The Premier League has confirmed that Abou Diaby, Ryo Miyaichi and a host of reserve team players will be released at the end of the month.
The decision not to offer Diaby a new contract comes at the end of a second successive season in which the Frenchman has managed only one first team appearance.
As has been well documented the midfielder, now 29, has endured a series of long-term injuries since having his leg broken by Sunderland’s Dan Smith five months after signing in 2006. In the last four years he’s managed just 22 appearances for Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger has always left the door open to a new deal for Diaby, but always on the proviso that he could prove his fitness. It’s terribly sad that he’s not been able to do so.
Miyaichi, who was signed from Chukyodai Chukyo High School in 2010, is another who has seen injuries wreck his time at Arsenal. Billed as a pacey winger who could potentially challenge Theo Walcott for a first team place he went on to make just seven competitive appearances.
An early spell on loan at Feyenoord whet the appetite – the locals even nicknamed him Ryodinho – but the rigours of English football seemed too much for his comparatively lightweight frame. Time at Bolton and Wigan and the odd game as the poster boy of the Gunners’ pre-season tours to the Far East preceded this year’s underwhelming second stint in Holland with FC Twente.
Academy graduates Semi Ajayi, Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill, Jack Jebb, Austin Lipman and Josh Vickers will also be released.
Arseblog News wishes all the released players the best for the future. Particularly you Abou…when you were good, you were very, very good indeed. And we like that you kicked John Terry in the head.
___
Please note – Any of the players on the aforementioned Premier League ‘released player’ list could be offered a new deal once their current contract expires. However, in light of the extensions sorted for Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky – also both out of contract in July – it seems unlikely that Arsenal will enter late negotiations with those players whose deals are set to lapse.
Good luck Abou, could have been the new Vieira without having a shattered ankle. Big shame for you and us.
And the rest of them.
DIABY DIABY DIABY DIABY DIABY!!!!
Sad sad day for arsenal, sad sad day for arsenal fans, sad day for football, sob sob!!!!!
Looks like some people happy about that sad news. Well shame on u
No powers of introspection?
Huge numbers thumbed up ‘Sad for Diaby’ just below. I wonder why you didn’t get similar.
HE KNOCKED OUT JOHN TEEEEEERRRIIIIEEE
DIABY DIABBY!
Yes dan smith is a cunt and thanks Abou for ‘avin it’ with john terrys head. All the best.
Sad for diaby, all the best.
Goodbye ‘Bou Diaby
Though we never knew you at all
You had the strength to hold yourself
While the legs beneath you fall
Diaby was everything Arsenal were missing for years.
Ironic then that Arsenal were missing Diaby for years too.
“Diaby was everything Arsenal were missing for years.”
Personally, it is hard not to link our downfall for the past years down to the bad luck that came along with Diaby….He represent so much of the Arsenal from 05/06 to 12/13, i.e. injuries, bad luck, potential, what ifs etc……
Now that he is gone, I can’t help but think this is really the start of a new era for us. All the best to him.
I wouldn’t call it bad luck or even the fault of a thug – though Dan Smith was undoubtedly that. The blames lies squarely with culture of English football at the time, a culture aided and abetted by the fans – they cheered the thugs on – by the media – Five Live’s match commentator condemned the Arsenal players’ reaction to the tackle but not the tackle itself – and by referees who had grown up in the thug culture and were too dim and too spineless to oppose it. Diaby’s injury wasn’t an isolated accident. Dan Smith had been… Read more »
I knew it was coming, but I didn’t want it to 🙁
Good luck Abou, I’ll never forget that performance against Liverpool (first game of 12/13 season) which he absolutely dominated. His mental strength and humility really was an inspiration.
COYG x
he was an absolute force that game! I remember it well because, like Blogs, my 2 brothers are LiverPOO fans 🙂
I wonder if we’ll offer him a coaching role or will he try and crack another team’s lineup?
https://vimeo.com/48900778 Abou was brilliant that day
Fucking excellent!
Thank you mate
I had we’re going to win the league fantasy’s after that performance, I though, finally, the man is back, look at them skills! He’s a tank! HERE WE oh…
Such a good player and such a shame.
Best of luck to him.
Bossed!
That was hard to watch!
Wishing Abou the very best of luck, a genuinely quality player wrecked by injuries
heartbreaking
Sad that Diaby was so thoroughly ruined by that tackle. That goal against Liverpool in the CL was tasty and on his day he could be a magician. Though Jack Jebb was supposed to be ‘all that’ a few years ago, but to be fair I’m probably confusing him with Jack Cork.
