Reports in Turkey – possibly following the lead of a story in The Mirror – claim Mathieu Flamini could sign a three-year deal with Galatasaray in the next 48 hours.
The Istanbul giants, who have already recruited Lukas Podolski from Arsenal this summer, are understood to have had a €4 million bid accepted for the French midfielder who is in the final year of his contract at the Emirates.
The 31-year-old was a regular in Arsene Wenger’s starting lineup at the start of last season but fell down the pecking order as injuries dissipated and Francis Coquelin came to the fore. In total he’s made 222 appearances for the Gunners during two spells stretching back 11 years.
Speaking last week in Singapore, he noted: “In football everything can move very easily one way and another. I don’t like to look back at the past. We are starting a new season and I’m focused on that one.
“I played a lot in the first part of the season and then I got injured in January and after that the team has been winning nearly every game, so it’s difficult to complain. Everything will be open and I will work hard to get my place back.”
It was suggested a couple of weeks ago that Bastia have also been keeping tabs on the former Marseille and AC Milan midfielder.
As always we’re a little suspicious of the Turkish sports media, however, a move for Flamini certainly makes sense if he’s looking for more regular football.
We’ll plump for a turgid 5 on the poo-o-meter.
Good for all parties concerned. Obviously, we will do well with his cover but if we can get a body in, can’t see much wrong with the Flamster leaving.
Came back for his second spell, had a cracking half at the sh*thole down the road on his return.
So, if he does leave, I would wish him well and thank his second homecoming as he added some much needed bite then.
That is so true. He brought with him the “fighter” mentality which was so lacking at the start of his second spell. And that brought a marked improvement at that point in time. There were even a time when fans called for a double pivot of Flamini-Arteta in games against the big teams. However, for unknown reasons, his performances just seems to go on a slow but steady decline. I think this may be due to a combination of his increasing age, improved premier league standards, improved arsenal team and maybe the fact that he had reached his “ceiling” as… Read more »
the kit man will be delighted.
I’m not convinced he will leave yet. He let his contract run down at every club he’s been at as a professional I believe; Marseille, Arsenal and AC Milan. History suggests he might do the same here. Depends on what he gets offered by Galatasaray I guess.
If he’s replaced in the squad I’m ok with it happening but I’m not opposed to him staying either.
That’s a big if tho
Seems like a good move for both parties. Flamini gets a year or two of regular game time and we get £4 million + some of the wage budget freed up in case Wenger decides to make a move for a big striker or holding midfielder.
€ not £.
Excellent move and he’d be with friends, Istanbul being the new rest home for ex-Arsenal.
Please be true. I’ve no problem with Flamini personally, anyone who plays for Arsenal as much as he has is cool with me as long as they’re not total shitbags on their way out the door. But he’s not good enough anymore.
If it happens it happens
Sign da thing
Good news, so long as we get a replacement that can challenge Coquelin.
ie someone with power and presence and probably taller. To balance the shorter less powerful (though very skilful) players that we have.
Abou Diaby
If he leaves my bet would be that it’s an academy player that steps up. It’s rare to get players who are willing to primarily be benchwarmers, and besides some of our young’uns look pretty handy. Cheap too 😛
I think he feels that he could also use Monreal, Debucy, Kozzer and CC in the role if necessary and in the DM position you don’t want to have a player there that isn’t match fit, so with HB & MD both playing50/50 RB, KG & NM both 50/50 at LB etc etc they can cover at DM.
What is this? I can’t get jiggy with this!
What he’s trying to say is if DH and SR can RT their PJ’s while holding on to their LK’s and FW’s, and 75/25 as a percentage of pi/R squared and if x mapped on to the function of y + 2 in Jupiter rising….means we’ll definitely sign a midfield replacement.
Obvious really,
Hahahaha…. This just made my day!
What?
Feck off galatossers your not having our LB,RB,CB,DM,CM pointy shouty one.
I finally understand E = MC^2
Sorry, I forgot we have some intellectually challenged people on here.
