Gilberto is a world cup winner and captained Brazil to victory in the Copa America

By: David Maguire

I cannot remember a time when Arsenal had so many great players all fighting for the same position. Central Midfield has always been a position in which we’ve have had obvious first choices. Viera-Petit, Viera-Gilberto, Gilberto-Fabregas. This is the first year we’ve actually had more than 4 players who could do an excellent job in central Midfield.

Of these players only two seem to be having difficulty accepting their place out of the first team. Gilberto is a world cup winner and captained Brazil to victory in the Copa America. He is a model professional and has a great deal of respect for Wenger which is why he hasn’t caused any problems in the press by expressing his unhappiness.

The other has not shown such maturity or respect. Diarra has voiced his disappointment a number of times and has expressed his desire to leave in the transfer window should he not be given a more significant role in the team.

This has put Wenger in a difficult position. We know he would ideally like to keep both players, at the same time he will not block either of them if they want to move. But what if he had to choose to keep one and lose the other?

It’s times like this that I am glad I’m not a manager. On the one side you have an experienced, 100% professional player who has done a fantastic job for Arsenal FC for 5 years and has gone about his business in a quiet, respectful manner. While on the other side you have a very young ex-Chelsea player who has been here only 6 months and who has been causing unrest in the squad by demanding to leave as he has not been given enough 1st team appearances.

On these facts alone you would choose Gilberto any day but of course it’s not that simple. One of the players is at the end of his career and is only going to get slower and more injury prone. While the other is at the beginning of what looks to be a very promising career and will only get stronger and better.

It is this that would make me choose Diarra over Gilberto. Wenger always makes decisions with the club in mind and that would mean he should choose the young promising player over the aged slowing one. I applaud Gilberto for his many years of service, most of which went unnoticed by the general public and many Arsenal fans. I am happy he finally got the praise he deserved last season when he captained the side and played such an important role in the development of the team and our young players. But time is his enemy and he has looked a shadow of the player we saw last year, while Flamini fits into our new battle hardend team much better. Diarra is a similar player to Flamini, very good defensively, a good passer of the ball, strong and quick in the tackle. He would be great cover for Flamini and could do a good job in right back if ever we needed.

Gilberto deserves to be playing first team football but I feel he no longer has the pace or tenacity for the Premiership. I would like to see him go to an Italian club and Juventus has expressed their interest in him and if we could get £4million for him that would be too good to turn down.

Diarra IS going to be a great player, if not for us then for another club. If we don’t act soon to secure him he could be lining up against the Gunners in a matter of weeks!