Flamini Rightful Heir to Gattuso?

Hassan Chamas

A couple of years ago, whenever a major team wanted to acquire the services of a top defensive/central midfielder, they had a thin selection of names: You had AC Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso, Internazionale’s Esteban Cambiasso, former Lyon and current Real Madrid player Mahmadou Diarra, and Chelsea’s Michael Essien. Those were pretty much the big players in that position.

This time around, the talk of all of Europe has been around one player: Arsenal’s Mathieu Flamini. Heading into the final year of his Gunners’ contract, the Frenchman was eventually prized away from the Emirates through exploitation of the Bosman rule by AC Milan, and will be within their squad for next season.

Fame for Flamini

Born on March 7th, 1984 in Marseille, France, the player jointed the city’s B team in 2001, until 2003 when he was promoted to the senior team. During his first - and what turned out to be his only - season in the team, Flamini greatly impressed for L’OM, notably in their UEFA Cup campaign, leading them all the way to the final, where Marseille lost against an in-form Valencia, who that season were unstoppable having already won the La Liga title.

The next step

In the summer of 2004, numerous clubs were reported to be interested in Flamini after talks of a senior contract with his club Marseille stalled. He was eventually signed by Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. The player, who arrived with much anticipated hype failed to shine during the first three years at his new club, and was often used as a squad player. Until this season.

When the 2007-08 season began, Flamini was slotted in to fill the role of the absent Gilberto Silva. Since then, he’s never looked back, forming an impressive pairing with Spanish playmaker Cesc Fabregas. However- and this is what many around Europe have claimed to be Wenger’s biggest mistake - as Flamini was entering the last year of his contract, Arsenal never bothered to offer him a new deal to tie him down to the Gunners, and deemed his wage demands “excessive” and “incompatible” with their wage policy. This was ignoring the fact that when Thierry Henry cried wolf and demanded a pay rise before his final year at Arsenal, he got it. Flamini then chose to leave the club, and AC Milan were successful in securing his signature, for free, on a €5.6 million per season deal, until 2012.

Milan might have found the heir to their aging Gattuso in the middle of the park. Good for them. As for Arsenal, well, we’ll have to wait and see.

Mathieu Flamini in a few lines,

Name: Mathieu Flamini Place of birth: Marseille, France, March 7th 2984. Position: Defensive midfielder. Honours: 2004 UEFA Cup Runners-up (Marseille), FA Cup winner 2005, UEFA Champions League Runners-up 2006, League Cup Runners-up 2007 (all Arsenal).

Clubs:

Marseille B (2001-2003) Marseille (2003-2004) Arsenal (2004-2008) AC Milan (2008-)