On Friday afternoon, the three players who have been released by Arsenal football club were confirmed but although Mathieu Flamini is among them, could he still be staying in north London?

Mathieu Flamini has infuriated just about everyone associated with our club over the last couple of seasons. So much so that not even two goals against Spurs at White Hart Lane can persuade Gooners to want him to stay. The issue is, the one person he probably hasn’t annoyed is our best player: Mesut Ozil.

Our playmaker and Flamini are firm friends and there has been talk that if he goes, our German genius could potentially fall out of love with the club. Could Mathieu Flamini be staying at the club for this reason?

Let’s look into it.

When the names of our three released players, Flamini, Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta were confirmed by the Premier League, we at Daily Cannon rejoiced for about five seconds before we found the section that clear mentions that if a player is out of contract (like Flamini) they can potentially still be kept on:

“Please note that players signified as a ‘free transfer’ or released by a club on the expiry of their contract on 30 June 2016, could still remain there next season and so this list should not be seen as definitive for players leaving their club.”

After thinking about this a little bit more, we grew even more worried. There’s been surprisingly little said about the Frenchman leaving the club, unlike the other two. Add to this the reports that we could be set to offer him a new contract and I wouldn’t bet against us keeping the midfielder at Arsenal.

Now, why would we do this? The man is 32, hardly plays, is injury-prone and – at best – a nuisance. When he came on against Barcelona at the Emirates and conceded a penalty within two minutes, this encapsulated his entire season at Arsenal. So why would he have him stay?

There’s no other reason than to keep Mesut sweet and, to be honest, I can get on board with that.