Monday 17 December 2007

Diarra raises the white flag...

The weekend papers all carried the story that Lassana Diarra wants to leave Arsenal. This quote from the Telegraph:

"When I signed for Arsenal I was made promises by the people who recruited me....But since the start of the season the only matches I've been involved in have been low-key, and to be honest I'm getting fed up with it....With Mister Wenger, there's no problem whatsoever. I'm not going to criticise him or speak badly of him. I'm not the kind of person who creates problems.....But I signed for Arsenal because I was led to believe I was going to be playing, and there would be healthy competition for the spot. That hasn't been the case."

A couple of things strike me about this. Ok, it's more than a couple.

1. Wenger picks the team. If Diarra is unhappy about playing then that is directed at Wenger. Diarra saying "I don't want to criticise Wenger or create problems" is nonsense.

2. Who are these mysterious people who signed Diarra and promised that he would play? Either someone has spoken out of turn, or more likely, Diarra is an idiot for believing the fluff his agent fed him for 30% of the signing on fee.

3. Diarra complains that he has only played in low key matches, yet he is a French international. Well, welcome to Arsenal Mr Diarra. We have full internationals on loan elsewhere because they can't get into the first team - e.g. Djourou. Our bench this season is crammed with full internationals who can't get into the first team e.g. Bendtner, Eduardo, Gilberto, Walcott, Lehmann, Senderos etc. He is an idiot if he thinks playing for France means he is good enough to play for Arsenal.

4. The last part of his complaint is nonsense. If he thought there would be "healthy competition for the spot" then why is he complaining about the vast amount of healthy competition for the central midfield spot. Idiocy again.

Now, usually in these situations, the player can say something like "it made more sense in French". The lost in translation defence was tried and tested by Anelka, Vieira and Pires at times.

The actual truth, of course, is that Diarra's agent is trying to put his client in the shop window again for January and wants to print some rubbish in the belief that it will raise his clients' profile.

Its a shame, but so be it, I say, give Flamini the bumper contract his performances this season and loyalty over the years deserve, keep Gilberto on the back burner and sell Diarra to anyone willing to pay us a few million for him. The great dolphin headed idiot.

Lastly, on a tangent, the flip-side argument is that what we are witnessing with Diarra is a full international who actually wants to play football rather than collect his pay cheque and sit on the bench. Wouldn't it be refreshing to see English players take a similar attitude occasionally?

1 comment:

1979gooner said...

can't argue with that, if the limpet-brained Diarra wants to leave then let him, we don't need his sort unsettling the dressing room,

shame because he's a talented guy, but you need the right characters,

he should be reflecting on his abysmal performance against Boro rather than shooting his mouth off in the press,

quite a contrast between Diarra and Flamini