Abou Diaby’s Arsenal career has come to an end after the club confirmed they have decided not to offer the midfielder a new contract.
The 29 -year-old French international signed for the Gunners from Auxerre in January 2006 and went on to make 180 first team appearances.
As has been well documented Diaby has endured a series of long-term injuries since having his leg broken by Sunderland’s Dan Smith five months after signing for the club. In the last four years he’s managed just 22 appearances for Arsenal.
There were some memorable highlights along the way; his goal against Derby County (replayed before every home game on the jumbotron), a headed winner at home against Liverpool in 2010, his performance at Anfield in 2012 when he went ‘full Vieira’ and kicking John Terry’s head off in Cardiff. He also seems like a genuinely nice guy who has garnered the respect of the entire Arsenal hierarchy during his tenure at the club.
Arsene Wenger had mulled over the possibility of a new deal for his compatriot earlier in the season, but the playmaker never regained a level of fitness to put him in contention of first team football.
While the player’s lack of fitness became something of a running joke, it’s fair to say most Arsenal fans will be united in the hope that his body can cope with the rigours of first team football elsewhere. It really would be tragic if his departure marks the end of a career that promised much, but has thus far not had the chance to kick on.
Arsenal have also confirmed that four Academy youngsters, Jack Jebb, Austin Lipman, Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill and Josh Vickers, will leave the club.
Arseblog News wishes all of the departing players the best of luck for the future.
Looks like our new doctor fixed the injury problem..
Hope you got a good laugh out of that. I hope it was worth it.
Its a bird mate. They dont really get it. Blonde i reckon.
Why is a completely sexist comment being tolerated on here?? Ban him! If someone said it about race there would be uproar I’m sure. I.e.
“Hes black, what do you expect”.
Its my age and upbringing thats to blame. Get over it.
Ok. Mousey brown with highlights.
That’s harsh. Diaby is a world class footballer hampered by injuries. You only have to look at his famous performance against Liverpool to see what he’s capable of.
Everybody mentions Liverpool, but his best performance had to be an away game v Fenerbache I think, when he played the no10 role. He like many others have been missed during the hard times
Well if we sell Jack to Man City, it may well be that our new strategy is to ship them once they’re crocked.
Sod off
Good luck to him, hope he manages to play some football somewhere.
He’s never seemed like someone who’s motivated primarily by money, so there must be some club that would be willing to take a chance on him, I hope. Someone who can boss the midfield at any level for 5-10 games a year should be a valuable asset to a lower-table team in a tough league, right?
he would have been a valuable asset to us, and we’re one of the best clubs in the world
Sad news to think what he could have achieved if fit but he never had any luck with injuries wish him all the best for the future hopefully still in football
Or even what we might have achieved/avoided
I wonder if he’ll stay at London Colney to train still. Hopefully somewhere a club will take a punt on him. I’ve no doubt he would of been our Captain at some point.
10 years? Does that mean a testimonial? (Provided he could even play in that!)
Gutted for the lad. Hope he finally gets to live his dream and play regular first team football in good health. You will be missed, Abou x
All the best to our Diaby. A very likeable footballer, I really hope he gets the chance to showcase his incredible talent again.
I have lost many a night’s sleep over this guy. I remember when he signed for the club, reports came out of training that guys like Bergkamp, Pires and Henry were genuinely gobsmacked by the ability that he showed. Such a pity that his career has been so ravaged by injury. Should have become what Paul Pogba is set to become in the coming years. Rather than focus on the prick who broke his ankle at Sunderland, let’s rather remember a player who was genuinely unique in terms of the combination of attributes that he possessed. All on display at… Read more »
I can’t bring myself to cry enough.
I am well and truly sad..i felt like i saw him grow up, he was elegant striding forward..
Best of luck
If any newly promoted team have any sense they will take him up …He could change games for them, in the last 15 mins
#neverforget
http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/00020/terry_20608a.jpg
Nooooooooo
Fuck you Dan Smith!
Enjoy playing football for Holland Park Hawks – 5th tier of Australian football and selling CCTVs during the week!
See Cape Town Gooner above, Abou is the focus.
Dan Smith was a stupid kid who has been paying for this every day since it happened.
Interesting article in one of the papers the other week seeking to portray Dan Smith as the victim. What kind of f*cked up mentality is that…..
