Letting go of Flamini in the summer of 2008 was a huge mistake. He left for more money which subsequently came to be understood as the Arsenal summer - your best players left for more money OR more money + homesickness. Whatever.
I was in Dubai in March of 2009 and I ran into a fellow Arsenal supporter. Who happens to work with Sony who had just hosted the AC Milan team recently. He shrieked a bit, for the benefit of his wife I reckon, while recounting shaking David Beckham's hands. I asked him, "Did you meet Flamini man?"
He said," Of course. Spoke with him for a while. He said that Arsenal means a lot to him, but this is the way of the footballers. And who knows, he said that he could be back with Arsenal at some point in the future".
We left it at that and continued on the margaritas, though I did recount that conversation and remember it 4 years hence.
And he is back, for commercial reasons that work both ways (and a subject for another conversation), and how. Managed to keep a clean sheet against the neighbours and where my heart was ticking louder than the baby's.
Such is life.
