Often it takes a young player some time to settle in at Arsenal. They need to get to know the way the club operates, its values, its traditions, the rivalries and such.

This does not seem to apply to Carlos Vela who wrote himself into the book of legendary Arsenal quotes without so much as kicking a ball for us yet. Speaking about the move of fellow Mexican Giovanna dos Santos to Sp*rs he said:

I hope things go well for him at Tottenham. He is a very good player and let's hope he can then move on to a better team.

A truly magnificent soundbite worthy of any Arsenal veteran. I can't agree with him entirely though. I hope dos Santos has a rotten time at Sp*rs and then moves to Wigan.

Transfer speculation is increasing daily. This morning's goodies include another story saying that AC Milan have agreed terms with Emmanuel Adebayor. Apparently they met Adebayor's agent yesterday and all that's left now ... come on ... you know this one ... yeah, they just have to agree a fee with Arsenal. Now, again it stinks of agent trying to wangle more money for his client but if Adebayor is as happy as he says he is at Arsenal why is his agent still tarting him around? I really fucking hate agents.

The Sun links us with Torsten Frings as a replacement for Mathieu Flamini. At 31 he doesn't appear to be typical Wenger signing but he's a quality player, we could do a lot worse.

I'm sure many of you watched Spain v Russia in Euro2008 drooling at the performance of Valencia's David Villa. He's on the market this summer and has said he'd love to play for Arsenal because of the kind of football we play. The hat-trick yesterday will have stuck a few quid onto his price tag but Cesc Fabregas is hoping that won't discourage Arsene from making a bid, saying:

I would like to have him in my team because as you can see he can make the difference. He's an amazing player. He has mobility, he scores goals ... he plays well at the back of defenders, in front of them, he's a tremendous player.

He certainly is quality and the idea of him dovetailing with Fabregas is making me a little wet. The headline on Marca this morning is 'Villa makes us smile'. I think that could be true of any club in the world, not just his country. As for our chances of signing him, well, I'd say they're fairly slim to be honest but stranger things have happened in football. I would love to see him at Arsenal. Congrats to Cesc as well who came off the bench and got his first international goal, with a header no less.

Robin van Persie says that Holland's counter-attacking against Italy was 'right out of the Arsenal handbook'. The Arsenal handbook would now see him pick up a nose strain and miss 4 months.

Arsenal interest in today's games is with Philippe Senderos as Switzerland take on Turkey. We might see Johann Djourou at some stage too. After the Greek horror show yesterday watching a couple of Sunday league teams hack the ball around a muddy field would be a pleasure. Don't forget you can follow the games on OleOle's match centre (Czech Republic v Portugal - Switzerland v Turkey) which has chat, live blogging, minute by minute comms and more - not forgetting the Eurocast which should be available a little later this morning.

Gary Lewin talks about his 'impossible' decision to leave Arsenal and looks back on some of the memories of his time at the club. Interesting reading.

I haven't mentioned Aaron Ramsey yet because while a lot of sites are calling it official and crowing over United fans it still remains unannounced from an Arsenal point of view. What is good though is that it seems the young man has passed the cunt test. And you have to wonder at United as well. Whereas we flew Ramsey and his family to Switzerland on a private jet to meet Arsene Wenger, United gave him a few hours being shown around Old Trafford by Gary Neville. Not much competition there, is there?

It seems the promise of first team football is what swung the deal but I haven't seen anywhere enough of the boy to know if he's ready for first team action for us next season. I suspect he'll start on the fringe of things, Carling Cup, and such. It'll be interesting to see the progress he makes. When he signs, of course.

Quotes from Alexander Hleb appear in this morning's edition of El Mundo. He says:

I still haven't signed anything. Not with Bayern, not with Barcelona. There's a lot of specualtion about my future but now I just want to rest and decide my future club later.

You rest up there, poor dear. Take your time. You just let us know when it's convenient for you. Good lad. Would you like a blanket? A cup of Horlicks? Shall I fetch your fucking slippers too?