Basically I said that for the DM (defensive midfield) position the manager likes players that aren’t rusty. With some positions we have 2 first choice players (eg. debuchy and bellerin at leftback) if they are both playing half the time then it wouldn’t be a problem for Debuchy to ‘cover’ the DM role if necessary. It’s a similar situation for a few positions, plus we have Chambers and Hayden that can cover the position.
Are you wenger in disguise? Let’s go put get a proven midfield enforcer gain cover for Le coq. I’d like kondogbia, carvalho or maybe even thiago motta
Where do all of you come from? Crawling out of the woodwork and asking for 15m+ backups. We need a young guy who doesn’t expect a spot in the team like the guys you mentioned, but is hungry enough to take it from Coquelin.
Aye…
Possibly Hayden!
What about Siggy Johnsson?
Bielik
There’s a level of irony about you complaining that Wenger shouldn’t give the opportunity of back up DM to Coq to a youngster, when this time last year you were probably one of the people saying the same of Le Coq himself.
I don’t think Wenger wants another DM. I think the way we started against Everton is the ‘Plan C’ should Coq and Arteta be injured.
true but a it’s a bad plan against big clubs
I was thinking this as well. A Cazorla Ramsey double pivot could in theory be as effective as the Arteta Ramsey double pivot that made us the best team of 2013. I wouldn’t even necessarily call it a plan C, I can easily see us starting like that regardless of who is available against lesser teams that park the bus. The problem is that while this could be great as rotation/competition for places option, it cannot replace what Coquelin brings, so we might be in trouble in the big games if Coquelin gets injured. While it might not be what… Read more »
A double pivot?
What the fuck does that even mean?
As for any new potential signing being happy on the bench. Well that’s bollocks, why would we want someone happy on the bench. We either want someone who is better than Coq or just as good keeping both on their toes.
Double pivot my arse.
Off he goes…we thank him for his contributions when we needed him the most…and we will be more grateful if he managed to snap RVP knee and hip in the first match against fenerbahce in the Turkish league.
And then whilst on the floor RVP gets Ashley William’d except this time by Poldi
I want to see Poldi score a goal that deflects in off RVP’s face. The only way to top that is if they could somehow manage a guest appearance by John Terry, who would fall on his face in the leadup to the shot.
Honestly, I hope this doesn’t happen. With the caveat that I also hope he doesn’t have to play too often. While I do enjoy seeing Mathiru cruch all the pieces of Tottenham we come up against, he seems to be losing his legs somewhat. However, by all accounts he and Özil have forged a strong friendship, a ‘bromance’ if you will, and I for one wouldn’t want to see a mopey Mesut. Keep Herr Özil happy, keep Flamini. Simples #ozil4flamjam
Whoa, that’s actually a really important point. Özil would be gutted. I wish the Flamer himself could see this and be inspired to good form by the prospect of letting down his broe
I want him to stay too, he’s dedicated and passionate and I really liked that he came back to the Arsenal. His experience is a positive and he seems like a genuine and friendly guy who is popular in the team as well. That said, I completely understand if he leaves for regular football and that he couldn’t care less if I think he seems like a friendly guy who’s good for the atmosphere in the team :'( For what it’s worth and if he chooses to leave, merci Mathieu et que la force soit avec toi .
Ozil was outstanding before he was in a team with Flamini, and I’m sure he’ll be just fine after.
Mesut’s a genius but let’s be honest, mopey is kinda his default setting anyway.
Ozil is not 15 years old girl who gets mopey and refuses to go to school when her best friend moves to other city.
I hate to see any of our players going there. Second only to the Shithole. Sorry if you don’t agree but no one can forget Copenhagen.
The murdering scum got some pre match but the game, not so good, but then heey everyone got home alive,
Meant to add… dont think smudger will forget copenhagen. Was ther too. Nice beer.
Wenger has to create space for wilshere. For him to be in the first 11 or be the first to come of the bench. So wilshere coming back to full fitness is like a new signing for Wenger and a replacement for Flamini
Sounds like a ploy to get Flamini back in Flaming distance of van Judas. I’d be all for it but I don’t know that we’re in the market for a replacement and there aren’t any youngsters coming through to be that #3 behind Coq and Arteta (don’t know what happened to Bielik), and without those things it seems like an unnecessary risk for little reward.
