The fallout from the Fulham game has not been pretty. Condemnation of the performance and the wafer thin squad has been widespread, and rightly so.

I've already said plenty about what we need to do about it so it is somewhat depressing to hear the manager say we're not close to signing anyone. It could be that the manager is playing his cards close to his chest, it could also be that we're just not close to signing anyone. A lot has been said about Xabi Alonso and while I would certainly love to have him I was chatting to the Mugsmasher about him last night and he doesn't think he's what we need.

Now, let me clarify that. He would most certainly improve our midfield, no question, but if we're looking for someone to do what Flamini did last season then he's not the guy. Alonso + one more would be ideal, where that one more is a Flamini style grafter. Who that might be is anybody's guess but it's one for the manager to sort out. The transfer window closes in 6 days time, there's a lot of work to do between now and then if we want to win things this season.

In my opinion he has to look at what's best for the team, not what's best for the players, if you get what I mean. Bringing in two new players in midfield would make life tough for Denilson but so what? It would mean Diaby has to stay fit and take his chances when he gets them. Competition is good and healthy, lack of it brings about results and performances like Fulham. But while it might be negative for some it would mean that players like Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilsgere learn their trade from established, experienced players instead of guys who are barely out of kindergarten in footballing terms. You have to find the right balance between youth and experience and the experience side of things is all wrong right now.

Arsene Wenger spoke about the defending which lead to the goal against Fulham and said:

I feel the kind of mistake we made on the corner is not excusable. You can be beaten to the ball in the air by somebody who jumps higher than you, but you cannot concede a goal in the middle of the goal, on the six-yard line. That’s where I feel we were guilty.

He's right and he needs to look no further than his excuse for a captain to see who's to blame there. I've said all I need to say about Gallas. Rubbish captain and the manager needs to make the change now, if not sooner. Give it to Cesc, let's realise that Gallas was a badly failed experiment and move on.

Emmanuel Adebayor says Arsenal were given a warning by the Fulham result. He says:

We can't think we are untouchable. We saw that as soon as we don't play together, as soon as we don't put our spirit together, we can lose. If we want to challenge [for the Premier League], we cannot lose again. We have to put more heart in, keep focused and play our football.

I can't argue with those sentiments at all but it's amazing that after just two games of the domestic season we're having to rally the troops and call for more spirit. It's something that appeared to be lacking against Fulham and to my mind we don't have the players to address it. Last season we had Flamini constantly talking, encouraging, geeing up his mates, Cesc lead by example, Gallas was trying to prove he had what it takes, Adebayor stood up and scored goals when they were needed.

Now Cesc is injured, Flamini is gone, Gallas has proved more than once he couldn't lead a team of schoolboys and Adebayor is the guy who spent all summer trying to leave the club, despite what the manager says. It's little wonder we lack direction and played so spinelessly.

Still, there's time to put it right. Perhaps the defeat can consolidate the squad, new signings can bolster the midfield and boost confidence, a change of captain might provide more impetus and loyalty from the players who would prefer to play 'for' Cesc than Gallas, and a win against Twente would be the first step in the right direction.

I'm trying very hard not to be overly negative about us at the moment but it's not easy. There are obviously big issues that have to be sorted out. It's time for Arsene to be ruthless. We've seen him do it before but this time he may just have to swallow a little pride to make things right again. Get the seasoning and the ketchup out, boss, it'll make that pride go down easier than Paris Hilton under a nightvision camera.

One of the things that got overlooked in the wake of the Fulham game was the tackle by John Pantsil on Emmanuel Eboue. It really was terrible, over the ball and extremely dangerous. I hope the FA take a good look at it and take a good look at the referee who managed to give a free kick against Eboue for a tackle which might have broken his leg. There have been a couple of bad tackles like that already this season (Deco on Diarra in Chelsea's game against Portsmouth last week) yet on neither occasion has the perpetrator been punished. After what happened to Eduardo perhaps we're a bit more conscious of it but if someone ends up with a bad injury because refs haven't clamped down on these kind of challenges then I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

Right, that's about it. More on the Twente game to come during the week.  

