Abou Diaby - Injuries Thread

[SPUDMASHER]

You can't blame the guy for taking the money whilst it is still being offered. The problem here is that it should no longer be offered and in reality shouldn't have been since 2009.
In any other job he would have been pulled in about his sickness time and dismissed. Essentially he is just an employee of a business.
I can only think that as it is a workplace caused injury they would be on dodgy ground legally if they cancelled his contract. Oddly enough though, I think they have actually renewed and improved his contract during that time.

[Gunnersaurus]

Could you imagine the meltdown if Wenger gives him an extension because 'he believes in him and he has unfinished business'

[QuartzGooner]

Two things to consider.

One is that he had a serious injury that was complicated to repair.
It caused other subsequent minor "Compensation" injuries as his body had naturally adapted to sharing the load his damaged ankle would have otherwise taken, and so that took a time to re-adjust.
Happens with nearly all major injuries to sports people and regular people alike, but with Physiotherapy and Osteopathy it can be sorted.

To his credit he has at times put in extra summer close season training with a triathlete in order to strengthen the affected areas.

The second is he has a medical condition whereby his body does not metabolise protein efficiently, means he has weaker muscle fibres than would be expected.
I have a friend with similar condition, they have to take tablets for the rest of their life or risk malnourishment despite eating a lot of food.
Bu they are not a professional sportsman.

It is a case of very bad luck for him, and I cannot see how he can have much of a future in top level professional sports.

But the upside for him is he will be financially well off and at a relatively young age can use that cash to find an alternative career.

Did the club mess up by offering him a contract extension?

Possibly, but he did have a run of games post the initial injury, and the club may never have had any set of circumstances like this before and can use them for future reference.

[clockender1]

I can only think that as it is a workplace caused injury they would be on dodgy ground legally if they cancelled his contract. Oddly enough though, I think they have actually renewed and improved his contract during that time.

all workplaces have workers liability insurance for that - and Arsenal have insurance for all their players. which is what happens when a player gets a 'career ending injury'. the club pays the players contract off and gets the insurance money back.

in this case i think Arsenal have chosen not to go that route.

and yes, he is currently on 55,000. twice that of Paul Pogba.

mental.

[OneBardGooner]

Wenger said years ago that his problem is that his muscle fibres are completely fucked and his muscles aren't able to cope with the demands of PL football.

Wenger panicked after Flamini left and started throwing long-term lucrative deals at all and sundry. The problem with Diaby isn't that Wenger has shown a ridiculous amount of loyalty, it was that he gave him a 5 and a half year deal in the first place. As far as I can see anyway, if he has signed a contract since Jan 2010 please correct me.

You've highlighted the problem, Wenger knows yet did nothing to find a variation in training methods to help Abou become stronger and less injury prone...its like buying a Ferrari and attaching a caravan to it....it just won't run as efficiently as you'd expect. He may be a multi millionaire but a career unfulfilled leaves you to become an embittered TV pundit....

What the caravan or the ferrari?

[OneBardGooner]

Could you imagine the meltdown if Wenger gives him an extension because 'he believes in him and he has unfinished business'

Aaaah yes, he drives a Ferrari BUT - Can he pull a Caravan ?

[augie]

I'm still at a loss as to how he can remain at the club on the back of 1 serious injury If you look at a list of his injuries, most have nothing at all to do with dan smiths tackle

11 calf strains on the same leg have nothing to with a tackle. the guy is physically frail as said above.

no point in having talent if you can't use it - you see it all the time in sport, repeated shoulder injuries, or knees or hips. and athletes retire and move on.

i kind of feel sorry for him, because the club has strung him along with the hope and promise of a return - in fact only a week or too ago he said he wasn't worried because he's only 29 and he's got 4/5 years left....

overlooking that he missed from ages 25-29 when he should have been at his prime strength, fitness etc. its only downhill from here.

they would have been kinder to have released him in 2011 or 2012 and let him move on and find another career.

sad all round imho.

Apparently there is a vacancy in the French postal service

[Theoperator]

Apparently there is a vacancy in the French postal service

Not for long I hope

[Herd]

they would have been kinder to have released him in 2011 or 2012 and let him move on and find another career

Not many 0-5 jobs pay $60,000 a week , the club havent strung him along its a mutual thing ,he wants to try and we don't have any option having given him a massive contract for 5 years .

[DB10GOONER]

This is a perfect example for the AKB's (yeah - I said it!! ) when they bleat on about Wenger doing such great work with his hands tied financially. It's bollocks. The money was always there to some extent. Wenger spent it badly and that is what the real problem was. Accepted the money wasn't there to throw around like the chav and Citeh, but it was there to bring in and pay better players.

It was obvious to everybody that Diaby is injury prone and should have been released back in 2011 or maybe 2012 latest. No one could have said we didn't give him the chance to recover from his terrible injury.

He only made 16 PL appearances in 2011, 4 in 2012, 11 in 2013. Yet Wenger gave him an extended contract with a pay rise when that money could have been spent on a player that could play more than 4 times a season. Or in the case of last season; once. Giving Diaby a 5 year contract extension was appalling financial mismanagement. He should have been offered either a pay as you play initially or at best a one year deal. The onus is on him to prove his worth to us, not the other way round ffs!

