Siddy Shivdasani
Even the most ardent of AKBs must surely concede that The Messiah has made mistakes. We all make mistakes. But for me, there is one which is a metaphor for where we’ve been going wrong for nearly a decade.
Letting Flamini go (the first time).
I think it’s fair to say that the only time we have sustained a credible title challenge since The Invincibles was the 2007-08 season. Where did it all go wrong?
Birmingham.
The in-form Eduardo’s horror injury, a dodgy penalty for the Brummies in injury time and Gallas’s sit down protest sulk after the final whistle. We didn’t win another PL game for over a month. Despite that, we still finished just four points adrift of the eventual champions, Man Ure. What could have been…
But during that PL dry patch from late February to late March was a remarkable 2-0 away CL win against AC Milan in the San Siro (after a goalless draw at home).
Fabregas put us ahead in the 84th minute during a masterclass team performance. Adebayor (boo!) added one in the last minute to rub salt into the holders’ wounds.
I believed at the time that it was marking the emergence of another great AW team, capable of sweeping all before them at home and abroad.
Milan, of course, had the much-heralded central midfield partnership of Pirlo the playmaker and Gattuso the enforcer. But our own emerging partnership of Young Turks, Fabregas the playmaker and Flamini the enforcer, outplayed them at their own game and on their own patch.
Funnily enough, the rabid Frenchman had already been compared to the Italian terrier at the beginning of that season and said: “I play a physical game and that is why they call me 'Gattuso’, because he plays exactly the same role.”
Fabregas garnered most of the attention for his creativity back then. But I feel that in many ways, Flamini was our player of the season (and let’s not forget his adaptability filling in manfully at left back during the run to the 2006 CL final).
As for 2007-08, the way he would hunt down the ball, well, he was peerless in the PL. The modern day equivalent would be N’Golo Kante.
Flamini was like a metronome. You could tell how well we were doing at any point in a game by simply pinpointing his position on the pitch. If it was backs to the wall, he was defending as if his life depended on it. If we were attacking, he was driving us forward. Captain material.
Despite his lack of bulk, we had finally found someone who could mix it in midfield after the void left by the premature departure of the magnificent Patrick Vieira.
Flamini left us the first time nearly nine years ago, just as he was reaching his peak, and let’s remind ourselves that football does evolve. With clubs now prepared to splash the cash for his ilk, he’d be pretty in vogue these days if he was still in his prime (although his legs have clearly gone at the tender age of 32 having played fetch for so long).
Back then, defensive midfielders were underrated and undervalued. But we have never adequately replaced him. Denilson (and they called Ray Wilkins a crab), Song (who would have been good if he didn’t think he was Liam Brady), Arteta (out of position) and right up to Xhaka (jury still out but I didn’t recall a clutch of big clubs vying for his signature in the summer).
Worse still, we let the more than promising Lassana Diarra go to Portsmouth for £5.5million in 2008. He was then snapped up by the mighty Real Madrid for nearly £19million soon after and went on to make 117 appearances for the Spanish giants. Ironically, he would have actually been a pretty good replacement and only left because Flamini was ahead of him in the pecking order.
Anyway, our ‘Gattuso’ injected enthusiasm and steel into that 2007-08 team (and I think he imbued a bit of that fighting spirit when he returned BTW). But why did we miss out on his peak years?
False economy.
He (apparently) wanted around £70k per week to sign a new contract and the club was quibbling over £5k-£10k per week (echoes of Cashley Cole). Why didn’t we give it to him? He deserved it. The rest is history… he ended up at AC Milan no less, who jumped at the chance to get him on a free transfer and pay him what he wanted following his performance at the San Siro a few months earlier.