So while I go make little Alex more comfortable I'll leave you to it. More tomorrow.

Morning all, loads to get through today.

I suppose we should start with the news that, as we told you some time ago, Gary Lewin is leaving Arsenal after 30 years to take up a full time position with England. Best of luck to him, he might have saved John Terry's life but we can't let that overshadow all the great work he's done down the years. Ken Friar says:

Gary will be greatly missed by all the players and his work colleagues at the Club and I know he will still keep in touch, as he will still have many friends here at Emirates Stadium. We wish him the very best of luck for the future in his new position.

His replacement will be announced in due course. Also, in more official news from the club Alex Song has signed a new long term deal. He had a few decent games towards the end of the season so fair play to him but I think he's still got a bit to do convince people he's the real deal. It looks like we'll be seeing more of him all the same.

Alex Hleb is now wanted by Bayern Munich, according to reports in Germany. This would make more sense to me although Deco, in an interview with El Mundo, says Hleb would be a good replacement for him at Barcelona. Meanwhile the Sun quotes Hleb as saying:

I’ve two years left on my contract. And if I do move it’ll be by mutual consent with Arsenal.

Splendid. Whatever. The Sun also reports that Everton are interested in Joao Moutinho, the player who is one R away from being a huge cunt. I liked the look of him during Portugal's game against Turkey. He's quite Flamini in his way. I'd have to see a bit more of him and any link is purely speculative anyway so I might as well shut up about him. Done.

Gilberto says he wants to stay at Arsenal next season but admits it's down to the manager if he wants him to be part of things. Personally I don't think we can afford to lose his experience and professionalism from the squad. I'm not sure he's going to be first choice again but we can't complain about lack of depth and let players like Gilberto go. The Brazilian has also warned younger players about leaving, saying:

In my opinion Arsenal is still a great, great club and fantastic for any player in the world. It's a gamble when you move to another club. It would be a good thing for them to stay at the club because they know each other very well. They have a better situation than last season and could use the feeling of disappointment as an inspiration for next season.

At the same time he admits that another season without a trophy would make it difficult for the manager to keep the squad together. The next campaign really is vital.

One of the youngsters who certainly won't be leaving is Theo Walcott and he's determined to become more regular in the first team. He's set himself targets in terms of appearances and goals and, like Vela, he's someone I'm really looking forward to seeing next season. His improvement was noticeable over the course of last season and I'm hoping that run at Anfield was him coming of age. For someone who hasn't really got going in his career and struggled at times with the adaptation to football at the highest level he has been quite effective in terms of goals and assists. What he produces when he really kicks on is going to be very interesting indeed.

The Guardian reports that we're favourites to land Aaron Ramsey despite Cardiff wanting him to go to United so they can have him back on loan next season.

Update: The BBC says we've signed him. 

Kolo Toure suggests we fell away last season because we didn't have the same focus and desire as we did earlier in the season. Is that another little dig at the lack of leadership from the captain? As we've talked about many times before I think the manager's got a decision to make this summer with regards to the captaincy and it's not going to be an easy one.

Arsenal interest in Euro2008 came via an unlikey source last night. Robin van Persie played 20 minutes for the Dutch who beat Italy 3-0 in what was the best game of the tournament so far. Former Gunner Giovanni van Bronckhorst scored the third goal too. In the other game France drew 0-0 with Romania and that was no more than they deserved. Domenech's team was awful, you could see how the dynamism of Clichy and Sagna would have made a real difference while William Gallas had a couple of tricky moments at the back.

Today's Cesc's Spain play Russia at 5pm while it's Greece v Sweden in the evening game. For those of you interested in a bit of a predictions game we're doing one over on The Week in Football where you'll also find the Eurocast, a Euro2008 podcast. There are phone lines set up so you can phone/Skype your thoughts on the games and take part in the podcast, as well as an email address. Details over there.

Right, that'll be that. Busy morning ahead. Carry on.