Diaby was never going to be an Arsenal great

A lot of blogs have had their say on Abou Diaby's departure from Arsenal so, for what it's worth (which is the same as the transfer fee for the Frenchman, i.e. Nothing), here's mine.

I've read people writing something along the lines of Diaby was great on his day, but there were too few of them. I would go 'one step beyond' that (to quote a Madness song) and say there was only one of those great days: Liverpool away.

I'd argue that the much-maligned Andrey Arshavin gave Arsenal better value for money as he was outstanding on more than one occasion, of course scoring 4 times at Anfield. Yet, nearly no one seemed upset when he moved on.

Likewise, while I sympathise with Diaby's injury problems, I don't feel sad about his departure. I don't think it's easy to put a player like him in a team, as he wasn't disciplined enough to be a defensive midfielder like Flamini and he wasn't attack-minded enough to be as effective going forward as Samir Nasri (who apparently, although I don't believe it, wants to come back to Arsenal).

Diaby reminds me of the Denilson era. That was a time when the trophy room was barren and misplaced passes were common. Fans were expected to be believe that D&D would come good, but they never did at Arsenal. Why? A comparative lack of workrate to their predecessors Flamini and Cesc Fabregas, although Denilson was more guilty in this respect than Diaby. Additionally, Diaby didn't have the ability to play the killer ball like Cesc.

In short, how many assists and goals did Diaby achieve while at Arsenal? Not enough to be classed as an effective performer offensively. And how many interceptions and tackles did he make per game? Again, not enough.

Regardless of his record though, I wish Diaby all the best with his future career (probably in the MLS). Nevertheless, I'm not going to consider what might have been had he not been the victim of more than one horrific tackle, as I don't think he was ever destined to be an Arsenal great.

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