Sad day for me. All the best Abou.
Feel sorry for Abou, but Arsenal are best letting him go to make space, I think they’ve been very loyal to him and given him many chances. Hope he get’s picked up by another team and has a run of good luck. Emencly talented player. Good Luck Abou.
We’re still loyal to him, which is very nice to see. Far than casting him out, we’re letting him continue to use the training and medical facilities. But, as you say, there are limits to how long he could take up a squad place and stay on the wage bill.
This is sadder than pirlo crying the orker day..
Orger I could understand. But orker is unforgivable.
Maybe orker day is some kind of dialect for Saturday.
“How was your weekend?”
“Great, went out and got completely wankered with the lads on Orker day. Sunday’s hangover was rough though!”
etc
Is it the day a club plays stoke? Orker Day? Orc-er day?
“What are you doing saturday?”
“Its Orker day”
“That ryan shawcross is a cunt”
What were Juve doing playing Stoke?
Poor Pirlo no wonder he cried. even charlie adams is faster than him.
*boooooilk*
HAHAHA, sorry! I meant “other”…
Damn autocorrect!
I think it’s a case of fat fingers.
Your device autocorrects to a word spelled ‘orker’? What are you saying? That there are languages in the world other than English?
Riiiiiight. Next you’ll have me believe pork, bacon, and ham all come from some magical animal.
:’) I thought the same thing, how did we become cursed with such typographical pedantry?!
But also yes, this is extremely sad times.
Like Poland day…haha
Still can’t understand it. I don’t know how many bones he’s broken, or ligaments torn, or surgeries he’s undergone, but I’ll never understand where Diaby got his motivation. What a man. All that pain to play football for us.
Of course, you’ll get the inevitable cunts today: “good riddance” etc etc. In truth, he probably was Mr Glass, but I’m fucking glad he was ours.
65k a week – that would motivate me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GEB-TYLMmQ
Certainly needed this to help cheer me up.
Aww I had earmarked Jack Jebb as a big future talent in our midfield. He’s got bloody amazing set piece delivery. Hope he has a good career wherever he goes.
And I hope Abou can find some kind of solace in coaching/fitness management. It’s been a tough few years but I’ll always remember THAT Liverpool game.
Jack Jebb hasn’t quite kicked on since joining besides we now have Chris Willock and Daniel Crowley who at the same age or less look more the part.
Was involved in a pretty grotty racist incident, Jebb. Not unhappy to see the back of him – http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-youngster-jack-jebb-banned-2331074
Eeesh, wasn’t aware of that. Can’t have that kind of behavoiur.
We should have sold him to chelsea… if he would just sleep with his teammates wives he could be their captain and moral compass.
am really sad abou didnt make the grades at arsenal wish him sucess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GEB-TYLMmQ
Very upset we’ll never see the magic of a Semi-Coq partnership.
Guess I’ll have to place my hopes in the young upstart Jackson Stiff.
Dan Smith, you plonker. Best of luck Diaby, I hope you can find somewhere maybe a little less demanding where you can get some games in.
I’m not being funny but I don’t feel sorry for diaby he’s been costing us 60k a week plus not to play for us for years arsenal isn’t a charity sorry!
Fock off!
Don’t be daft, he could’ve been as good if not better than Yaya Toure and I truly mean it. The fact that some idiot went straight through his ankle, and him losing his whole future in front of him can never be replaced with money.
He broke his leg playing for Arsenal, and for your pleasure. If he had not broken his leg he would have been on about 100k or over by now. He even has the right to seek compensation from Arsenal for that terrible injury sustained from that mindless attack. If you had broken your leg working for your company you would be the first to seek legal advice for a pay out. He didn’t!!! It is incredibly stupid of you to say that.
Im pretty sure when you sign the contract that the club make sure they are not held accountable for any injuries you pick up. Otherwise clubs would be going bankrupt all over the place. EI understand why we held on to him in the first place since he had the makings to become a key member of our squad. But I think it has been clear for quite a few years now that he had no future with us. And when you are as injury prone as he is then surely playing for the most injury ridden team in Europe… Read more »
Sad for Diaby and sad that people like you exist.
He hasn’t been costing you squat! As if you paid the bills!
John Terry get away from here!
Go crawl back under your rock. Diaby refused a large part of his wages while he was not playing. He’s handled the whole situation with class, determination, effort, honesty and ethics – all things that you obviously know nothing about.
Get your facts straight before you stick your oar in, edt.
