The Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini will be 31-years old in a couple of months from now, but that is still pretty young for a modern day footballer. We have seen the likes of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes playing at the top level for a lot longer than that and our own club captain Mikel Arteta is already two years older than his French team mate.
But it could well be that Flamini finds himself at the Arsenal exit door at the end of this season. As far as I know, the central midfielder currently in his second spell as a Gunner will still have a year left on his deal, but Arsene Wenger may be thinking about selling him on in the summer, according to a report in The Telegraph.
The reason for this is the emergence of his young team mate Francis Coquelin, who has been earning rave reviews for his disciplined and effective performance away to Man City, especially as he managed to keep the excellent Spanish creator David Silva as quiet as a mouse. But Wenger and the Arsenal fans have seen Coqwuelin playing well for some weeks now after his recall to cope with the absence of Flamini and Arteta and now the club is set to offer him a new three year deal.
Our captain’s place is still safe apparently, but he is a different type of player to Coquelin. And there are strong rumours that Wenger will add a top quality player, possibly Morgan Schneiderlin, to the Arsenal squad in the summer, meaning that Flamini could well be surplus to requirements and the same will be true of his fellow Frenchman Abou Diaby who is oit of contract in the summer anyway.
Flamini does not have long to convince the boss to keep him and if Coquelin continues his current form, he might not get many chances either. So are Flamini’s days at Arsenal numbererd?
Should do, Flamini was a bosman stop-gap that lasted far too long. With Coquelins emergence he’s surplus to requirements and we should be able to say thanks and goodbye come the summer.
If all goes to plan:
Coquelin replaces Flamini
*Schneiderlin replaces Arteta
*or comparable
Well said Charlie
Are you an Arsenal employee?
Does Wenger seek your approval?
Given our injury history we need every damn midfielder we have.
Just a fan giving an opinion……that not the point of a fan forum?
I advocated buying an extra DM in the form of a Schneiderlin type. I know Arteta has another year so we’d start the season with Schneiderlin, Coquelin, Arteta, and Bielik. More than enough for 1, sometimes 2, holding midfield roles.
I agree – I like the “sometimes 2” idea; Coquelin and say Schneiderlin screening our back 5 in the bigger games appeals to me big time, sacrifice some flair once in a while. I know you don’t appear keen on the idea but I think having a experienced safe old hand like Arteta around the squad for another year is not a bad thing. He still has something to offer in the less frantic games or for seeing out a game from the bench. A good influence and properly professional. Under appreciated in my opinion – came at a difficult time and forced to play in an unnatural role. When he was at Everton he was one of my fav players outside of Arsenal in the more creative role he had there. To think he never played for Spain but could have walked in to any England midfield in the last 10 years imo – just shows how far Spain are ahead I suppose.
On the contrary I’m actually a huge Arteta fan, my reference to “replacing” him was more due to his age than ability….I agree, he has very much to offer still. Is hands down our best midfield organizer, leader, stabilizer, and I think our most model professional. Perfect old head to keep around, and one I would love to see move directly from playing to coaching when he does call time.
i’ve never ranked him a footballer
before we discuss who replace whom? can anyone tell me when La coq’s contract expires?
We should keep one of arteta and flamini they are good players to have in the squad that always suffers injuries we should let go of diaby and podolski to create space in the midfield
coquelin shldnt be offered any contract till he can keep up with his performances against spud, rvp utd, chelsea and fool….
if he plays well in those games then he shld be rewarded….
if not we be juz extending another deadwood contract
Thanks Flamini and good luck with your next club.
Thank you for confirming JW should be nowhere near the starting XI in both 4-2-3-1 and 4-1-4-1/4-3-3. Even the stats back up that with him playing we concede more goals, score less and reel in a significant lower amount of points.
Le coq has cemented that position! No disrespect to flamini!
Thanks Flamini for coming back and helping us win the FA Cup. We will always think of you as a Gunner. However, it’s time to say Au Revoir. We need to look onwards and upwards.
Coquelin, New DM and Bielik for our future and Arteta for one more year. There won’t be any place for Flamini. We can free up wages by releasing both Flamini and Diaby.
I think Rosicky and Arteta can serve one more year.
The way Wenger treated Podolski, it looks like he will be sold in the Summer. Maybe Jenkinson too. Not sure if Wenger wants to sell Campbell too.
