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.

Video of infamous cake

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Was Flamini Frozen Out Over Birthday Cake Stunt?
Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 13/07/2014 10:40
Arsenal Times
13/07/2014 10:40
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:07:27:18:43:40 by Padre Pio.

Padre Pio
13/07/2014 10:53
I think it was Flamini's critical tone in vid over not winning anything for 9 years that may have pi$$ed Wenger off.

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Optimistic Gunner
13/07/2014 11:06
Never liked us resigning Flamini in the first place and still don't want him here.

I say let him leave now or let him rot in the reserves and instead we sign a quality defense minded CM.

https://i.postimg.cc/tTfqCGwv/Arsenal-FC.png

Padre Pio
13/07/2014 11:09
i always said he would only manage 30 games a season

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Zainy
13/07/2014 11:41
I'm with OP. Never liked the re signing. He is an
Ok player and does a job but you have to be a great player to warrant playing on the edge of being suspending every match. Not worth keeping him around.

Gööfle11
13/07/2014 11:54
Frozen out for being rubbish.

Official 1000th poster in the classic transfer rumors thread of 2014.

Padre Pio
13/07/2014 12:02
Quote:
Gööfle11
Frozen out for being rubbish.

Due to eating too much cake, that cake was massive

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Jack_is_the_truth
13/07/2014 12:41
He was dropped for his pointless pointing

Jonny Kipper
13/07/2014 14:22
ITV have gone down a notch in my estimation. It's such a strange, weird thing to do that I can seldom believe that it happened. I know they probably thought it was hilarious, but it was just f*cking odd and a little short-sighted.

Can you imagine Sky Sports pulling a stunt like that?

eduardo
13/07/2014 14:43
shane you have to remember ITV could seldom say Arsenal without adding 9 years without a trophy, Childes attempted to belittle AFC every chance he got last season, he even made snide remarks when we won the FA Cup, Townsend don't even try to hide his dislike of Arsenal, who can forget his "get in" comment when he thought Napoli had scored against us,

ITV's cake stunt was stupid as is BT's ad, both seem to forget Arsenal have a massive fan base and they should not go out of their way to upset customers.

As Padre said, Wenger did not like how Flamini seemed to enjoy the 9 candles bit a little too much.

*Signing Ozil is a signing Bergkamp type moment for Arsenal. It changes things utterly.*

Flava
13/07/2014 15:38
That's poor by Wemger if that was the case. As Tom said, he wasn't playing because he's rubbish.

celine dion
13/07/2014 16:42
When I was at the legends tour last week Perry Groves went into quite some detail about the 'sleeve cutting' incident.

Apparently, not respecting the 'shirt sleeve' order is a VERY BAD thing. Probably worse than most of us would think.

Gööfle11
13/07/2014 17:09
Not respecting it is one thing... but then cutting the sleeves off like a maniac is just utter b*llendary.

Official 1000th poster in the classic transfer rumors thread of 2014.

celine dion
13/07/2014 17:11
Well especially as he did it once, they told him off, then the next week he did it again.

weedz
14/07/2014 05:02
Don't know if any of you noticed Flamini being one of our 'new Puma strip' models a couple of days ago.

One would imagine that if he was on his way out, he would not be appearing on the cat-walk for our club.

Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, there’s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.

Arsenal fc

Let’s keep making history

Optimistic Gunner
14/07/2014 05:56
Quote:
weedz
Don't know if any of you noticed Flamini being one of our 'new Puma strip' models a couple of days ago.
One would imagine that if he was on his way out, he would not be appearing on the cat-walk for our club.

Yeah I noticed (Arteta was the flagship player too) and that is why I further doubt Wenger signing a defensive minded CM.

