A lot of us gooners are royally pissed off at losing Diarra because he’s a very good player, he was critical for our Carling Cup squad. If he’d played in the two legs against Tottenham, I think we would’ve won it or at least not have lost so badly. Others are saying it’s better for him to go, even tho we need him, because his attitude was so poor.

I understand his desire to play and that he wants to stay in the French NT but the fact is that he was not very far behind Flamini. Glatisant is wrong to say that he had a lot of players in front of him, he didn’t. If he’d stayed, he really would’ve made it at Arsenal. He was beginning to impress everyone in the CC games. As a defensive midfielder, he was fast becoming closer and closer to first team action, and by this time, he’d be behind only Flamini. So if Flamini gets injured (heaven forbid!), he was becoming Wenger’s first choice to replace him. Gilberto is used by Wenger from desperation more and more, he doesn’t have many choices left for DMs. Diaby is more of a creative midfielder than Diarra, tho there is so much midfield congestion right now that Wenger uses him on the flanks, where he’s having a hard time.

What’s worse, however, is Diarra’s comments immediately after arriving at Pompey. He said that the club knows he’s not there for the long haul, he’s just there to get first team action until a big club buys him. Great way to endear himself to his new management and fans. Now I know that may be better than when a new player pretends to declare loyalty to his new club but it’s a pretty crass, undiplomatic, stupid thing to say. Not the kind of thing to engender respect or interest from managers from big clubs.

He’s now left two of England’s top 4 clubs. That’s not a good reputation to have. No way are Man United or Liverpool interested in him after the bad press he’s got in England. So he’ll have to hope that a big club from Italy or Spain show some interest. And frankly, while he is a terrific player, I just don’t see Real Madrid, Barca, Milan or Inter sniffing around him any time soon, esp. when they’ve got even more impressive young players to look at who don’t make the same salary demands.

Diarra’s attitude generated a very rare thing: a Wenger outburst in the press against one of his players, something he never does. He didn’t name Diarra directly but everyone knew who he was talking about. He said that football is a man’s game, and that you have to fight for your place; that no one should assume that they can just walk into the first team without showing the manager what he’s made of. He wasn’t impressed by Diarra’s unwillingness to fight.

The comparison with Flamini is commonly cited by gooners. Last season Flamini was in Diarra’s position — very frustrated at not being in the first team. He was quoted in the press saying that he was going to leave the club. Unlike Diarra, however, Flamini did everything that Wenger asked him to, playing in all positions, rarely in his preferred one. (Diarra, meanwhile, told Wenger in December that he didn’t want to play in any more games). We all expected Flamini to leave–until he decided to buckle down, work hard and prove to Wenger that he should be in the first team.

And that’s exactly what happened. Flamini has displaced Gilberto, Brazil’s former captain and a world cup winner. Out of all Arsenal’s players this season, it isn’t Fabregas, Hleb or Adebayor who’s impressed gooners the most (tho they have as well). It is FLAMINI who is our #1 revelation this season, he is absolutely essential to our success this season.

The Diarra-leaving-situation has caused a stir with the Arsenal supporters. A common line is to say that he obviously has a hugely flawed character, and that if he’d stayed it would have been a disaster. Others are more honest, and just say that they’re disappointed that he left.

I really like the player, so I’m disappointed that he left my beloved Arsenal, but I’ll be happy for him and L’Equipe de France if he can find his best form and work his way into the first 11 this summer.

I think that Anelka at Bolton is the example that proves that Domenech will select players from non-champions-league, non-French teams. I do remember his rant about Faubert going to West Ham, and he obviously loves the Champions League, but I think he’ll watch Diarra play at Portsmouth.

Of course now he’ll be a victim of Domenech’s anti-smaller-EPL team bias. But he probably figured that if he’s not going to get called up from Bordeaux, he might as well not get called up from England.