How about Sp*rs paying Adebayor 100K a week? Players who are fit to play and still doesn’t play for a club or go on loan and still earn 100K per week is insane. That you call is charity my friend.
Arsenal and Diaby
The Story which deserved a Happy Ending but sometimes you don’t get what you deserve:(
Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill released?!? the Arsenal Gent will be crying into his pink gin
And good luck Abou, a talent seen but never realised thanks to the lack of protection afforded talent by referees and the English prediliction for early reducers vs technique, vision and ability. I really hope Diaby finds a role where he can shine and show us what we all missed out on (as long as it’s not against us, obviously)
BOO showed real talent but got injured.
Been back some time now but not regained the same level.
A real shame.
I’m not following closely the reserve teams, can someone tell me a few words about Josh Vickers? Some way back (when we signed Iliev I think) there were a lot of talks about goalkeeping talent coming through our academies and I think he was among the ones who were mentioned. Did he fail to make the grade so hard or its just the other prospect (the forementioned Iliev, Macey and of course, Martinez to some extent) being better than him?
I thought Vickers was terrible; ditto Macey and Iliev – they all seem to keep getting sent off – and I’m not keen Hubbard. Martinez, however, is fantastic. Great attitude, incredibly calm for his age when playing in the CL and has won high praise from managers and fans wherever he has been on loan. I’m hoping he’ll be our first choice very soon.
Sorry about the language but Dan Smith truly is a CUNT……
You’re allowed to say cunt on arseblog. Especially if the person you are calling a cunt is one, and Dan Smith…
The club hav handled the situation with Diaby in a absolute professional manner and then some. Unlike smaller teams we always had and have the economic resources to take care of him and give him several chances. This is not the first time we have gone the extra mile for injury prone players and It makes me happy that we’re willing to use our resources to do so.
Couldn’t Sol have cured Diaby?
Sad but have to accept that. Always wanted diaby to make a comeback. What a story that would have been. Best of luck diaby!
I hope that we can keep our mojo despite losing our Semi.
Let’s try though I’m sure our Coq feels let down.
Could’ve sworn I read on here jack jebb was the next jack Wilshere….
Chris his motivation was the weekly wages he was collecting. He’s already a millionaire and knew he couldn’t play again but he and his agent Darren Dean conspired to run the contract down.
Arsene should have also let go Rosicky and Arteta, both will barely play next season. Again don’t understand why Arsene gave Flamini 3 years contract till 2016. Another Darren Dean machinations at the club. Darren Dean uses his father’s relationship with Arsene to get good contracts for his clients at Arsenal.
Howard, you are an ignorant fucker…. Call yourself an Arsenal fan, I thunk NOT. Fu$k off and go support Chels$ki…. Pathetic..
Been running this site for 13 years+ and this is one of the most wilfully ignorant comments I’ve ever seen.
Yes, I’m sure him going into training every day and looking out on his mates playing football and having a laugh whilst he was on the treatment table was real easy.
Ok, so we don’t offer Arteta or Rosicky new contracts and they leave. Who then plays when we have 3/4 injured midfielders (which as we know isn’t a rare occurrence) I know I’d much rather see either of these two on the team sheet instead of one of our youngsters being thrust into action and it going terribly wrong.
Some people are really short sighted aye
You, my friend (used in the last loosest possible sense of the word) are a douchebag. I’ve never wanted another human being to hurt themselves before (Terry isn’t human) but I sincerely hope you fall down a set of stairs and break your leg this evening
Howaaard you are a reetaaard!
Actually that’s way to harsh on retards…..but you know what I mean Knobhead!
You aren’t just a troll, you are a liar. Darren Dein isn’t Diaby’s agent.
You really are a complete idiot, aren’t you? For a large part of the time he was not playing, he WASN’T collecting those weekly wages because he felt it was unethical to do so. Try engaging your brain before opening your mouth, you utter pillock.
He did collect his wages, as he was entitled to do.
In his defence, a fair portion of that money goes here; http://www.aboudiabyfoundation.com/
Howard,
Imagine being gifted with all the talent in the world, and your body not being able to do what you want it to do. What it had once been capable of doing.
Hope Diaby manages to become one of the great coaches in football.
Now there’s a thought.
I hope he does a “John Terry” on Howard! 🙂
And “Eboue’s Dance Teacher” as well.
magnificent player shit luck
Soo glad our manager gave him every chance
Wish him all the best and I have this feeling that this is not the end of his association with our club
I hope so!
Diaby is a beautiful player, and I don’t use the word beautiful lightly.
