Carling Cup Preview: The Future of Flamini + Stokesy in Scotland
67 comments November 8th, 2006
In tonight’s Carling Cup tie away to Everton, Mathieu Flamini will start in the centre of midfield. And midfield is where you will be seeing Flamini permanently from now on, after he and Arsene Wenger agreed it was detrimental to his development to continue at left-back. However, the question does beg itself: has Flamini shot himself in the proverbial foot?
In his first season at the club, Flamini was the fifth choice midfielder behind Vieira, Gilberto, Edu, and Fabregas. However, seen by many as a direct replacement for Ray Parlour, Flamini’s all-action style and a spate of injuries saw him get a run of games alongside Fabregas, most impressively in the home draw against Chelsea.
When Vieira and Edu left in the summer of 2005, Flamini found himself even higher up the pecking order, with only Alex Song as the other competition for a central midfield spot. However, two things happened in this year that would completely change Flamini’s season. The first was the run of injuries to left-backs, culminating in our eigth choice, Flamini, finally making the role his own with a series of storming displays. Secondly, in January, Arsene moved to sign Abou Diaby, a younger and more powerful Frenchman, essentially condemning Flamini to fourth-choice.
Flamini was superb at left-back, and unlucky not to start the Champions League Final after contributing hugely to us getting there. There were calls for him to remain in the role, but it seems both he and Arsene have other ideas.
But last summer’s transfer window was not kind to Flamini either. After Cesc and Gilberto performing well in the World Cup, cementing their status as the top two in central midfield, transfer deadline day saw two more Brazilians arrive: Julio Baptista and Denilson (the latter of which starts tonight alongside Flamini). Tomas Rosicky also has the capability to play inside. All in all, it doesn’t look great more Mathieu. Even Alex Song is making strides to catch him up.
Games like tonight are vital if he is going to impress and get a chance in the first-team. At the moment the only thing that will grant him regular opportunities would be an injury to Gilberto, but even then a return for Baptista would leave Flamini in the cold. I like the Frenchman very much indeed, but with Abou Diaby still to come aswell you have to say it looks bleak for his first-team chances. I’m afraid I believe he’ll be gone within a couple of years.
Last night saw Anthony Stokes grab another goal as Falkirk knocked Celtic out of the CIS Insurance Cup on penalties (Tony missed his, but no-one cares now). Julian Peck, Sports Editor of the Falkirk Herald, has been raving about him:
“The fans love him. Anyone that’s going to score goals and move the club up the table like he’s done is going to be hero-worshipped. Dunfermline are our big rivals and he was told by the Club captain [Steven Thomson] that if he scored a goal there he’d be a hero. Of course, he scored three. Now, the press are all over him like a rash and everything on Sunday was about him.”
Thanks too to Sandy Young who provided me with a list of the record-smashing achievements of Stokesy in Scotland:
- First Falkirk player to Score a hat-trick since their promotion to the SPL.
- First player to score a hat trick at the new Falkirk Stadium.
- Youngest player to score a hat trick in the SPL.
- First player to score back-to-back hat tricks in the SPL.
- SPL top goalscorer having not started the season with the club.
- SPL Young Player of the Month.
- CIS Cup player of the round.
- First Falkirk player to score a hat trick at Dunferminline (their major rivals).
Philippe Senderos has been speaking about his return to the side, and he will also play tonight. It’s good to have him back: his leadership and aerial presence might have prevented some of the soft goals we’ve conceded recently.
Finally, I think Arsene sometimes signs players based purely on their name. He clearly bought Song and Traoré because he found it amusing that they had name associations with other foreign stars. Now he’s taking that policy too far.
Everton away is a very tricky tie, and any sort of win would be superb. After losing at West Ham on the weekend, we do need a boost.