Flamini has played well this season of course you would think he would hinder coqulans development but this lad is great as a back up look at Rosicky and coqulan a month ago his arsenal career looked finished now given his oppurtunity they show how important of a member they are to the squad.
flamini Rosicky arteta > wilshire,diaby,coqulan?,beilek
If flamini doesn’t intend on a year extension then we let him go if not then we should
A release diaby (will never play more than 10 games in the next 2 years at the rate he is going)
B loan wilshire for 6months (needs to find out what he wants to be as a player note ramsey had to do similar)
OMG.. Did I just read what I did on some previous Article? People on there are saying Arsenal are better off without RVP and that Giroud suits us more.. Please tell me you are not serious guys, I know we are all high as fck from the weekend result but calm the hell down..
I have been one of the few people that have stood up for Giroud since he signed for us and last season when he was being blamed for Ozil’s poor attitude..
But you can’t tell me that a 30+ goals Rvp is bad for a club trying to challenge for major honors.. What the hell are some people on here smoking???? Whaaaat??? smh..
All this rubbish about we had Rvp and Cesc but they won us nothing is stupid. Cesc did his job, he got 17 assists and 15 goals in his last season or the season before, he did his job, what more did we expect from him????
RVP did his job too, he got us 30+ goals and a few assists in his last season, what more could he do?? He did his job, the rest of the team had to to their jibs too, but they did not..
SONG was creating but not doing his DM job, Arteta was a CM who got turned into a DM, Szny and Fabianski were all bags of nerves back then, now they have gained some experience… Ramsey, Gibbs, Szny, The ox, Wilshere etc were all rookie back then but have now matured and gained experience which has helped the team.
I kept hearing people on here since 2012-13 season bashing Giroud and asking for a so called 25-30+ goal striker, all of a sudden a world class striker would be bad for us?? Chelsea, City, United, Barcelona, Bayern, Madrid etc have got 25-30+ goal scorers, is it doing them any bad???
So you want to tell me that if we had RVP of 2011-12 instead of Giroud we would be worse off?? We always never had a balance in our team, we either had the best CM (Cesc) but then average strikers, defenders, goal keepers and midfield partners. When we had the best Striker (Rvp) we then sold Cesc and replaced him with Arteta, poor defenders and goal keepers etc..
Now we have good wingers (Walcott, Sanchez), we have good midfielders (Cazorla, Ozil, Ramsey, Rosicky (fit), but we have been missing a CB, DM and a clinical world class striker that will get you 25-30 goals a season. we always have on or 2 good things but then the rest are unbalanced..
I am Girouds biggest defender but Rvp in his prime paired with Cazorla, Sanchez, Walcott, Ozil, last seasons Ramsey etc, and you want to tell me he would bad for the team???
Some people are just unbelievable….
Calm down mate. I can fantasise all I want about what effect the 2010-11 RvP would have on our present team but the shi t ain’t real and I tend to more have nightmares about the 2004-9 and 2013-15 RvP turning up. Are you talking league goals or all comps? There is not one striker at the clubs you list aside from Ronaldo and Messi (but by your definitions I don’t expect either Messi or Ronaldo to qualify as “striker”s) who have scored 30+ league goals at that club. No one (aside again from Messi and CR7) has consistently gotten even 25 league goals a season so stop with the “25-30+” hyperbole. And don’t expect for us all to buy in to the “30+ goals” RvP myth. If you want to transpose the 2011-12 RvP in to our present team then fair enough – but what is the point? A bit of a nonsense exercise in stating the obvious. But his league goal scoring numbers for the other 13 seasons of his career goes like this; 0, 9, 6, 5, 5, 11, 7, 11, 9, 18, 26, 12, 8 (so far 2014-15) Hmmmmm. OG is younger and his sequence goes something like this 2, 14, 9 , 21, 12, 21, 11, 16, 6 (so far 2014-15). RvP is by far the better player but don’t distort or ignore the basic numbers/facts.
You say “but you can’t tell me that a 30+ goals Rvp is bad for a club trying to challenge for major honors.. What the hell are some people on here smoking???? Whaaaat??? smh..” No-one is saying that. But why ignore our “good winger” (LOL) Sanchez in all of this? Don’t tell me – “he is not a striker” and the 30 goals he is likely to score this season don’t really count.
Well, unfortunately RvP gave 30+ only on one season. Was actually exactly 30 goals but it shows that things are not exactly as you think. Besides, as you just said he’s not in his prime although with a midfield just like ours he’d banging goals for fun. But yes, that boat sailed.
The reason I prefer Giroud to VP is because of the games played. Van Persie managed a single healthy season with us. He managed to get injured even when playing behind Bergkamp and Henry. He’s fantastic when healthy, but what good is he when he’s injured?