I read that article and it just seemed to sum up the tragedy of the whole thing. Diaby probably needs a whole year out from football, not trying to get match fit but just trying to sort his body out.
Gutted for him. A sad case of what could’ve been.
This is just sad. Life isnt fair. Good luck Abou!
He had an attention span of a Gold fish, he was equally brilliant and frustrating in equal measures.
His headed own goal against United, in a game in which we dominated still haunts me!
Good luck to him, but we’ve already done more for him than most.
A masdive shame allround. Top Gunner, and fuck the haters.
Best of luck Abou.
Cannot like this enough, also Dr. Rockso!
At the very bottom of the article I found the words: “AD CODE” which I determined was either:
(a) A Latin tag for “farewell, brave Gaul”
(b) Some HTMLy function grommit wotnot relating to on-page advertising.
I could have looked it up to find out, but didn’t. Instead I decided to go with (a) even if it were the lesser likely.
Real shame. A sad result of the ‘Arsenal have a soft center, GET STUCK IN’ stupidity. A tackle in a nothing game that pretty much ended a potentially brilliant career
The worst part was that it was in the last minute of the game and we were, if my memory serves me, 3-0 up so the game was done and dusted. So the disgusting challenge was even more ridiculously unnecessary. I still remember wincing when I saw it and thinking the commentators had not realised it was that bad. I could see it was a horrendous one. I feared the worst at the time but, unfortunately for Abou, it has been even worse than what I feared!
Abou is not the only one either. Eduardo’s career was destroyed by a similarly over the top challenge, and Ramsey’s almost was.
The “get stuck in” attitude against Arsenal has been constantly overlooked by the officials and the FA. We lost 2 very talented players and have had the worst injury record over the last decade. Nothing has been done.
They hand out a 50k fine for a player saying “sh*#” yet only a 3 game ban is warranted for ending a career with a challenge that couldn’t be aired on live TV.
Hear, hear.
Think not of what could have been, but remember that performance at Anfield, when he was head, shoulders, torso and thighs above everyone else on the pitch. That is how the man should be remembered.
He’s not dead. Your comments sound like an obituary
Great servant. Not only for The Arsenal but the game in general.
When they said kick racism out of the game, he kicked it on the head as hard as he could
If I could claim click the thumbs up many more times, I would.
Brilliant.
There’s a meme there. “Kick Racism Out” on a picture of Diaby kicking Terry’s head.
Somebody get on this.
http://i.imgur.com/BH6RqSW.jpg?1
Well done Sir!
You’re hired.
Might be that Watford will pick him up ah la Almunia
I hear Dallas.
Vancouver? Please?
In the end a rational decision taken by the club. Really sad to see Diaby go though. If only his body had not betrayed him so… he could have been the midfield colossus we have been looking for. Capable of the sublime when fit, he provided flashes of his brilliance when health permitted him to play more than one game in a row. A model professional, he has my full respect for persisting and trying to gain full fitness. I hope this is not the end of his footballing career.
Effectively shifting his wages to vidal would be nice or any player who can kick a ball would be nice.
Also poldi imminent departure shifts his 100k a week wages to Petr Cech. Good business!
First off – shout out to Abou Diaby, consummate professional and inspiration for the board game, Operation. Thank you Abou and all the best. Soldier to the end. Will play for France again. I don’t presume to know what Arsene is thinking and I’m not a soothsayer, but NO. NO, just NO. VIDAL IS NOT HAPPENING. What sense does signing Vidal make? Very good 28 year old player, who will not improve much more, has no PL experience, iffy/volatile temperament. We didn’t buy him (aged 24/25) in our times of austerity, when we needed better midfielders, for an affordable fee… Read more »
You either recover from an injury and become a Ramsey or stay injured long enough to become a Diaby.
Good bye to the unluckiest talented player and an all round nice guy.
This is what happens when refs allow the thuggery that they do. Arnautovic pushing Debuchy; various leg-breaking challenges on Sanchez, including from ‘great defenders’ Cahill and Kompany; the free-for-all kicking-and-wrestling-fests at Stoke and Shiteford Bridge; McNair breaking Wilshre’s ankle, etc., all of them ignored or brushed over. And this from the supposedly best league in the world.
But we all know the real problem is diving foreigners, except if that foreigner is Eden Hazard, in which case diving is a Fine Art to be rewarded with free kicks and penalties.
