You know, for the last week or so, I've been working on this nice piece about respect and money and the Adebayor sale.  But as it so often happens when the passion dies, I can't be arsed to care about our former 20-goal scorer now that he's wearing City sky blue.  So long and thanks for the good times, Ade.  Let the City fans cheer your goals and put up with your petulance and your half-ass attitude towards playing. 

Naturally the moment Adebayor went and 25 million pounds were deposited onto the coffers at Ashburton Grove the rags, the experts, the blogs and the supporters started speculating as to who would come in to replace him.  Would Arsene spring Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from the dungeons of Real Madrid?  What about the long-rumored purchase of Bordeaux's Marouane Chamakh?  And what of the rumors linking the club with purchases for Lorik Cana, Blaise Matuidi, Brede Hangeland and...

Looking over the roster as it stands right now and I wanted to give some thoughts over the decisions that will factor into how the rest of the transfer window will follow.  My own personal thoughts as always, but I can take an educated guess or two:

1. Central Defensive Midfielder: The big key acquisition that is left to get.  Look at our roster as it stands right now and the only player capable of filling that role is Alex Song.  Not that he can't do the job, but that I think we'd rather he provide the support than be the primary option.  I've said the usual names being attached to Arsenal, so no sense in rehashing them.  The intriguing thing to consider is how soon Arsene fills that hole.  I think he saw from last year's example of Andrei Arshavin that bringing in a player sooner allows him to mesh with his teammates and helps the club hit the ground running.

2....

Allow me to dust the cobwebs off this corner of the Interwebs and remind folks that, yes, I am still alive and kicking.  Sorry for the long absence, but let's face it: unless you were an American rooting for Team USA or a South African rooting for the Bafana Bafana, there's been very little to get excited about in the world of football.

All of the recent news regarding Arsenal have been of us extending or signing to new deals our current players.  Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Robin Van Persie have each signed on the dotted line that will keep them at Ashburton Grove for the foreseeable future.  And while such dealings often will lack the kind of attraction that a new transfer purchase will bring, let's face it: it's a good sign.  By putting pen to paper, the club ensures that their hard work in developing talent doesn't just walk away after preparing and training said talent...

Isn't it nice when a transfer happens quietly and quickly?

By now you're likely to have seen that Arsenal have completed the transfer for central/left defender Thomas Vermaelen.  The Belgian was the current Ajax defender and comes with a good reputation.  And outside of Vermaelen or his agent mentioning to everyone under the sun that he was moving to Arsenal, no other word was heard about it for weeks.  Definitely not from the club, who didn't even deign to have Arsene Wenger come out and deny it like they usually do.  Maybe they felt that, in a summer where everyone is focusing on the goings on at Madrid and where David Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sergio Aguero, Samuel Eto'o, David Silva and so many other talented forwards and midfielders could all end up elsewhere, that no one would really be interested in where one defender went.

But as anyone who saw Arsenal last season can attest...

Rather than starting with the Arsenal part of this story, let's start elsewhere.  Madrid to be exact.

By now, everyone knows of the sums spent and the players purchased by Florentino Perez as he appears deadset on continuing on his trend of bringing the biggest names in football to El Santiago Bernabeu.  

56 million pounds for Kaka' on Monday.  80 million pounds for Cristiano Ronaldo on Thursday.  136 million pounds.   That's a quarter of a billion dollars that was just spent to unite the reigning and former World Players of the Year under the white flag of Madrid.  

And the rumors are that this is just the beginning of a massive spending spree that could see them bring in coveted striker David Villa, the even more coveted winger Franck Ribery, right back Maicon and midfielder Xabi Alonso before the window closes in August.  

...

So after much deliberation, I've finally discovered what's happened to Hull -- why they're diving through the PL table like Chinese Olympic divers. 

That realisation just came as I'm reading of new stories about how Cesc started abusing Hull's players on the pitch after the final whistle had blown.

I mean, think of that, a 21-year old kid in street clothes comes up to all these big, tough rugby-town players and begins verbally berating them, abusing them and hurting their feelings...

...and not one of them cold decks him.  No one so much as steps up to his face and tells him to shut the f--k up or he's going to get dropped.  Not a shove in anger nor a finger pointed in disgust.

Nothing.  The reaction from all these players as they are abused off the pitch and into the tunnel (until apparently the assistant manager decides he's the one who's had enough) is...

Normally, I'd have a small blurb regarding last night's win in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.  And most of it would have been to single out Andrei Arshavin for both his tenacity and his quality.  That shouldn't be forgotten in all the other nonsense.  In his few appearances this season and with the shortest preseason possible, Arshavin has shown his quality by picking Arsenal up and being the kind of wild-card threat that we had been sorely lacking.  My mouth just waters at the idea of an Arsenal attack featuring Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Adebayor, Van Persie and Fabregas.

....and speaking of Fabregas....

I guess I gotta get into the whole "Spit" drama...even though I find it all appallingly dumb.

DEPENDING ON WHO YOU BELIEVE, either Cesc spit on Hull's assistant manager Brian Horton or he didn't.  DEPENDING ON WHEN YOU GET PHIL BROWN TO TELL THE TALE, it...

Aren't you glad today is Monday?   I mean, besides the fact that you're probably back at work and had a weekend with no Arsenal?   A weekend that had you dress up nice and spend a few hours of your time doting on your significant other on Valentine's Day?

Look at it on the bright side, imagine if the game had been on Valentine's Day and you had been forced to snub your partner for the Arsenal?  Right now you'd be sleeping in a very tiny doghouse.

So always look on the bright side of life.  The lack of football meant you had to do something that'll probably buy you enough time to enjoy more football till...I'm guessing Easter?  Yeah, you'll have to visit the S.O.'s family for Easter brunch then.  And with your luck, they're probably all Chelsea fans.

So the game's in a few hours and the question is: who does Arsene start?  Eboue is suspended. ...

After much deliberation, consternation, anger and veiled shots, Arsenal finally landed their man.  Andrei Arshavin -- he of the great UEFA Cup and Euro 08 runs -- is now a Gunner.  It only took 32 days and more words written about it than the Bible to see it done. 

I had guessed at the start of the window that we would be targetting a central midfielder (to replace Cesc), a central defender (because Kolo and Gallas didn't seem to be working together) and a winger (to provide a more attacking wide option).  Of course, I was wide off the mark.  

So let's just put that down to me being a complete idiot.  

Arshavin should provide immediate assistance on the attacking third and in helping to break down the 10-man wall defenses that have risen up around the Premier League.  You gotta expect that, at first, he'll slide into the right side of the pitch and keep...

Sooooo....the transfer window has closed and the Andrei Arshavin transfer saga has ended in....

...we don't know.

In fact, trust nothing you hear until there's an official announcement.  

Why?  Because in the last few hours, the deal was off for certain and on for certain.  Arshavin was in London.  No, wait, he's in Paris....or maybe back in St. Petersburg.  The sticking point was the transfer fee -- or the bonus Zenit want back or Arshavin's wage demands.  

In other words, everyone is trying to figure out what's really what and between Arshavin's agent running to everyone with a microphone, Arsenal's traditionally quiet mouth and Zenit trying to avoid the stink of being labelled the next Lyon (i.e. the club that holds transfer deals out for ransom), this is all getting very confusing.

And the snowstorm that blanketed...