If it does happen, it will be fine by me, because the Flamster has served his time, won a couple of trophies like he said he wanted to when he arrived for his second stint and I think he’s restored some of the irritation that remained when he jumped ship on a free transfer to AC Milan all those years ago.

I do wonder whether – assuming there’s no smoke without fire here – had Flamini signed a new deal the first time, been at the club all these years and established himself as one of our consistent performers, whether there would be more reticence from Le Boss to let him go. A player that knows the club so well and can act as a positive influence around London Colney and The Emirates would still have value in my eyes. Just look at Arteta. I have no doubt he’s being retained for another year for many more reasons than sentiment and his positive influence, but I’m sure it will play a part. 

Flamini’s case does certainly show one thing, which is that in football there is no loyalty, but more than that, it happens in both directions. As fans we’re guilty all to often of lamenting the fact that footballers show no loyalty or interest in the modern game, but much like footballers treat the game as their job and frequently move around, so the clubs treat themselves as businesses and so have no qualms about sending a player packing if their use has diminished to an extent that they will no longer contribute to the team.

Footballers are assets and in the Flamini case it appears it’s an asset that has depreciated to an extent that the club are just happy to write it off and offload to Bastia. However in Joel Campbell’s case, we have the other end of the ‘footballer as a commodity’ spectrum. Having barely played any football at all for the club, it appears Besiktas are ready to hand us £3.5million for his services.

A little while back – I think it was shortly after Campbell had signed his new deal – I wrote a blog about how Joel was essentially the clubs way of making money through the youth system without actually playing. It was a slightly cynical look at the scouting overseas for young talent approach, but I’ve always believed that Arsenal take the view that if you snaffle up enough youngsters, you’ll get one that might break in to the first team. And given their age, if you send them on loan for a few years and they succeed but still aren’t quite good enough for the first team, you can still sell them on for a tidy profit.

I still believe that and the Joel Campbell situation – if it plays out as is being reported – will be a good case study to argue that point. No doubt Arsenal will also insert a hefty sell on clause as well, so there’ll be double-bubble in terms of the investment, should Campbell be a success in Turkey.

It does make you wonder though: is it all worth it? When you look at the revenues generated by the club at the moment through sponsorship, merchandising, the Premier League TV money, etc, surely this dwarfs the odd million or two here and there for the sell on of players? Then when you factor in player wages (for these younger player deals we no doubt pay a portion of young player salaries when on loan) and all the travel expenses Dick has to put in when he’s been running around all over the world chasing after the Joel Campbell’s and agents, it does make you wonder how much of the final fee ends up being profit.

Is it worth it? Probably. Because despite all the effort, as I said above, if you uncover a gem then the club is quids in. We didn’t like the Fabregas saga at the time, but given his cost to us, then what we received in return, one Fabregas probably funded ten Joel Campbell-type signings. It makes good business sense to gamble on young players and providing your scouting system isn’t totally diabolical, then you’ll unearth one gem that will pay for the other ten duds and still have plenty of profit left over to call it a worthwhile effort.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why football clubs are more about business than ever before. It’s about economics, man.

I tell you who else is mad: Arsène Wenger, that’s who. I think the present cold snap has frozen his transfer deflector shields, because yesterday he was asked a direct question about a player who doesn’t play for us and is not on the verge of signing, and essentially admitted that if we get the work permit situation sorted the deal can be done.

Who are you and what have you done with Monsieur Wenger? That must be some sort of silicon infused android, because Arsène is normally way more guarded than he was yesterday, so I’m thinking that we have to start a man-hunt for Arsène’s captor. Think about it: defensively resolute against the champions at the weekend, admitting to transfer business that the android himself said was 50-50, then next thing you know he’ll be wearing a baseball cap on the touchline and publicly chastising players in the post-match presser. The evidence was there in his press conference yesterday too, identifying the strikers and singling out Joao Teixeira by the looks of the official site transcript of his conference yesterday. Arsène Wenger. Looking at an opponent and their weaknesses. And looking to nullify them. People: this is not a drill – a mans life could be at stake here!

There’s only one way we can find out if it’s the real Arsène: give him a really long coat with a zip. If he does it up first time, we bullet the evil android in the head and start the search immediately.

There are plenty of suspects. Ivan Gazidis, looking to finally have some control and therefore investing some of his sizabel bonus on the technology to build an Alien-style part human, part machine. Jurgen Klopp, who is looking for an exit from his Dortmund nightmare and has also invested some of his annual chunk of change on developing the technology. Hey, maybe it’s Dick Law, who is fed up with being given the run-around by 18 year-old prospects and has kidnapped Arsène and will never release him, just get ‘Evil Arsène’ to do his dirty work so all he has to do is to turn up and collect a player from the airport.

Clever Dick.

Of course I jest, but the important thing I guess, is that we are making serious moves in the market and we’re doing it almost a week before the transfer trapdoor slams shut until June. I just hope – and suspect it’s the case – that we have other options on standby in case we don’t get the positive response from the Home Office that we’re looking for.

The team news ahead of the weekend has some question marks, but I think I’ll leave the pondering on the eventual line up until Sunday morning, because I suspect a few players will be rotated. Arsène already admitted that Özil would start and with Santi in what Le Boss described as ‘the best form of his career’, it seems strange that our record signing has to contend with FA Cup appearances to show that he can get back into the side. It’s a strange and beautiful situation for Wenger to be in and, if Mesut runs the game on Sunday, it makes it delightfully more difficult for Arsène to choose who starts the following week. I’m sure he’s not worried about that in the slightest though.

He also didn’t seem too fussed about the Coquelin contract situation either, so hopefully that will be wrapped up soon, because we lose quite a few midfielders in the summer and even with Coquelin, we still need another defensive minded midfielder in my opinion. I just hope Le Boss’ confidence that the deal will be done isn’t just a smokescreen like the Flamini situation the first time around that we had him.

There’s plenty more Arsenal stuff that I could be babbling on about today, but I’m running out of time as my Met line train hurtles towards Finchley Road and ‘Nosignalsville’, so I’m afraid I must cut my ramblings short and hope you have a less frost-laden day than I am having.

Out.