Was Flamini Frozen Out Over Birthday Cake Stunt?

By Eduardo
July 13 2014

I was told recently that Flamini upset Arsene Wenger three times last season, and it may very well be three strikes and you are out.

Flamini’s first incurred the wrath of Wenger when he cut off the sleeves of his Arsenal shirt, well it did not greatly upset Wenger, more kit man Vic Akers, who tore into Flamini for his lack of respect to not only the Arsenal shirt, but to the tradition of Captain’s choice when it comes to the sleeve choice, short or long.

However, What did upset Wenger was Flamini’s attitude towards Akers. Flamini was warned as to his future conduct. So the second time Flamini took the scissors to his kit, it did not go down at all well with Wenger and co, and Flamini was left in no doubt as to how his behaviour was looked upon.

Despite these two shirt-cutting incidents Flamini remained a fully used member of the Arsenal first team squad for most of the season. When he did disappear from regular duty it was felt by many that it was his often needless bookings that had led to two suspensions, that saw him used less and less. I thought it was more to do with maybe a lack of form or just that once Ramsey and others had returned to fitness that there was less need for Flamini to be used.

Something in regards to the lack of use for Flamini seemed suspicious when despite Arteta looking like his legs had gone and reports of him carrying a knock or two. Arteta played game after game after game in our crucial run in to the season end. Flamini was not even used when it was three games in eight days.

So what was Flamini’s third strike?Well a number of weeks ago a source told me that Wenger was furious with Flamini taking part in a Birthday Cake stunt by ITV, around the time of our CL games with Bayern Munich. ITV presented Flamini with a Birthday Cake, nothing untoward about that you may say, but ITV thought it would be funny to have nine candles on the cake, one for every season Arsenal had gone trophyless. Flamini went along with it and Wenger was not best pleased.

I had not seen or even heard about this stunt by ITV, so I thought little about it. But a few days ago I spoke to my source again, and he mentioned a top midfielder we are in for, and added Flamini’s Birthday Cake upsetting Wenger could work out very well for us. So I decided to look into it a bit more, I asked a few Arsenal Times regulars if they knew anything about it and Arsenal Times found a link (below) to the ITV cake stunt. So I decided to have a closer look to see if Flamini had been, as my source said “frozen out”

Frozen out?

Looking at the use of Flamini in the Arsenal first team after this incident shows that he barely started a game, even as stated when Arteta looked worn out. Flamini started 21 games out of 43 before the Birthday Cake stunt, but only 4 out of 13 after it. I don’t know if such a silly incident would make Wenger freeze out a player, would even the 3 incidents combined lead to it, I really doubt it, but he went from starting in almost half our games before the cake, to less than a third after it. So was he frozen out? You decide.