Several years ago, Mathieu Flamini, midfielder and sometime fullback, played for Arsenal. Then his contract ran down, and he was one of the first of the string of post-Invincible departures that seem to be ending now that we have money again. He went to AC Milan, and played a bit there, and now he's a free agent again. It's a little odd to me that a player who's at least reasonably talented would have his contract run down twice in about five years, but whatever.

Anyway, he doesn't have a team at the moment, so it looks like he's at London Colney as of a few days ago.

Mathieu Flamini asked Arsene Wenget if he could train with Arsenal to stay fit. Wenger agreed but there is nothing more to it at the moment. — Julien Laurens (@LaurensJulien) August 8, 2013

Flamini is 29 and started training with the team on Monday. He is a free agent after the end of his contract at AC Milan. — Julien Laurens (@LaurensJulien) August 8, 2013

According to the Sun via Arseblog News (because "don't read the Sun" and all that), he'd like to come back to England, though of course that doesn't mean anything about us. Flamini:

Milan offered me a contract for two years but I need to take my time and make the right decision. I’ve been in Italy for five years, I’ve had a great time and learnt a lot but I miss England and I want to win the Premier League. It has a special place in my heart. I like the pace and the physicality of English football and I like that every game is very open.

This is probably more like the time that Robert Pires trained here, and the time David Beckham trained here, than it is the time that Thierry Henry trained here. But hey, we just got rid of a bunch of deadwood, so maybe we can start replacing it with guys who used to play here. But it's probably not anything.