Who, Flamini ? Sadly not, he spent the best part of 3 years on the bench/in the stiffs then got a chance when Gilberto went and played very well, already in teh last year of his contract he announced he wasn't interested in staying and was off to Italy for a lottery win salary. Now a free agent ? How many of them are there amongst CL clubs ? He'll be another Sol Campbell/Jens Lehman 2nd time round, a shadow of a former self...
I think Flamini deserves some defending here.Arsenal let him enter the last year of his contract and if rumours at the time are to be believed he was not going to be offered a new one.As you say he came in for Gilberto and played well and it was only then that he was offered a new contract.At the time I really didn't blame him for telling us to **** off.
Actually i thought Campbell, Lehmann and Henry all came back in and did a decent job as back-up for us. Plus they are different to Flamini in that they where all right at the end of there careers, whereas Flamini is still only 29 (a couple of years younger than Arteta). He will be a good experienced player to have in the squad. He has played in the league before and he has CL experience. Having played at Milan and Arsenal he is used to being on a big stage. He will also give us good depth, able to play in midfield or at RB (meaning if we have to use Sagna as a CB we have more options than just Jenkinson for the right side of defence). He isn't the big signing we are all hoping for and i don't think he will be a guaranteed starter or anything, but a useful addition to a thin squad and better in quality than the crappy deadwood we have moved on. I'm happy to bring in players like Flamini and Cabaye, we just need to go for a signing or two who will definately improve our starting 11 as well.
Maybe. Everyone will like the stories about him refusing the park in the players car park whilst training with us etc etc etc but whether he was offered a new contract or not (in 2008) before Gilberto got injured the fact he was embroiled in contract turmoil whilst at Marseille (assured club he would sign a contract before leaving on a free to us) says the may has no loyalty, and when he refused to sign a new contract at least 6 months before the end of the season and signed (predictably) to the highest bidder it pretty much confirmed it for me. At 29 he's still got some miles left, but how come he's a free agent ? Surely if he was still a top player someone would have snapped him up before the end of August ? And when was his last France cap ? They've been pretty ****ing guff for a few years now yet he still can't get a shot ? Sorry but I'm not sold....
this , this signing speaks volumes about where we are . If anyone is actually impressed by the RE signing of THIS player , ( he aint TH14 ) i feel sorry for them .
If it is our only signing it may go some way to showing where we are at. If he is one of a few signings then he will be a solid, experienced addition to the squad. You have to look at the transfer for what it is - and this is clearly not meant to be our big game changing signing.
Yes agreed, but in previous years we've been short on quality but had plenty of squad options, this year we're short on both, I just wish we had used all our efforts on improving the quality of the team in June and July when we may have been able to sign top players who would have had a pre season with us and be acclimitised already. Also there's every chance that every club has two prices for their players, one for everyone else and a figure 25% higher if it's AW on the phone....
I think we wasted valuable time going after Higuain and then trying to get Suarez away from Liverlool. Last season though, it was different. We did all our business early, and then nothing.
Liam Brady has said on RTE that Arsenal fans could see a few susprises in the transfer market this week
I think the Suarez thing was a red herring to force Reals hand (to buy Suarez) allowing us to get Benzema. Of course all this after we lost out on Jovetic and Higuain, ultimately if Real are prepared to pay £86m for Bale then Higuain has to be worth £31m even if we were getting ****ed over by a greedy club who had previously agreed a lower figure....