I agree with everything you say but, even if we had competent referees and an FA that isn’t clueless, it wouldn’t stop tackles and injuries. Injuries are an occupational hazard and, for some, they end careers. I hope that Diaby can still make a decent career but he’s had a better chance than others, think of the likes of Ryan Garry. If he takes nothing else from his career, he can say he’s played at the very top for The Arsenal – wouldn’t we all give our right arm to say that?
It certainly would stop it. Managers have been instructing their players to kick Arsenal off the park for years. They do this because they can’t compete in a proper game of football. Punishing these tactics and persistent professional fouling would discourage such pathetic tactics and encourage real football.
Yes, there will always be injuries in sports, but letting teams get away with the blatant kicking and thuggery that they do only makes it worse, and increases the chances of serious injuries, and injuries generally. Obviously we want to reduce that, so saying injuries will always happen isn’t really an argument to ignore kicking.
I don’t disagree, but you can never completely avoid tackles or injuries without it moving to a contactless sport. There’s no doubt though that we’ve been targeted by teams and that the general standard of refereeing has been woeful.
It would stop it completely would it? So nobody would ever try to tackle someone again? Bo*locks, there have always been injuries and there always will be.
Yes, there always will be. But it is not an either-or full-stop argument. But you, me, and everyone else here knows full well that when you relax the punishment of such fouls the Orcs and Thugs will take full advantage.
Less punishment = more foul thuggery = more frequent and more damaging injuries.
I would like to see retroactive suspensions for violent tackles / actions, dives, and incompetent refereeing. Address all angles of the same problem. You need the third one so the referees don’t get lazy and rely on the retroactive punishment.
Absolutely agree with what you say, 100%. My issue was with the above comment that referees would stop tackles and injuries ever happening again, which was clearly melodramatic nonsense.
Or the other alternative is not to live in this dream where beautiful football is the be all and end all. Fight fire with fire and nobody would dare to commit dirty fouls against us. This is why we need a thug like Vidal (response to few posts above saying we don’t need him) – he gives as good as he gets so teams wouldn’t be so free in their thuggery. The invincibles had this tactic down when the situation demanded it.
Injuries are an occupational hazard. But giving talentless morons the opportunity to make careers in the sport solely on the merit of their physical size and degree of psychosis really doesn’t help us develop the kind of skilful player which will help to win the world cup. Which the FA, Premier League and media claim to be aiming for……
I think you know the answer if you asked the 20 Premier League managers whether they’d want to be successful or England win a World Cup. And, frankly, I wouldn’t disagree – i’d far rather Arsenal win a pre-season friendly than England win the World Cup. There isn’t a league in the world which doesn’t have more physical teams and teams containing midfield destroyers, it’s always been the case. Provided the Rules are applied fairly and consistently by referees (and I don’t think they have been) then I have no issue with teams being more physical, it just makes it… Read more »
There will always be injuries, but managers and refs have a basic duty of care to do everything they can to prevent then from happening. This clearly isn’t happening right now. From the managerial point of view, the current punishments are not strong enough if players still regularly go in for risky challenges. Longer bans might change that. Not only does a manager have to do without his player for say 8-10 games, but the club could be pissing away £10s to £100s of thousands in wages for each ban. How many would it take before pressure comes on players… Read more »
So much of this is correct, but I don’t agree that managers and refs have a duty to prevent injuries. If Wenger was sending out his players to avoid injuring others and we lost the game because we didn’t win back possession enough then i’d be fuming. It’s Wenger’s job to win football matches. It’s the ref’s job to apply the rules of the game fairly and consistently, not to do anything to avoid injuries from occurring, he’s not a health and safety officer. Don’t forget that players can get injured from perfectly fair tackles, it’s a contact sport and… Read more »
Do we stop vehicles for pedestrians only because a sign and rule says so? Those rules are in place to avoid serious injury. Which means it IS the referees responsibility, where those rules exist, to apply them with their intent: in order to avoid serious injuries. Incidental injuries happen within the rules, of course. But when a player gets a ‘reducer’ or is clearly ‘gone through’ -e.g. about every tackle attempted on Alexis- everyone can see the intent of the action, and INTENT is all that is required to give the punishment. But they don’t in far too many cases.… Read more »
Last minute of the title decider, Sanchez wins a tackle with Terry, fairly wins the ball off of him, and runs through on goal, but Terry gets badly injured in the tackle – should the ref blow up because there’s been a serious injury? Should he balls. It’s the ref’s job to apply the rules (and any interpretation of the rules), not to stop injuries from occurring. I absolutely agree that poor tackles should be penalised strongly and that there should be lengthy bans but to say that it’s the ref’s job to stop injuries from occurring is a nonsense.… Read more »
Killing with intent = murder. Without intent = manslaughter – both are punishable by life imprisonment.