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new deal for Adebayor.

Arsenal confirmed that the striker has signed a new long term contract - and obviously someone running the website has a sense of humour because the picture they used couldn't possibly have been any better. So well done to Adebayor, he got himself a pay rise. Now the pressure is really on to show that he deserves it, time to get your shooting boots on, Ade.

Tomas Rosicky must be bored. Since he limped off at Newcastle he's had little to do but eat pies if the pictures of him at the game on Saturday are anything to go by. He's dragged up a whole lot of stuff from last season, particularly the Birmingham game. I think we can all point to that game as a turning point in our season but is there really any need for one of the players to bring it up at the start of the new campaign? He really should just shut up and concentrate on trying to be fit for more than a couple of games at a time. Then fans might be interested in what he has to say.

With so many talented youngsters at the club the best way for them to get first team experience is to go out on loan. It looks like Kieran Gibbs could spend the season at Reading, Norwegian central defender Harvard Nordtveit has joined Spanish 2nd division side Salamanca for the season while Young Guns reports Dutch striker Nacer Barazite will join Derby on loan. Good luck to all them.

With fans eagerly awaiting a new signing (or two) Arsene Wenger says that absences make the squad stronger. It's curious logic and in one way it does make sense. Players who would necessarily have got to play otherwise get experience but it's a bit like saying famine makes you fuller because there are less people around to eat what little food there is. We're starving Arsene, buy us some chips!

Samir Nasri, who had been left out, has been called up to the France squad for their friendly this week. He'll join Gallas, Clichy and Sagna on international duty. Update: Now he's been withdrawn from the squad because of a thigh injury. Great.

Beyond that there's not much to tell you. Shaping up to be a fairly dull week so far. 

More tomorrow.

Morning all, it's the start of another week. Dreary too. The weather really is depressing for summertime.

After the chorus of boos that Emmanuel Adebayor was treated to on Saturday Arsene Wenger has urged fans to get behind the Togonator and leave what happened in the summer in the past. He says:

We have to get behind him and support him because he is of tremendous importance for the team and you want your fans to be behind him. What happened in the transfer period did not always reflect his deep desire [to stay] and there was manipulation from agents on both sides.

I'm sure Adebayor heard what happened and I have no doubt it must have been upsetting. But that's life. Sometimes you make choices and do things and you piss people off. It takes a bit of time to heal the wounds. I have no doubt there were agents sticky fingers all over what happened in the summer but ultimately the player has to take responsibility for it. I read a great quote from Gael Clichy who said of transfer rumours and speculation:

In my opinion if you want to be in a newspaper you will be in a newspaper. If you don't want to be then you won't be.

So the bottom line is that Adebayor has made his bed and as uncomfortable as it is he's got to lie in it. That said the manager is also right. Booing players rarely ends up being terribly positive but perhaps there's just only so much fans can take. Sp*rs fans gave Berbatov a good booing for wanting to go to United, Villa fans booed Gareth Barry for wanting to go to Liverpool and Arsenal fans expressed their distaste at Adebayor's apparent desire to leave by booing him. 

In an era when players are paid extortionate amounts of money and the gap between the fan and the player widens ever more maybe it's just time for the player to get a thicker skin. Especially if they rock the boat all summer and expect things to be forgotten about just because they kiss the badge in a meaningless friendly. I do hope Adebayor isn't booed again but at the same time I hope he's got the message and that, maybe, he learns something from it. And when you read stuff like this it really is a shame the way he fucked things up.

On a more positive note Samir Nasri rather enjoyed his day on Saturday. With the manager already making comparisons to Robert Pires (no pressure there then, Sammy) he spoke about his debut, saying:

I could not dream of a better start, to score in my first game after four minutes. Now I will have to continue week in and week out, and hopefully I can keep playing like that, it will be brilliant.

