Like most (sensible) Gooners today, I have mixed emotions on Flamini’s leaving for AC Milan. Any Arsenal fan who stayed for the end of season applause at Sunday’s game would on noticed a nonchalant Falmini strolling around the stadium barely able to make eye contact with the fans whilst engaging Cesc in conversation, who to his credit, periodically broke off from Flamini’s mutterings to return the fan’s applause. It was clear to any sane onlooker that Flamini was off.

But why? Take a glance at this article and this interview from last November and the writing was on the wall. This is no ordinary player on or off the pitch. A law student with a keen eye on contractual law and negotiations, Mathieu is basically no mug. My take on his move to AC Milan is simple. The guy was a bit player for three years and so requested to leave last year and but was persuaded to stay by Wenger, taking his chance with Gilberto being absent in the Copa America, then working his nuts off and becoming a critical part of the team’s resurgence in form this year. And all along the clock was counting down on his contract… and his net personal worth was increasing by the game.

The bottom line is that this situation has been poorly managed by Wenger and the Arsenal board. Flamini should have been offered an extension back in November 2007 not in the weeks in the run up to his contract expiring and becoming a free agent. (Ed’s note – In fairness to the club, I am under the impression that discussions were ongoing from autumn until the end of January, but since then no communication from Flamini’s people and if there was any upping of the offer, then presumably it was never going to match the earnings he will make in Italy after his performances v Milan.) If David Dein was still around I can’t see him of allowing such poor business taking place. Truth is that if Wenger did see the potential in Flamini then they should have tied him down last summer when he requested to leave the club.

Given we have not gained a single penny for Flamini and the impact he has made this season (and I would argue in previous seasons in a variety of positions) and the money now required to find a ‘suitable’ replacement (£15M for Barry?! What a joke! Why not give Flamini £60k rather than £50k, given the alternative?) the manager’s spin in recent interviews on running a profitable business seems ludicrous given the money now required to fill his boots (please, don’t go on about Denilson!)

The fans’ romance with Mathieu has ended - for the majority in bitterness and sorrow. For me, it’s a tale of ‘too little, too late’.

Not for the first time there was only one winner today. And as he was flying over the Emirates on Sunday evening on his way to Milan, Mathieu Flamini had scored yet another tactical masterpiece in self-worth. I only hope Cesc wasn’t paying too much attention on Sunday to Flamini’s whispered words during the lap of “honour”…