a fantastic quality and proof of a true professional. Right up until that injury at Anfield, he gave absolutely everything for Arsenal and very once showed that his mind was elsewhere. And for that I admire him and wish him good luck at his new club and wherever he goes after that.

So he’s chosen AC Milan, the team that we outclassed at the San Siro and knocked out of the Champions League. They’re not doing too great in the league this season either, currently they’ve just scraped into 4th but that Champions League spot is by no means guaranteed yet, they have a lot of work to do.

You’d have to question Flamini’s ambition if he’s signing for a club that might not necessarily be in Europe’s top competition next year. Well it isn’t really about that for Mathieu. We know that he’ll do his everything for the team, no matter what the prize is. But the main reason he’s chosen AC Milan, is for the money.

I heard that he’ll be getting 144 grand a week at Milan. Now I don’t know whether that’s Pounds or Euros, but even if it is that’s still close to £90,000 a week. That incredible money either way and you’d have to be mad to turn it down really.

I don’t blame him for going one bit, but I just wished that Arsenal meant more to him than the money and he stayed. Oh well.

He’s still officially our player until 1st July, he’s signed a pre-contract agreement with Milan or something like that which means we’ll still be paying him until the end of his deal, nice work I suppose!

Both he and Ashley Cole have left Arsenal at times when they are close to becoming Arsenal’s best players. Both moved on to make the most of the money that is available in football. However they way that Flamini has conducted himself this final season will make me love him forever. He wasn’t a cunt about it (like Cole), and just did his job and got on with it. Since cAshley moved to Chelsea his career went downhill, I honestly hope the same doesn’t happen to Matty, good luck mate.