The news that we're getting all of our main players tied down to new contracts is very satisfying. Carra and Stevie signed last week, while Pepe and Xabi both signed extensions this week. It's heartening in so far as there was a lot of speculation that Xabi might leave for one of Barca/Real. It's clear that the management want the core of the team all tied down to long term deals so that we can build from a stable and reliable base. Danielle Padelli is heading back to Italy now that his loan spell has finished. Hopefully that means that Carson won't be seld and will be our reserve this season.

Fordies has an good post on Rafa and Parry. I don't know who this guy is or if he's reliable but it always makes for interesting reading.

Ribery going to Bayern Munchen for £17m is potentially good news. It means that Marseille should have enough money to play for Cisse now. I think that the fee originly agreed was around £8.5m but Diouf at Marseille won't pay that much. I hope that we can get something approaching it. There was also some talk that Bolton are interested but I'd be surprised if that happens.

The Malouda deal is still kicking about. It seems that we now have competition from Chelsea and Arsenal. I don't know if Arsenal can compete financially but they do have the Wenger factor which can make a difference with French players.

Eto'o looks to be staying at Barca, from his recent comments. Milan and us are interested but if he wants to stay there, then it's unlikely to happen.

Is Thierry saying "get Rafa to sign me, Stevie"? For those who've been pinning their hopes on a thunderbolt signing from Arsenal, think again. This rumour has been knocking around the forums for around six months and it's still rubbish as far as I'm concerned. As I've said before, I've no inside track but it's an illogical deal. Why would Arsenal sell Henry, their best player, to a rival, weakening themselves and strengthening the rival? I wouldn't be surprised if he does leave the Emirates but I don't think it'll be for Anfield. There's more chance of me being recruited by the Pussy Cat Dolls than there is of Thierry bring his Va Va Voom to L4.

The boardroom situation is reaching boiling point. By all accounts, Rafa has had enough of Rick Parry and his incompitence and indecisiveness. It now looks like he wants someone else to come in and do Parrys job with more authority to make quick decisions and sign off on players. Foster Gillett seems to be the man that will take the job but he is having work permit issues at the moment. Where this leaves Parry, I don't know. Rafa is on holidays this week and seems to think that it should be sorted out to some degree by the time he gets back. I hope he's right. He has said that we need to spend money now or else we'll only ever be contenders for third/fourth spot in the league. It seems that he has two deals lined up now that need signing off on to go through. These are rumoured to be Simao and Gabriel Milito. We've seen when Rafa was at Valencia that he walked when he didn't recieve the backing he needed. I fear that it might be the same situation here if he doesn't get what he wants. That would be an absolute disaster for the club.

In trasnfer news there's been a few bits and pieces. Bellamy wants his future sorted. I don't blame him but I do think he'll leave to go to one of Villa, Blackburn or West Ham. Marseille want to do a permenent deal on Cisse. I hope that we get a decent price for him. Momo isn't happy with his current status. As I've said before, I can see him being sold for the cash. Samuel Eto'o made some very positive comments about us over the weekend. If he does move, I can see us getting involved but I would imagine that he's more likely to stay at Barca and he'd be very expensive anyway. Finally, we've signed two Hungarian kids, called Krisztian Nemeth and Andras Simon from MTK Hungaria. Nemeth is highly rated and played well in teh uefa u-17 competition last year.