Posts Tagged ‘Mathieu Flamini’

Jonathan O'Shea on Aston Villa's top four ambitions. Full story

Fabio Cannavaro's injury leaves Italy short of inspiration, France are struggling for form as Patrick Vieira gets injured and Marco Van Basten replaces an attacker with a defender for Holland. Full story

Arsenal have lost Mathieu Flamini and are set to lose Alexander Hleb as well due to their rigid wage structure. The club's strict wage policy, Wenger's lack of spending and a misfiring youth policy can all be blamed for the recent failure to win silverware. Footballing World identifies five key reasons why Arsenal are struggling to keep pace with the rest of the top four. Full story

Serie A's establishment will effectively be decided this weekend as the most anticipated Milan derby in recent history takes centre-stage at the San Siro. Both teams go into the battle of the Giuseppe Meazza on Sunday afternoon needing a win, albeit for different reasons - as Inter look to secure the Scudetto with victory over their greatest rivals. Full story

Arsene Wenger is a man not afraid to make bold decisions. Selling Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid in 1999 after the young Frenchman had looked set to become an Arsenal legend was bold. But he replaced him with Thierry Henry, and his decision was vindicated. Selling club captain Patrick Vieira in 2005 was bold. But he had Cesc Fabregas coming through, and knew he would never get a better fee for a 29 year old. The same logic applied this summer when he decided to allow Henry to depart for Barcelona. Henry may well have been the figurehead of previous Arsenal sides, but at 29 he was arguably never going to match his frighteningly special exploits of previous seasons, and Wenger had faith that the team could cope without their captain and star player, and that some of his younger players would step up and take over the baton - and boy have they done that. There are other examples - converting Lauren and Kolo Toure into a full back and a centre half must be applauded. Replacing Marc Overmars with Robert Pires for a quarter of the fee was a masterstroke. Poaching Sol Campbell from North London rivals Tottenham not only solidified a creaking defence, but also managed to wind up Spurs fans as well. A double whammy. Those are big decisions, and decisions that; quite rightly, Wenger has been widely praised for. But it is the emergence of Mathieu Flamini and Emmanuel Adebayor this season that has given a reminder, as if it were needed, that as both a coach and a manager, Wenger has few equals in the game. Full story