Similarly Wenger extended contracts for shit and average players and paid them far beyond their worth for years on end. The problem is that Arsene believes he ALWAYS knows best and cannot accept or admit when he gets it wrong about a player. The media helped build up that myth of the "diamond discovered in the rough" in Arsene's early years with us because of the signings of (and profits made on) unknown players like Vieira and Anelka and the profit on Overmars (who had been partly written off after a knee injury before he joined us).

The fact we still pay Diaby £55K a week for ZERO return is disgraceful. He chose to be a footballer. We do not owe him a living. It is a results driven business. Deliver or go do something else.

[g88ner]

It was obvious to everybody that Diaby is injury prone and should have been released back in 2011 or maybe 2012 latest. No one could have said we didn't give him the chance to recover from his terrible injury.

He only made 16 PL appearances in 2011, 4 in 2012, 11 in 2013. Yet Wenger gave him an extended contract with a pay rise when that money could have been spent on a player that could play more than 4 times a season. Or in the case of last season; once. Giving Diaby a 5 year contract extension was appalling financial mismanagement. He should have been offered either a pay as you play initially or at best a one year deal. The onus is on him to prove his worth to us, not the other way round ffs!

I think your timeline is wrong, mate.

From a quick "diaby contract extension" google search, it seems he was offered an extension in Dec 2009...
http://www.theguardian.com/football/200 ... w-contract

So, half way through the 2009/10 season.

in 2008/09 he made 36 appearances.
in 2008/09 he made 40 appearances.

On the back of that, you could say he was over his injury nightmare and deserving of some faith from the manager.... after all, Wenger cleatly rates him highly.

Problem was, after signing the new contract his career has gone horrifically....

2010/2011 he made 20 appearances.
2011/2012 he made 5 appearances
2012/13 he made 15 appearances
2013/14 he made 1 appearance

I don't think he signed a new contract during that injury nightmare and I'm not sure it could have been predicted at the time of the new contract.

The only debate is whether 5 years was too much for a a highly talented player who appeared to finally be over the Dan Smith leg beaker.... and yes, It does seem excessive for a player with much to prove.

[VAVAVOOM 14]

He only made 16 PL appearances in 2011, 4 in 2012, 11 in 2013. Yet Wenger gave him an extended contract with a pay rise when that money could have been spent on a player that could play more than 4 times a season. Or in the case of last season; once. Giving Diaby a 5 year contract extension was appalling financial mismanagement. He should have been offered either a pay as you play initially or at best a one year deal. The onus is on him to prove his worth to us, not the other way round ffs!

I'm starting to subscribe to the theory that Diaby is Wenger's illegitimate love child... I mean, that's the only logical explanation for such faith/money invested in him.

[DB10GOONER]

It was obvious to everybody that Diaby is injury prone and should have been released back in 2011 or maybe 2012 latest. No one could have said we didn't give him the chance to recover from his terrible injury.

He only made 16 PL appearances in 2011, 4 in 2012, 11 in 2013. Yet Wenger gave him an extended contract with a pay rise when that money could have been spent on a player that could play more than 4 times a season. Or in the case of last season; once. Giving Diaby a 5 year contract extension was appalling financial mismanagement. He should have been offered either a pay as you play initially or at best a one year deal. The onus is on him to prove his worth to us, not the other way round ffs!

I think your timeline is wrong, mate.

From a quick "diaby contract extension" google search, it seems he was offered an extension in Dec 2009...
http://www.theguardian.com/football/200 ... w-contract

So, half way through the 2009/10 season.

in 2008/09 he made 36 appearances.
in 2008/09 he made 40 appearances.

On the back of that, you could say he was over his injury nightmare and deserving of some faith from the manager.... after all, Wenger cleatly rates him highly.

Problem was, after signing the new contract his career has gone horrifically....

2010/2011 he made 20 appearances.
2011/2012 he made 5 appearances
2012/13 he made 15 appearances
2013/14 he made 1 appearance

I don't think he signed a new contract during that injury nightmare and I'm not sure it could have been predicted at the time of the new contract.

The only debate is whether 5 years was too much for a a highly talented player who appeared to finally be over the Dan Smith leg beaker.... and yes, It does seem excessive for a player with much to prove.

Sorry, thought Wenger gave him another extension in Mar 2013 as he had "only" 18 months left on his deal. Seems he only mouthed about it in the press. My bad.

What your stats there gloss over though is the fact that even in 2009 and 2010 he was missing games with niggling injuries. The 36 and 40 "appearances" you quote break down to 24 and 29 PL appearances respectively. How many of those games were as sub? How many of those games did we get even near the full 90 minutes out of him? The rest of the remaining "appearances" were in the cups. Added to that those were the only two seasons he got near those numbers. So to offer him a 5 year deal in 2010 is still very bad business as it was very obvious he was injury prone.

In 8 full seasons he has made only 123 PL appearances. Many as sub if I recall correctly. That's an average of 15 a year! And only because the stats (as stats are) are swung that high by the two seasons you mentioned. You can add approx 50 cup appearances to that. Whoopee do!

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

I don't think the Dan *word censored* Smith tackle was the root cause of diabys frailness, back in France his last manager said he was injury prone.....

[mcdowell42]

Have to admit when he 1st came to us I thought he was going to be the new Patrick Vieira, if he was an animal he would have been put down long ago.