Yes, it will be brilliant. You could see the spark of a lethal new left side partnership between him and Clichy and I think if they get a good run of games together they could become even more dangerous. Pires and Cuntley always worked well down the left before and you get the feeling that's something the manager wants to replicate. Still, it's early days but that was as positive a start from Nasri as you could have hoped for. 

As I said yesterday with a round of meaningless international friendlies this week it's going to be a strange week on the training ground with so many players away. Not the ideal preparation for Fulham on Saturday but that's just the way it goes.

Not much else happening. Just to let anybody who has my email address know that it has changed. The old blogger @ arseblog.com email address got ruined yesterday by some bunch of spamming cunts who flooded my inbox. After downloading about 2,000 'return to sender - you spamming bastard' emails I saw there were another 7,000 waiting to be downloaded so I've nuked that address.

If you do need to get in touch please note the new address (in spam friendly format) is thearseblog AT arseblog D0T com. Please update your address books. 

Right so, enjoy the day, especially if you're a duck. Apart from the duck of death. Clint won't like that. 

So the season starts with a win, three points and a reasonable performance given the understrength nature of the side, particularly in midfield.

There's nothing like an early goal to settle the nerves and that's exactly what we got. It was a lovely goal too. Bendtner played it wide to Clichy, who fed it to Denilson whose run into the box was excellent, he cut it back for new boy Samir Nasri to sidefoot home and to make it 1-0. A debut goal for Nasri will do him the world of good and I liked what I saw of him yesterday. Good on the ball, isn't afraid of having a shot and he works hard. Of course you can't make any judgements based on one performance but it's a positive start for him.

In midfield we had Theo on the right and Emmanuel Eboue in central midfield alongside Denilson. Theo was very quiet in a game where you really wanted him to shine and Eboue, shock horror, had a very decent game in the middle. Obviously he's not the solution to that problem, not by a long way, but credit where it's due. The 1-0 scoreline might have had people a bit more nervous than they would have liked but I think if Cesc had had the chances Eboue had yesterday we'd have won the game by at least three goals.

There were a couple of scary moments, Almunia made a good save after the otherwise impressive Djourou wrongly tried to play offside and the young Swiss made up for it by clearing the rebound off the line. We huffed and puffed a bit up front. Adebayor was trying too hard, if you know what I mean, and he missed a couple of half-decent chances. One moment late in the second half saw him try a Kanu style trick when he should have just played a simple pass to Nasri who was wide open and when the trick didn't come off there was the extraordinary sound of him being booed.

I can't really remember that happening to a player before but it's most certainly a hangover from the summer. I don't think booing players is a good idea but I can understand why some fans, still vexed from his behaviour during the close season, chose to express their distaste. It didn't happen just because he messed up that chance. Still, he worked hard despite not much coming off for him and he made a chance for van Persie who poked it wide with the outside of his left foot. He also crossed for van Persie to head straight at Carson. He put one just wide himself when he really should have scored but hopefully he'll get his head together and his shooting boots on for the next game.

In the end though we didn't really look like adding to the one goal nor did West Brom look like they were going to score. Kolo Toure came on in place of Theo and the fact we had Eboue in central mid and Toure as a right winger shows you how the squad stands at the moment.

The main thing though was the result. Three points on the opening day is not to be sniffed at, no matter who you're playing, we kept another clean sheet and we will get better than this. Afterwards Arsene Wenger said:

I am pleased with the fact that we didn't concede a goal. We scored two on Wednesday, one today, so it's better than the reverse. Overall it was a good week for us. A winning start, a win in the Champions League, so yes a good week.

And given how nervous fans were heading into these two games I think you can call it a good week. There are many positives to take from it and also things that must have become clear to the manager in terms of how the squad needs to be bolstered, but we shall wait and see what happens there.