Bielik is still in the reserves as was planned for him.
He wasn’t expected to be 1st team except by the shit-stirring press.
I don’t read shitty press stories, I recalled an Arsene interview about him wanting Bielik involved next (this coming) season and imagined he’d be involved with the pre season at least barring injury or uefa youth or something like that. I basically don’t think we have enough cover to rely on just Coq and Arteta, call me overly cautious but we’ve seen what can happen last season. We can’t afford that in a title race.
I can remember AW saying that Bielik would train with the 1st team but nothing about him actually getting game time beyond the usual ‘if he develops then he will play’ comment which he says about all youngsters. Hayden is probably ahead of him and more likely to play in the TinPot Cup etc.
Chambers potentially a backup.
Bielek doesn’t turn 18 until next year! He is a kid. Plenty of time for him to improve, and I don’t expect to see him playing regular first team football for a couple of years yet.
I’d personally still like to see up find cover / competition for Coq, but probably easier said than done.
If it happens then good luck to him and thanks for the contribution.
This makes it even more important that we sign a DM. We need to.
I hope this is true. I like Flamini, he’s played a lot for Arsenal and that makes any player awesome in my book as long as they don’t shit on the club on their way out the door. But he’s not good enough to play in the squad we have today, and an upgrade is needed. I wish him well though, and we’ll always have this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVzrI3az6T4
(Sorry if this comment comes up twice, but it seems like my first one wasn’t posted for some reason?)
Ah, now the previous one is there, I’m sure it wasn’t before. Oh well.
Flamini has regularly talked about returned to Marseille to end his career. Given this and his fondness for seeing out contracts and moving on a free, it would surprise me if this happened quite so easily. However, if Arsenal are feeling ruthless and want to cut him loose early, anything could happen….
I am told this guy has never been sold before in his career – he runs down his contracts. Are we about to break that? I would take that to be a good omen for the coming season.
The move would do him good – more playing time as he is third choice here at best.
Ozil will need a new best friend
I volunteer!!
good hopefully it will mean we can get someone to provide competition for Coq
If this transfer happens then more space in the team for any potential signing and wages for Theo
I no he is crying about increments
In an ideal world Flamini would leave us freeing up a space for a superior player who can really challenge for a place in midfield. Unfortunately I don’t think Flamini will be in a hurry to leave until his contract expires next year, so I don’t see us signing another midfielder with Flamini still at the club.
Has Diabys place been taken?
No team has ever actually paid money for Flamini. 7 poos for me.
I really don’t think we should sell Flamini. You all think we should replace Arteta, Flamini, Rosicky… with younger/better players. But would those be willing to have such a small playing time. Probably not… The second reason is team chemistry. I think Ozil wouldn’t be happy to see Flamini leaving. And Rosicky is all’s favourite imo… like Arteta probably has some good friends there. They are also good mentors for younger players. I think they should all see their contract off. Eventhough they are not playing that much they are still important for our clubs. And they could all do… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more, keep Flamini and Arteta until someone like Bielik can step in and provide competition for our Coq.
Thiago Motta wants to leave PSG. I reckon we could get 2 years out of him (he’s 32) to compete with Coq. Bielik would be 20 at that point.
Chelsea signed Costa, Fabregas, Luis, Remy, displaced Cech with Courtois and brought back Drogba in one summer – while losing David Luiz, Lampard, Cole, Torres, Ba, Mata in the previous January and possibly others I’ve forgotten about. And they won the league. Big changes in playing personnel during one year doesn’t have to massively affect team chemistry, I don’t think, and we can’t keep a player at the club simply because he’s a good mate of Mesut Ozil. I’m glad that we kept Arteta and Rosicky for the reasons you said but I don’t put Flamini in their category. But… Read more »
that is if we assume that Chelsea has team chemistry…meh
I really will disagree with you on the fact that chelsea bought so many players last summer and won the league,that buying many players won’t affect team chemistry? It probably will as it happened with tots in the season before last,they spent Bale’s money on many players whilst only Eriksen came good,all others were disposed sporadically. The forgotten adebayor became their short-term messiah. That season,they sacked AVB cos they were shit. Chelsea won the league because there wasn’t competition as all other top teams were shit! Arsenal with many injuries, our striker-Giroud was out for 3 months. Man utd were… Read more »
Can you honestly come out and say we can win the league with this as it is??