Life sentence might be a little harsh for a bad tackle. Even a Smithing or Shawcrossing.
But yes, if you recklessly cause a potentially career threatening injury, intent or not, there should be repercussions.
Can’t help but think that if some pre-Neanderthal nutbar puts in a reducer on someone and seriously injures him, the suspension should be equal to the number of games lost to the injury – and THEN tack on the plus three.
Also they were feckin 3 down with minutes nay seconds to play!!! SO NEEDLESS!!!DAN SMITH YOU CUNT.
Can’t say we didn’t do right by him. It’s just one of those things that happens in professional sport.
Slightly depressed seeing that headline despite what haters might say about stealing a living, earning 000’s for nothing, off the wage bill yada yada yada.
Still a gooner.
good luck abou. hope some team gives you a chance to shine again.
This is sad… I’m sad. ***tears*** Goodluck in life Abou.
Good luck Abou, gutted for your poor luck
Good bye legend Diaby
Such a shame dan smith is such a massive cunt. Good luck Abou and thanks again for giving another massive cunt a massive headache.
Genuinely great, great man and football player as well when fit, only hampered by injuries.
Your above-the-all performance at Anfield still thrilled me until now!
Best of luck to you, Abou #VCC
Wouldn’t be surprising is citeh snap him up for their “homegrown” quota. The lot are desperate.
Great player when fit. Thank you for your contributions Abou Diaby.
Legend
The greatest legend this club has never had
I dont know why he stayed aslong as he did. Especially when for many years the club used money as an excuse to not buy the big name players, yet they can afford to keep Diaby on the books for years on end despite him being dead weight. I dont think you deserve special treatment just because you are a footballer. It is not a human right to be a proffessional footballer, or play for Arsenal, and if you cant do the job then you find something else to do just like everyone else has to. I personally wanted to… Read more »
Actually, £100k a year puts you in the top 0.07% richest people in the world by income. Diaby would be in the top 0.002% based on 50k a week. http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Your point is valid, but still heartless in my opinion. The point your missing is that he was good enough, you weren’t and he had shown it, you hadn’t. So we aren’t talking about just a broken dream but one which was proven attainable, except for poor health.
I would find that more heartbreaking than finding I wasn’t up to scratch.
Rest assured, I don’t feel sorry for you not being a rockstar. But the comparison between your situation and Diaby’s is apples to oranges–you didn’t miss out on rock stardom because someone kicked out your larynx after you’d already signed to a major label and started playing arenas; that is to say, you didn’t lose what you never had. Safe to say Diaby practiced a little bit too and worked his way to the very top in football, and that WAS taken from him. Different situation completely. Which is why it’s easy to mock TGSTEL, who’s done his best to… Read more »
Have you ever been in an accident or had an injury at work, that was no fault of your own? “Yes, let’s feel sorry for this guy”, implies you have been implored to feel sorry for Abou. I am purely empathetic of his struggle, and you should not let anyone make you feel how you do not wish to. You chose to abandon hopes of stardom, that was all you, not Diaby. I could say you lacked qualities such as perseverance (many musicians gained recognition later on in life) – see Rodriguez. Your choice entirely to pack it in. Good… Read more »
As others have said, the Sympathy I have for Diaby is that he’d achieved his dream, and then had it taken away through no fault of his own. You point out the moment of realization of never making it as a Rockstar. Diaby got past that point into the Arsenal first team, and even after the injury tried everything to get back there, and is only now giving up. Could we have cut him loose earlier? Maybe, but we may have had to pay off his contract anyway so there would be little financial difference for us. Insurance payments for… Read more »
@balder Dude pls don’t transfer the frustrations of your failure and inability to achieve your life dream of becoming a rockstar on diaby. The young man got injured playing for AFC, I sincerely doubt if he’ld ever have had that type of injury sitting on his couch watching Thursday night football. He 100% deserves our sympathy, while you on the other hand only deserve being ignored for your gross insensitivity, hoping you don’t erroneously drive a 9 inch nail into your hand while fixing a chair for John Terry only for your company to sack you for not being too… Read more »
Gutted by this news hope he found enough courage to move on.Nice guy Abou Diaby
He was motivated by money to run down his contract as advised by Darren Dean, his agent.
