Diarra is a ponce – Gilberto – Jens – Arsecast 59

Happy Friday to you all. It’s fucking freezing here in Dublin this morning. Booo. Freezing is bad.

Let’s start with Lassana Diarra who, according to the Guardian, asked Arsene Wenger to drop him for the Carling Cup game (and you assume the FA Cup game) because he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to play. Fuck me, what a little ponce. First he complains he’s not playing enough then when he does get a chance he’s too delicate to take it. It’s really very difficult to have any sympathy for Diarra at all. It strikes me his focus is entirely on playing for France so perhaps if first team football at a mid-table side helps him achieve that then he’s best off leaving. Newcastle baulked at a 4 year £18m contract, and who can blame them? Valencia and Sp*rs are still interested, it seems so we’ll wait and see what happens to a player who obviously thinks he’s a lot better than he actually is.

When you compare his attitude to that of Gilberto you can see the difference between a little ponce and a proper professional footballer. Gilberto says:

I know the team is playing well and so are the guys in my position, especially Mathieu. I prefer not to think about moving and to fight for my position. I go there, do my job and be 100% professional, as I always have been and try to return to the team.

That’s why even though he’s struggling for form at the moment Gilberto will be regarded highly by Arsenal fans whereas Diarra will always be a little ponce, the little ponce.

There’s been no movement on the Jens Lehmann front. It seems he wants only a 6 month deal with Dortmund which would allow him to make a decision in the summer about where he wants to spend the final years of his career. Jens says:

If I can get my private matters satisfactorily resolved then I could come, otherwise I won’t. I want to have complete freedom to decide what I do next in the summer.

That’s the thing about getting older, you don’t settle for a deal that doesn’t suit you 100%. It would be a surprise if he stayed though, with Euro 2008 on the horizon.

Ahead of tomorrow’s game against Birmingham we’re without Robin van Persie (I should make a little macro for that – ctrl+v = ‘van persie is injured’) and Johann Djourou while Philippe Senderos will have a fitness test today. Theo Walcott should be fine after his ankle twist thingy. We’ll get more in-depth team news a bit later on, no doubt.

Fran Merida talks about his loan move to Real Sociedad.

Now, Arsecast.

In this week’s shorter Arsecast, brought to you in association with OleOle.com, there’s some waffle about football, the Man in the Bar has a player history, AWH is there, we’re at home with Eboue and there’s an exclusive extract from Robin van Persie’s new Dutch TV show.

To subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes – click here. To download this week’s arsecast directly – click here (11mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

And that’s your lot. Till tomorrow.