In other news Justin Hoyte has left Arsenal to join Middlesboro. I think every Arsenal wishes him well up there (apart from twice a year) and I hope his career kicks on. The fee is around £3m which, when you add to the £12m for Hleb, the £1m for Gilberto and the money received from the sell-on of Rat Faced Chav to Sp*rs from Blackburn puts us in the black for our summer dealings. Let's just hope there's too much money under Arsene's mattress for him to have a good night's sleep. He may just have to spend some.

Could some of it go on Liverpool's Xabi Alonso? The News of the World reports Alonso is fed up with Benitez after he tried to sell him all summer and bring in Gareth Barry. I think he'd be an excellent signing and while he is cup-tied in Europe it's only for the group stages of the Champions League, I think. He would be eligible for the knock-out rounds as he's only played in the qualifying round. That said if I were Liverpool I wouldn't possibly sell him to us. It'd make no sense whatsoever to obviously strengthen one of your rivals. Still, stranger things have happened.

Update: I'm wrong. He'd be cup-tied for the whole CL season. 

Reports from Spain this morning say that Arsenal will allow Fran Merida to go on loan for the season to Real Sociedad. He spent the last part of last season on loan at the Basque club and a full campaign is seen as good for his development. Good luck to him there.

And that's really about it. There's a strange week ahead for the squad with many of them on international duty. These early season friendlies really are a pain in the hole and we can only hope that the lads come through unscathed. It may just give Arsene time to count up all the pennies in his jar and go shopping though. Fingers crossed.

Ok, enjoy your Sunday, Arsebandits. More tomorrow.

So the big news from yesterday was that Emmanuel Adebayor gave an interview in which he said he was staying at Arsenal and he had no idea where all the stories about him wanting to leave came from.

Now, unless Adebayor has an evil twin then I think it's quite plain where those stories came from. Him and his agent. End of story. I really think it's a bit much for him to expect people to fall for the old 'I never said them things' defence. We're not fucking stupid. We know how it works and how he tried to play the game. He's going to get more money from us, sign a new contract and all because he acted like a complete and utter cunt all summer long.

His comments about how 'at the moment my heart is with Arsenal' just make me think of David Bentley saying the exact same thing when he moved to Sp*rs, and we know what a cunt he is. 'At the moment', lovely. Such a wonderful long-term commitment to the club. He's played us like chumps since the end of the season and now a few spurious badge-kissing quotes and we're supposed to forgive and forget. I'm not sure it works like that.

Arsene Wenger is very aware of the damage Adebayor has done, saying:

What is very damaging sometimes is that the player gets bad publicity against his own fans for things he has not said. That is sometimes difficult to repair. There is disappointment from the fans because they feel the player wants to go.

I can fully understand Arsene trying to calm the waters, especially if the player is going to stay, but do us a favour boss and don't try and feed us the same shite Adebayor is trying to. It was quite obvious that Adebayor wanted to go, pretty much ever since he gave that interview to El Mundo back in May. No question he had his head turned, promises were made to him about how much money he could earn at Barcelona or Milan. He saw the Ramblas paved with gold and he agitated for a move.

If he really didn't say anything about leaving then it would have been as easy as pie to stop all the speculation dead in its tracks. Just look at what Cesc did last week when he was linked with Real Madrid. He came out straight away and said 'This is wrong'. Not after months of speculation when it looked like all avenues to the dream move had been closed.

Maybe I'm just too cynical about the whole thing but Adebayor has, to my mind at least, acted poorly all summer long now he expects us to fall for a cock and bull story about how he had his phone off. Bollocks to that.

Now, from a footballing point of view this is good news, I suppose. The lanky cunt got 30 goals last season and another 30 this season would go a long way to helping us win the silverware we all so desperately want. The squad is stronger with him in it and ultimately that's what matters. It's also shown that, despite stories to the contrary, we can keep our players in the face of definite interest from big European clubs.

Adebayor was a hugely improved player last season and if he can continue that trajectory then it's good for Arsenal but he's heaped pressure on himself now. Nobody expected 30 goals from him but as he's used those 30 goals to extract more money from us and as a bargaining chip elsewhere then he's got to perform like a 30 goal striker week in, week out. Can he do it again? Can he live with the expectation?