Thumbs up for the transfer of Gabriel Paulista to go through. 6ft 2 CB villereal.
And thumbs down if its not a good signing. Just asking cz it is one of the likely ones tht could happen.
Paulista isn’t strongest defender and doesn’t have any experience outside of Spain. Not sure he’d be able to cope with the physical demands of the EPL in the middle of the season. Squillaci and Djourou come to mind. We need a beast of a defender who can do it all. Hope Wenger signs someone, the clock is ticking.
koschieny comes to mind as well…it also mean varane and hummels may struggle too
Mercy Flamini.
It is indeed…I personally don”t expect to see neither Flamini nor Diaby next season…It is still unfortunate for Diaby but I do believe we showed enough patience!!Coquelin looks promising but I still want to see if he’ll improve and be playing at that level until let’s say Arteta comes back and even make too difficult for Wenger to put Arteta in the XI after that right away…We have some great matches ahead: Tottenham, Monaco, Everton, Chelsea and United I think after that we can say he’s the real deal but so far so good!! But definitely a proven DM must come in this summer: imagine Schneiderlin/Carvalho/Wanyama and Coquelin as a back up/starter…that would be awesome until then: KEEP IT UP COQUELIN…so far so good!!
I just did a statistical comparison of ALL Defensive Midfielders in the Premier League using Squawka. Coquelin had the best overall defensive score, most tackles won, most aerial duels won, highest % of total duels won, most interceptions and most clearances. All were measured per 90 minutes. Back to the question yes but only because he isn’t good enough. Still needs a replacement because Arteta’s contribution next season might be minimal. Fitness is becoming suspect. I would say that in the next two games (Brighton (A), Villa (H)) perhaps a Defensive Midfielder isn’t required but against top teams away it is essential.
Did you include jedrinak in your comparison because he has been immense in the last two season
Hope so. Also the acquisition of Schneiderlin (most probably in the summer) should spell the end for Arteta at AFC.
Flamini had his chance and blew it (twice). Coquelin deserves his chance, I know Wenger have faith in his players if he loan them out instead of selling them. We’ve had a bunch of succesfull players after they were loaned out
Absolutely agree that Flamini has no excuses for being frozen out. He is still supposed to be at his peak and was given the ideal opportunity to prove himself not once but on numerous occasions. He failed miserably so no more chances, kick him out. I think i’d prefer to see Frimpong in the team and he couldn’t make it at Barnsley !!
Have to disagree flamini has done well this season and has been one of our better midfielder he is 2nd to yaya toure in passing accuracy in the whole leauge and he is very aggressive when compared to other arsenal players.the problem with playing flamini is that he is lined up with the ill disapline wilshire n ramsey we allways try to go forward and not think to much about defense.he has been a valuable part of the squad this season just like monreal but because they ain’t everyone’s cup of tea they won’t get recognition.
We still need bench players and I think Mathew is that and he don’t mind being that. Yes players need to go in the summer and I could name 9 but will AW do it. He sold TV and never replaced him so spend that cash right now on a defender
I think considering his age and the fact he’s already taking fitness knocks, he might sign a short extension and just run out to retirement. He clearly cares about Arsenal, he is certainly experienced and a leader and importantly, he’s pretty versatile. While he’s not got the ability to play every position on the pitch, he certainly fills gaps. Why sell a player who you’d get virtually no money for, when he’d be happy to be there as a squad player (what he was bought as) and help to better the club? I’d much prefer flamini sitting on the bench plugging up a gap then needing to loan in another Kim Kallstrom type deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re already streamlining flamini into a coaching position of some descript if I’m honest.
Le Coq has chance to become our long-term DM, but he’s still learning. Arteta still has role next season, and we’ll still need Flamini for rest of this.
Still need a top-class DM leader and driver – Schneiderlin ideal with EPL experience, though he may stay at Saints if they get top 4; Carvalho, Krychowiak, Gustavo alternatives but not proven in EPL.
Defence wise – get Reid now!! to rotate and rest Kos. Add Baptista/Laporta/Rudiger/van Dyck in summer, and start giving Hayden some bench opportunities now!!
Hummels would be great but unlikely.
Add additional forward in summer – Dybala/Lacazette/Benzema/Bacca – plus a goalie if Chesney decides to leave.
£80M tops to make us a real challenger in all comps next season – with 2nd or 3rd in EPL + FA Cup + good run in ECL this season
COYG