Chelsea last year showed us how you plug holes in your team….they needed a creative player, bought cesc. Needed a world class striker: bought costa. Now that is what wenger should do. No 2 ways about it….we have a weak strikeforce and our dm position is not as strong as people are making it out to be.
But he and Mesut are Brozils :((
Sill a while to go, but our inactivity in the transfer market is beginning to yet really worrying. Flamini leaving would be good for both him and the club: he’s over the hill and he’s sucking up precious wage money. But he has to be replaced with a young hungry quality defensive midfielder. And where the hell is the striker who we desperately need?
That win against Everton in Singapore could have been the worst thing that could have happened this summer: deluded Wenger now probably thinks that we can win the title with this squad.
He’s wrong.
Oh fats, we’ve missed you 🙂
Really worrying because it’s oh so close to the end of the window, obviously. Bore off.
So, we should have lost, so you can come up with some other excuse to buy?
Poor, miserable, Fats.
Well guys you know what is the true bright side of this? In the heated Galatasaray-Fenerbahce derby, guess which 2-faced Dutch Snake’s balls are going to be kicked by the Flamster….
Also Poldi can shoot one of his rockets into van Cunt’s face whilst he is at it.
As for Arsenal this is good – I just hope with the recent departures of Sanogo and maybe Flam, that we have not closed our checkbook. We could use some arrivals too.
5 on the spur-o-meter
This is very left of the topic on discussion, but what’s this I hear about the Spuds wanting to play home games at the Ems.
Tell them to fuck off from the start, and if they beg charge them 3 million pounds and a slap on dan levy’s head per game.
And no admittance to spud fans .
they’ll get poop all over the place
There is something beautiful about the idea of Tottenham funding our transfer policy for a couple of years. But yeah, imagine the turds they’d leave in the toilets…
Turkey seems to be the preferred destination for ex Arsenal players this summer. Flamini is a player unfairly derided. His passing percentage improved considerably last season and frankly this soft centre first half of season is a myth. We suffered mainly and conceded that period for want of a cback partner with Per in Koscielny’s absence. Reliance on both Chambers and Monreal’s inexperience in the position cost us and most goals were conceded from wide areas where Artetea and Flamini were effective enough shunting the danger out to. Had Coquelin played in this period, he would likely face similar detriment.… Read more »
Hi, off topic I know,
But the app hasn’t been working for a while (last 3-4 days) I’ve deleted it and installed again but to no avail,
Any ideas guys?
If this happens, he’ll be the last of the “Highbury” Arsenal players to leave. This makes me sad for some reason.
Again no one seems to pay attention but Wenger played a Ramzorla combination against Everton recently. We suffered no ill effects without Coquelin. Bearing in mind Arteta was not initially a DM nor Santi a deep lying player, it may not necessarily have to be that Wenger is looking in market for a traditional one dimensional DM ala say Carvalho. The system employed as alternate to Coquelin may be more subtle and involve an internal solution in Ramsey. So even if Flamini was deemed surplus, it may not necessarily follow that Wenger will buy should he decide there is no… Read more »
And again just to illustrate a point, against Singapore, Flamini made a crucial intercept in the box against a very dangerous cross. Aside from one miss pass early on (prob getting use to grass length), he barely put a pass wrong. Coquelin himself made an errant pass when he came on later against Everton. Much of the issue in the fan base is they listent o the press and amplify the mistakes of Flamini whilst overlooking that of Coquelin. Not many people can keep an open mind watching a game alas these days, impressions are already formed and biases held… Read more »
Really liked watching him play with Cesc in the 4-4-2 in his first stint here. True Arsenal guy, sad to see him leave, but great business if we get 4 million for him after signing him on a free transfer. Glad for him that he’ll hopefully get a chance to play more to end out his career.