How will the fans react to Adebayor? Beats me. His goals will be cheered, like every goal is cheered, but does he deserve the songs? Has he tarnished his reputation too much? Will his hilarious fiction win the majority around? We'll just wait and see, I suppose. Hopefully he'll be contrite enough to make up for his nonsense with goals and not just that farcical interview.

Arsene Wenger then blasted the likes of Barcelona and AC Milan for 'tapping up' our players, saying:

There is a game going on in Europe where the big clubs tap up our players. They let us do the work and develop the players and then they think they can just come in and offer him big wages, but after they cannot come up with the transfer request. It should be the other way round.

It's obvious that this happened with Adebayor this summer and with Hleb, not that I give a shit about Hleb. But I don't think this is a problem that only Arsenal suffer from. United have been battling it all summer with Real Madrid and it goes on all the time in Europe, across all the leagues and at all levels. Perhaps English clubs are just too gentlemanly. It's obviously not right but that's just the way it is. Still, I'm right behind the boss drawing attention to it even if the powers that be couldn't care less.

The boss also spoke about that one signing saying that we needed someone but it wouldn't be a problem if we didn't sign him, which is rather odd. Surely if we need a player then it would be a problem if we didn't get him. Especially as he says this player must be 'quality' so if we need a quality player then not getting is definitely a problem if you're using a player of lesser quality in his stead. Weird.

William Gallas will remain as captain this season.

Gael Clichy bigs up Samir Nasri, but the new boy could do without the Hleb comparisons.

Football today, hurrah! Arsenal v Juventus kics off at 4.15 and I think it's on Sky. Which is good. I have Sky. So that's my afternoon sorted.

Finally for today I hear some people are having problems viewing Arseblog this morning and it seems to be an issue with Internet Explorer. I have no idea what's going on but try using Firefox as an alternative till we figure it out.

Update: Thanks to Goonerholic it turns out it's the code used by Sitemeter, a stat counter. So if you find yourself unable to view sites in IE that's most likely the cause.

Cheers for now then. More tomorrow...

Good morning to you, another week has flown by, eh?

There's plenty of Arse action coming up this weekend as the Emirates Cup takes place with games against Juventus and Real Madrid. Certainly a good test for the squad and, with the games on TV, a chance for us to have a proper look at the likes of Vela and Nasri, and to assess the rest of the lads in terms of fitness etc.

With the manager saying he's still looking for one player he explained his signing of Amaury Bischoff, calling it a 'gamble'. He says the player is talented but will two or three months to get fully fit. Let's think about him again in two or three months then.

Jens Lehmann has warned Emmanuel Adebayor against leaving Arsenal, saying:

If you look at every player who has left Arsenal, he has not managed to shine again at his new club. I joined Stuttgart this summer — but it is different for me, because I am a goalkeeper and I am also 38 years old.

Arsene is insistent that the Togonator will be staying as well so now it's all down to the player. Work hard, score goals, don't cause any ructions, and life won't be too difficult for him at all. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what his head is like and if he's going to let the fact he made himself look like a proper chump affect him.

William Gallas has ruled out any move to PSG and says he's looking forward to the new season with Arsenal. He's also spoken about the transfer business so far this summer, saying:

At Arsenal we totally trust Arsene Wenger and even if we haven’t signed lots of players, we have enormous quality in the group, with youngsters that don’t stop improving and more experienced ones who bring their knowledge of football.

Just imagine what adding an experienced, quality player to our midfield would do then? I really do think we're very close to having a title challenging squad. I just hope we get the kind of player in who will make a difference and provide that statement of intent.

Today sees the draw for the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League. We're in the pot, obviously, and while there's the usual mix of teams that you would expect us to beat there are potentially some tricky opponents there as well. Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray and Dinamo Kiev are ones to be avoided.

Update: It's Steve McClaren and FC Twente! 

The Online Gooner takes Ian Wright to task, and rightly so, for some rather crass comments he made in the Sun.

