Gus, it was well known last summer that Flamini's contract was going into its last year, and the implications of that are obvious but, based on Flamini's mediocre performances up till then, no-one thought it was a priority to get Flamini signed up, you and me included. My guess is Wenger kept Flamini as an insurance policy on Diarra (who, after all, hadn't been given many games at Chavski). On that basis, the club would be anticipating either losing Flamini for nothing (we paid, I think, about £2m in FIFA-ordered compensation) or renewing his contract at about the same level. And either option would, based on what was known last summer, have been acceptable, not only to the club but to the fans.gus ceasar is a legend wrote:Reason 4
Diarra- Huge mismanagement on Wenger's part! It was wrong for Diarra to get out of his pram the way he did but you can see the guy's frustration. Why Wenger did not release an ageing Gilberto in the January transfer window and keep the younger more exciting prospect of Diarra is lunacy. We lost a young French internantional who is now pulling up trees for another club an instead appeased someone who had less then 6 months left at the club anyhow.
I don't think Wenger or the club were wrong for their decisions last summer, but I accept the decision to sell Diarra is different. Like many others, even with Flamini's great performances in August to October, I thought our future midfield pairing would be Cesc and Diarra (which I think I even said in a post here after the Newcastle League Cup game - Khalid will find the link for me...) - Diarra clearly had the ability.
But Diarra turned out to be a tool, and a devisive, disloyal, moronic tool at that. My view is that shipping out someone like that, especially given the premium Wenger places on the collective dynamic, was right, but I can see the argument that he should have been kept sweet with Gilberto being sold or even Diarra loaned out, so he could keep his precious place in the France squad for Euro 2008. If we needed confirmation of what Diarra's true character is like, he supplied it himself when he arrived at Pompey and said he was looking forward to leaving for a big club. I'll bet the Pompey fans were delighted to read that one.