Very best of luck to him.
No arsenal fan will wish Diaby anything but the best.
We can’t extend his contract or keep him on though, we laughed at sp*rs and sick note anderton, we guffawed when manyoo bought Hargreaves, those two were prolific compared to Abou.
Good luck man. I do hope you come good
So sad, Diaby = Warrior…. I love you Diaby…. I always have hoped you will come good,injuries permitting, I very much hope that you still have time… I wish you all the luck in this world…
I cried a bit. On the plus side he’ll go to a french team I can start to follow.
Sad, man. But surely one of the lesser teams could take a shot on him on a play as you pay deal? A team like Watford could take a punt (whilst being nearby to Arsenal’s medical team) on a PAYP deal, knowing if they can keep him fit, it’s a great chance at having a likely world-class talented player on their books? Wouldn’t be surprised if French Team Lorient give it a shot. They did that with Aliadiere on Wenger’s recommendation, and he went on to score 30-goals in a season (then became a Dick). Same for Miyachi. His raw… Read more »
“They did that with Aliadiere on Wenger’s recommendation, and he went on to score 30-goals in a season”.
Yeah i’m pretty sure this didn’t happen…
Sorry, I meant 30 appearances (for someone with even worse injury rate than Diaby, that was an achievement no one thought would happen).
He also scored 15 goals in that season to make him one of the top strikers in that season and finally looked like the players promised all those years ago (all but one season, mind).
So yeah, it did happen. Kinda.
With a bit of luck Diaby can still resurrect his career somewhere else. Shame it won’t be at Arsenal. Good luck to him.
Very sad day 4 me. Y not give him a very last chance of one year contract? Sorry Diaby, sad I won’t see u on Arsena shirt again.
Diaby could have been a great player. That must have and still be tormenting him. I understand how people will bring up the fact that he was pocketing a lot of money, but I bet rehab was agony for him. He may still turn out for a lesser club, but I reckon we’ll see him at the Arsenal in time.
I’m pretty sure Arsenal would/do insure their players against serious injury. They are assets after all.
So while Diaby was being paid (and rightly so, you would want to be paid if injured at work!), Arsenal would most likely have received some kind of compensation.
I will always remember Abou’s MoM performance away against Liverpool (I emplore anyone who isn’t familiar to watch his highlights).
I saddens me to think what could have been….
Oh what a shame can’t we offer him and loan him I feel sorry for Diaby
It’s not a surprise but it doesn’t make it any more palpable. Best of luck to you Abou! Football isn’t the be all and end all, with the kind of resilience he has shown to adversity I’m sure he will find another way to happiness in his life.
I’m a bit surprised to see Jack Jebb in there. I’d only ever heard good things about the lad. What happened?
I always hoped that abou would get an injury- free end to his (Arsenal) career. He was so good when he played for us. I’m very sad to see such a great personality leave our club. All the best for the future.
Diaby is gone. Hopefully the injuries will now cede as he has taken the injuries curse off the players and transfer it to whatever club he’ll be at next.Hope chelsea pick him up.
Always had a soft spot for Abou ;( really wish he could stay for an extra year… loved his style of play, his physicality, his technique on the ball, his distribution, and how his lanky legs could just tear up the pitch… will be watching his games in the future…
My favourite player in the squad after he took essien fat frank and makelele apart almost single handedly in the first half of the 2007 carling cup final. Was hoping for a miracle…..gutted!
He was a brilliant player. A humble person. Could’ve been the next Viera and he has a lot of potential to be Arsenal’s next captain or a leading role to our next successive season and hopefully another year for The Invincibles. Unfortunately, injuries are just the obstacle in his way. I really hope that he will become a great player for another team and wishing him all the best in his career. A long serving player in a wonderful club, Arsenal. You will be missed :’)
Gotta feel for Diaby. What could have been! Hope he gets to atleast enjoy a few seasons of football injury free even if it is not with us. It must have been so hard for Arsene as well. He clearly believed in Abou from day one and that is something you dont see all too often these days with managers. Players are discarded and got rid of like commodities except at Arsenal. The last remenant of Arsene’s youth project leaves. Lets hope its the start of a new era.
I would love for Diaby to come to America. He could become an absolute superstar in the MLS.
#cantSTOPCRYING
I wish Abou and all the released players well in their footballing careers. Sad day…
What’s interesting with Diaby is that the prevailing medical opinion must be that physically he must be able to play again otherwise either he would have retired or Arsenal would have forced him to retire a few years ago.