You'll notice a lot of stories this morning about the Rat-faced chav talking about how much he wants to play against Arsenal after his move from Blackburn to Sp*rs. He's trying to set himself up as some kind of pantomime villain and it's a measure of his ego that he thinks we'd waste our time hating someone as irrelevant as he is.

OleOle Fantasy Football - there's an Arseblog league set up under the English Premier League game. Just register for the Fantasy Football game and join the league arseblogprem, the password for which is arseblog. I should be able to add some code so we can display the league stats on the homepage here and as well as being in for the overall OleOle prizes there'll be an individual Arseblog prize too. Get cracking.

Right, Arsecast time, and on today's show I chat to the Man from East Lower about everything that's been going on in pre-season and beyond. The man in the bar has a player history, there's a tale of the unexpected, Arsene Wenger Hawkins is back and there's the usual guff too.

To subscribe to the Arsecast in iTunes simply click here, the direct feed URL is here, to download this week's arsecast directly - click here (16mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

Enjoy, see you tomorrow.

It's a very quiet day today.

I could mention Hleb and his comments which are complimentary to Arsene Wenger but most disrespectful towards Arsenal but I'm not going to. I think it's been made very clear than Hleb is a dolphin loving cunt and frankly he doesn't merit any more time on this blog.

Meanwhile, according to The Sun, Emmanuel Adeabayor has told a team mate:

I’m not sure if I’m going to leave now

Well that certainly makes things awkward for him. When you consider previous quotes saying how we had to give in to his 'demands' or he'd leave it's a bit unfortunate to discover that not only is he a loudmouthed, greedy twat he's not a man of his word. I fully expected him to leave whether he'd found a new club or not. It would be the only decent thing to do.

'Give me my demands'.

'No'.

'Well then you leave me no choice'.

And off he would go with a battered holdall thrown over his shoulder and nobody would ever see him again. Or if they did see him again it would only be as he trudged away into the sunset with the really sad music from the Incredible Hulk TV series playing.

The boss confirmed yesterday that Eduardo would be back for the Emirates Cup but only as spectator. He's continuing his rehabilitation in Brazil, I think, and it's anybody's guess how long it'll take him to make his comeback. He also confirmed he was looking for a midfielder but then we knew that already.

There was some further bad news from the training camp last night when it emerged that Samir Nasri has been diagnosed with the bubonic plague. Apparently he picked it up from his pet rat 'Alex' that he brought with him through customs without the appropriate quarantine. There were also unconfirmed reports that Robin van Persie has the Ebola virus, Denilson suffered a massive dropsy while Emmanuel Eboue caught spina bifida from an elf in the forest.

We really are in a fucking crisis, let me tell you.

Right so, have yourselves a good Thursday. More, and an Arsecast (probably), tomorrow.

So pre-season kicked off with a 2-1 win over Barnet yesterday.

We were losing 1-0 at half-time then changed the entire team around and goals from Jay Simpson and Nacer Barazite secured the win. There really is nothing much to be read into a friendly at this stage but one or two of the younger players caught the eye apparently, Jack Wilshere in particular looking rather good.

Arsenalist has the highlights and the goals. And here's a post-match interview with the boss (thanks to Luther).

Afterwards Arsene Wenger said he expected Adebayor to return to the club on Monday for pre-season training saying, rather cryptically:

Adebayor is a player of Arsenal Football Club and I'm confident he will be here at the start of the season Adebayor is under contract, it’s a completely different position to Hleb.

Wasn't Hleb under contract too? Or is the situation completely different because nobody's actually made a bid for Adebayor. Strange all the same and I think Arsene's little smile as he spoke about Adebayor returning/staying speaks volumes. There was some reassurance though for fans who want signings. He said there'd 'certainly' be at least one signing, maybe two. You can even hear him say it on the BBC here.

