Flamini down, Hleb to go

As expected, the news today is that Hleb will follow Flamini out. Okay fine, go. Bye bye Byelarus.

I particularly like some of Le Boss’s comments:

"It isn't just down to money because we have bought players for nothing and they became world stars.

"It is also down to the quality of the scouting, the quality of the work in training and the quality of the development in the players.

"I believe much more in that, working in an intelligent way to make a player improve."

Right on. For some reason, we often find ourselves buying players who come with a “who????” after their name, only for them to become much sought after players after a season or two. So we must be doing something right. Let’s not change that. Some will move on, and let’s concentrate on keeping the very very best and committed. I'd rather this than have us buy the usual names at age 27, 28 for a bomb and have them flop like a damp quib after two seasons.

After Hleb leaves, my first suggestion to Le Boss will be to implement a rule on sock lengths. Nothing that will allow Hleb-like socks (circa 1972, à la Gerd Muller). Though I must add that Thierry had a nasty habit of wearing his too long every now and then...almost like stockings. C’mon dude, I know it’s cold, but having your socks up to were your shorts end is kinda odd. (Though I think Thierry’s been wearing them properly at Barca, where it’s of course much warmer than London).


There’s also the same old news about Gareth Barry, though the media seem to be slightly more certain that we will be bidding for him. Honestly, I will be a bit surprised. He does seem to be on the slightly old side for an Arsene signing, and I don’t see him splashing out that kind of dough. That said, he’s pretty useful in the middle of the park, and could give Cesc the space to do his thing. But que sera sera.

Other than this, slow news today. Hopefully, things will look up over the weekend. Probably not. (There are some rumblings that Ade - or his agent - have upped his salary demands to £80,000 a week. I'm not even going to start on that...)