The French left back, who has spent nearly all of his time at Arsenal loaned out, went to the Pars on loan a week ago (see report). He was supposed to be on loan till the end of the season, but the deal hit a snag.

Apparently there is a UEFA rule restricting the number of players over the age of 21 that a club is allowed to borrow. Restricting it to one, in fact! The Pars has already made one such loan, so UEFA barred Grondin's move.

It seems that Arsenal have acted to help out, by releasing Grondin from the remaining 18 months of his Arsenal contract. He is now a free agent, and it looks like he'll be signing a contract with Dunfermline soon.

There's more interesting stuff about restriction of players' movements on that Pars page (linked to above). Apparently a player is only allowed to cross a national border once per season, unless it's on loan.

Now that he's left Arsenal, we wish David the best of luck with his future career. He has definite potential, and may have ended up getting a lot more games at Arsenal if it weren't for the emergence of Ashley Cole.