I think there's still some wheeling and dealing to be done this summer. If Adebayor stays then I can't see us signing a striker but will Adebayor want to stay after what he's said and knowing he's hardly a fans favourite anymore? Songs were sung about him at Barnet yesterday and he's got a lot to do to win people around again if he does stay. When he does return he needs to be on his best behaviour too, if there's the slightest bit of agitation or bullshit to disrupt pre-season then we should come down on him like a ton of bricks.

The Times suggests he could be on his way to Milan if Milan sell Kaka to Chelsea but the Italians have said they're not willing to sell. If Chelsea were to make an official £80m bid then I think the situation would change rapidly. Who could turn down that sort of money? It's an obscene and disgusting amount.

The News of the World says Adebayor will tell the club he wants £100,000 a week. Apparently that's 'fair reward' for what he's done for Arsenal. It's so ludicrous and downright fucking stupid that it barely merits comment. What I would say is that if this is his agent's way of ensuring we're forced into selling him then he'd want to be very sure there's someone who can afford to buy him. If he wants £100,000 a week why shouldn't Arsenal ask for a transfer fee corresponding to that. He's the one making the valuation, isn't he? There are some reports in Barcelona this morning that they're still interested and Yaya Toure has been saying how Adebayor would add strength to their attack.

So there's still that uncertainty and honestly, if the chance came and the money was right I'd sell Adebayor in a flash. Some might see it as giving the player what he wants, but you don't need trouble-makers in your squad and I just get the feeling that he would be trouble if he stayed. Which is a real shame. The other concern I have is that this shit will keep going right up until August 31st and we'll be left to do a last-minute deal on deadline day just to get shot of the cunt.

As for our 'certain' signing will come in central midfield and who knows what else might happen?

The Sunday Mirror says both PSG and Barcelona want William Gallas. £5m for a 31 year old who really hasn't covered himself in glory since he arrived at Arsenal would be good business provided it was spent on a quality replacement.

The Observer talks to Theo Walcott. Leaving the dog whisperer aside he seems like a very level-headed and well grounded young man. He made good progress last season, it'd be great to see him do it again this time around.

Dennis Bergkamp has started his coaching career at Ajax. Imagine being a young player at Ajax and having Dennis as your coach. Amazing.

Right, that's about it. More tomorrow.

Morning all,

we'll start with the Sun's story about how we are interested in Gareth Barry. They ran a story last week saying we might be trying to nick the Villa man from under the noses of Liverpool but it seemed more like the kind of story planted by Barry's people to get Liverpool to finalise the deal. However, the Sun quotes Martin O'Neill, who says:

Myself and Steve Walford both know Arsene Wenger’s assistant Pat Rice. He phoned Steve to ask how the Liverpool thing had gone and said that they might show an interest. At the end of the conversation Arsenal said ‘that’s fine’ and that they’ll let us know. That is exactly what happened

So it's hardly earth shattering. We rang Villa and said we 'might' show an interest. I don't know if he means we rang and let them know at the end but it is at least a tentative link to a midfield player. Depending entirely on the price this could be a decent move - Barry needs no time to adapt to English football, what with being English and all, but if Villa are holding out for £18m from Liverpool then that's probably put him out of our price range. The over-inflated prices of English players never ceases to amaze me though - £17m for David Bentley would be hilarious if it wasn't so depressingly stupid.

Despite apparently playing down talks of a transfer Blackburn's Roque Santa Cruz has apparently told Paul Ince he wants to leave and Arsenal are one of the potential destinations. I suppose this all depends on what happens with Adebayor. A quick search of the Spanish press shows no indication that anything new is happening on that front. Nor Hleb. The papers usually have pictures of the players when they arrive at the airport but there's no sign of Dribbly McNoscore over there yet. Sport suggests that Arsene Wenger is determined not to make life easy for Barcelona with regards Adebayor but it's really just the same old crap recycled.

I wonder has Adebayor come back to London for pre-season training. There's no reason why he shouldn't have. Conspiracy theorists amongst you have emailed saying he's been taken out of promotional literature, the shop won't print his shirt unless you specifically ask for it etc. Me, I just want life to be as awkward as possible for him which is as much as he deserves for shooting his big, fat mouth off.

