A round-up of some news to do with Arsenal Football Club
43 comments May 3rd, 2008
There’s quite a lot of it about, actually. Which is lucky, otherwise I’d just be rambling. Much like this.
The biggest news has been the departure of Managing Director Keith Edelman. Edelman had done a good job in a rocky period of transistion for the club, overseeing the move to the Emirates Stadium, but the board will now look to bring in a replacement with football experience. Ken Friar, the man for all seasons (quite literally), will do the job in the interim. Edelman was criticised for corporate traits such as referring to fans as “customers”, but I’m sure that eventually we’ll look back on his time with the club as part of an essential process of modernisation. However, now we’ve reached the end of that occasionally bumpy ride, the board will be re-organised to suit football matters. As Arsene admits, those changes may even see the mooted Director of Football role finally introduced.
One departure that will certainly have an effect on on-field matters is that of Mathieu Flamini, who inches ever closer to the exit. Arsene has asked for a deadline extension, but come Monday morning he’ll surely still be claiming the dog ate his homework. Le Boss says:
“Ideally I want him to stay, but he’s free. That means if you get £2million here, £4 million somewhere else, you can go to the one who gives you four, or you can as well stay to the one who gives you two.”
I doubt Arsene needs his economics degree to work out what Flamini is likely to do.
Arsene has stated that he doesn’t expect to lose anyone else, and has declared his intention to report Inter Milan for meeting Aleksandr Hleb whilst he is under contract. I hope he dished out a mighty fine to Hleb too, who was completely out of order to meet with Inter whilst we over there playing against AC. The whole incident will have infuriated Arsene, and if he can get a decent fee for Hleb, I think he’ll take the money rather than keep a player whose mind is on moving away – and maybe replace him with the scorier Niko Kranjcar…?
West Ham are trailing to United as I type this, meaning our slim title hopes could be over within 40 minutes.