I am hoping the kit was shown with likes of Flamini, Arteta, Cazorla, Grioud, etc,, beacause they are puma sponsored players as otherwise it would've made more sense so the new kit off with the likes of Ramsey, Theo, Whilshere, etc...

https://i.postimg.cc/tTfqCGwv/Arsenal-FC.png

Padre Pio
14/07/2014 08:45
I remember quite a few players being flagship wearers of the kit in the past and gone by the start of the season.

I dont think that proves anything either way.

Who knows if Flamini will go or not, but either way his chances of playing will be less and less

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Gööfle11
14/07/2014 09:04
Unfortunately Flamini isn't going anywhere.

Official 1000th poster in the classic transfer rumors thread of 2014.

Optimistic Gunner
14/07/2014 09:07
Quote:
Gööfle11
Unfortunately Flamini isn't going anywhere.

"Unfortunately" is the key word there.

https://i.postimg.cc/tTfqCGwv/Arsenal-FC.png




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:07:14:09:08:52 by Optimistic Gunner.

Gööfle11
14/07/2014 09:12
I remember when Flamini was apparently one of the first names on the team sheet.

Official 1000th poster in the classic transfer rumors thread of 2014.

MattySadler
14/07/2014 18:52
ITV are really, really sh*te. There's a reason 12 million watched on BBC and 3 million watched on ITV. Chiles is awful, Tyldesley is awful, Townsend is awful and MOST the pundits they have are awful. I would watch Sky, BBC and BT Sport any day of the week. That candle stunt was just typical of them.

Anyway, I didn't particularly want Flamini resigned either, he is a bit of a d*ck, but at that point in time we'd only signed Sanogo and didn't seem close to signing anyone else, so I was just relieved to get more numbers in.

We're a serious team at the moment, in a much better position and chasing some pretty high profile transfer targets. No way Flamini should be getting a look in to our first team now, realistically.

weedz
20/07/2014 22:07
Good post, Matty

Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, there’s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.

Arsenal fc

Let’s keep making history

BFGunner
22/07/2014 19:16
I'd love to hear more about the shirt sleeves incident.

eduardo
22/07/2014 20:32
in a game where Arsenal were wearing long sleeve shirts Flamini cut the sleeves of his kit so they were short, as he don't like long sleeve shirts.

*Signing Ozil is a signing Bergkamp type moment for Arsenal. It changes things utterly.*

Philly the kid
22/07/2014 20:37
Quote:
eduardo
in a game where Arsenal were wearing long sleeve shirts Flamini cut the sleeves of his kit so they were short, as he don't like long sleeve shirts.

Twice.
(Sm105)

Superhero
22/07/2014 23:11
Flamini was an important member of the team during the potentially teetering season beginning with Aston Villa. His fight in center midfield was welcome. Seems his favor quickly waned when that OG late in the game,(Don't recall, everton), gave up the 3pts. You either like someone or not. If you don't like them, then its time trot out the "respect" concept. Glad he is on team and hope we can find some more players that don't mind @#$%& off the kit guy/or sponsor?

Cheers

Gööfle11
22/07/2014 23:31
Utter tripe.

Official 1000th poster in the classic transfer rumors thread of 2014.

BFGunner
23/07/2014 02:50
My bad, what I really meant was I would like to hear more of the story Celine was talking about from his tour at the Emirates.

I know the media story but being a newish type of supporter im always hungry for not so main stream traditions and stories.

I listened to a 45 minute story a couple months ago about Wenger's coming to arsenal as a nobody by a couple of older players. Told stories about how goofy he was and it was hilarious. Anybody have anymore such stories?

MattySadler
23/07/2014 07:43
Youtube Ray Parlour mate, he's got some absolutely mint stories, as you'd imagine.

There is a fantastic one about Kolo Toure's Arsenal trial.

BFGunner
23/07/2014 15:19
Haha yea that's the one.

Padre Pio
27/07/2014 10:21
great story

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Big Guhnz
27/07/2014 20:01
Quote:
Jack_is_the_truth
He was dropped for his pointless pointing

(Sm22)

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