Meanwhile, the agent of Andrei Arshavin is getting itchy-feet. Having seen Zenit rubbish his claims that a £19m bid from an English club had been made he's doing his best to talk up Arsenal's interest, saying his client, who dreamt of Barcelona and only Barcelona, would really enjoy it at the Grove. It really does smack of desperation now and his dreams of a big pay day securing a great deal for his client are ebbing away.

Carlos Vela is looking forward to getting his Arsenal career going and playing with Cesc Fabregas. He says:

Spain was a just winner of Euro 2008 and Cesc Fabregas was sensational. For me he is my idol and it will be a great experience to work next to him in the squad. I hope he will help me in the first months. I want to be a warrior for The Gunners.

Awesome. I want him to be a warrior too, taking to the pitch in traditional Aztec garb and spearing opponents through the eye just because they look at him funny. Seriously though I'm really looking forward to seeing this young man in the red and little bit of white of Arsenal this season. It strikes me that we are building quite an array of talent for our wings/striking positions. Wenger has said that he sees Vela as a striker more than a winger so it'll be interesting to see where he gets played in pre-season. Will he do like Walcott and blood him on the flanks (sounds a bit pervy that, actually) or throw him in at the deep end, so to speak? We'll see. Only 4 days until the first pre-season game. Sweeeeet.

Danny Fiszman has defended the increase in price in season tickets. The cost of everything is going up these days so it's inevitable that football will follow. 

And that is about that. Till tomorrow, arsefans.

Morning all,

it's another Adebayboring day with all kinds of stuff going on about the big, lanky prick. Let me try and summarise for you.

The Sunday Mirror says we haven't received any bids at all and Adebayor could end up staying and finding himself about as popular as man who goes around saying 'Oooh, you're looking a bit chunky' at a convention for recovering anorexics.

However, in Spain Sport (spanish) suggests that Barcelona are set to offer us Eto'o + €10m. No doubt Eto'o was a quality player but there are serious doubts over the state of his knees and he's as mad as rabid badger after fill of magic mushrooms. On the other hand it wouldn't be unlike Arsene Wenger to take on a player others have written off. Witness Overmars and Kanu. I get the feeling this is just Sunday newspaper fiction from Sport though. They're saying how Adebayor's goals last season have gotten Europe's biggest clubs interested in the player, including AC Milan. No, not including. Limited to, I think is the right expression.

Many reports of how we've slashed Adebayor's price in half which has given encouragement to both Milan and Barcelona. El Mundo reports that the Ronaldinho transfer could be decisive here though. He's got offers from Manchester City and AC Milan. If he goes to Milan then there's no way Adebayor is going there but it might free up enough cash for Barcelona to make a bid.

The Ronaldinho situation is a tough one though - he's mad keen on going to the Olympics with Brazil, something Barcelona don't want him to do and which may prove an obstacle for any club wanting to sign him. Citeh are offering him huge money but I suspect they'll want him in from the start of the season and not have him wasting his time on the Olympics. So it's all up in the air.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that it was Vicenzo Morabito, a scum sucking cuntflange of an agent, who said we've slashed the Adebayor price. Arsenal, as ever, are remaining tight lipped and that's the way it should be.

Speaking of the Olympics the News of the World gets the Doomometer going again by suggesting we're facing a crisis as Alex Song has chosen to be part of the Cameroon squad. What kind of crisis are we facing next? Gael Clichy declares he's having a cheese sandwich?

Also in the News of the World, a story about Hleb being a dirty rat - worth mentioning only for the fabulous photoshopping they did of him. 

And beyond that there's not much else to tell you this Sunday. On the plus side though there's only 6 days until our first pre-season friendly which is fucking awesome. The new season gets closer and closer and frankly I can't wait.

Ok, enjoy your Sunday, the sun is shining here for once so I'm going to stay inside and work all day. Hurrah!