Darren Dean is also the agent of Flamini and will also run down his contract.
Diaby new he could no more play football again. The money hitting his bank account weekly was too good to ignore so he stayed. Don’t be fooled by so-called love for the club.
If Diaby had been fit and fulfilled, bet you he would be playing for City now as most of his countrymen.
Its the money but nothing else. Good riddance.
Fuck off.
We don’t normally allow that kind of comment, but in this case it’s completely fine.
That would mean Man Shitty has more French players in their squad than Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and the National. You seem to forget we sold them these players – with no guns to our heads – at a premium and at the RIGHT time. I also think you might be confusing Francophone players with French players. Did you include the Toure, Adebayor and Bony in that list. Or is it just Clichy, Sagna and Nashti. If it is just those three, then do you have a problem with the fact that we haveFrench players in the shape of OG,… Read more »
You know him or know people close to him to know what he is motivated by? Abou Diaby used to attend gatherings of sufism in London run by a group with which I have personal affiliations. He was asked about his injury and the guy was really down and depressed. For years, all he has wanted to do is play football. The pay he received was what footballers receive all over the world. I am sure none of us would say no to a salary with which you could retire in one year, but it was not all about the… Read more »
“If Diaby had been fit and fulfilled, bet you he would be playing for City…”
OK – I bet you £1,000.
But we’re also going to need a budget for the alternate reality machine….
He was meant to be what yaya is to city for us. Far more talented as well.
I remember Wenger saying he had the best first touch and Sagna talking about how he would be the best player if he was fit.
What a shame…screw dan smith.
Wish abou all the best.
Abou will always be a legend in my heart…
Probably get slaughtered for this but firmly believe he had the potential to be one of the best players in the world.
Don’t think we ever saw a “fully fit” Diaby and to produce some of the performances he did, imagine a season or 2 in full flight.
What could’ve been.
Sincerely hope he finds happiness in football in some other capacity. He deserves it.
Chelsea will snap him up, a few weeks in their dodge lab, with their dodge pills and he will be flying. Probably literally.
Au revoir Abou! I will never forget your industrious service. You were a willing and able solider!!
I bet Wenger was desperate to offer Diaby a new, five-year, 200k-a-week contract, determined to show that he was smarter than everybody else; that he could turn Le Crock into a world-beater. But Ivan probably told Le Prof to go forth and multiply. This joke had stopped being funny.
Good.
Try to make your comments funny rather than having everyone think you are a tw*t. No-one thinks Wenger would offer £200k a week, or anything much, or that he is determined to be seen as smarter than everyone else (though I would argue he is smarter than 99.9% of us, given his success on the pitch and buying players).
Funny – ha ha, not peculiar. I’m sure you can do it.
You are sinking to new depths and not funny.
I think Diaby was the coolest dude ever and all the Arsenal players were purposely getting injured in order to spend time with him. Now that he’s gone everyone will remain fit. I do wish him well though. #GoodLuckDiaby #WelcomeNacho
Now I think of Eduardo and Abou and I’m visibly enraged. where are those cunts who live for kicking? I want to step on their Adam’s apple hard repeatedly till it squishes
I did hold out hope that Diaby would be able to overcome his injuries and show us what he can do.
15/20 years ago his injury would have been a total career ending one.
His motivation and dedication to trying to get back to fitness is something that I can only admire.
Too bad it never worked, best of luck to you in the future.
Actually, had the Dan Smith injury happened just 5 or 6 years earlier, the leg would have likely been amputated.
although frustrating for him as well as us he was a model professional through and through and a true gent
imagine how mentally fucked up he must of been with having to keep recovering from injury after injury most would of given up long ago but being a great family man and religiously devout he tried what can say beyond duty to try and stay fit lots of great players have become the same fate injuries plaguing them into retirement good luck i as one truely respect the man and hope something works out for him