In an article in the Guardian today, Richard Williams argues that Arsene Wenger can take heart from the fact that Barcelona won the European Cup playing exactly the way in which he is trying to direct Arsenal. Is it a bit of a leap of faith to expect us to even aspire to that level or is it a realistic potential future? Certainly the project that Arsene started with the transformation of our training ground, youth set up and new stadium have put the foundations in place for a similar future. The question is how do we take our current potential and convert it into something more practical in terms of winning trophies.

Nope I'm not talking about the Portsmouth game today, I'm still waiting to see MOTD to comment on that one and I'm glad to hear about Bendtner getting a couple of goals. For all his faults he still puts in way more effort than Adebayor and goals will hep his confidence for sure.

The game I want to talk about is, of course, El Clasico which was stunning and even more watchable as I get the Spanish commentary. I did think at one poin that the commentator was going to explode such was the speed and intensity of his voice! I know we have to, as football fans, recognise that there is more than one way to play the beautiful game BUT it will be an injustice of all injustices if this Barcelona team don't win on Wednesday night. Chelsea played a tactical game and it worked but forget this "great performance" bullshit, it's a darn sight easier to play a negative game, even against a side such as Barca. Let's just hope that tonight can repeat itslef on Wednesday night (please not Tuesday night as it will bring back horrible memories of Lee Sharpe - I vaguely remember the feeling that we were back in it at 2-3!!).

One other thing from the game tonight - how the f##k does Diarra get to where a shirt with LASS on his back. His sense of his own importance seems to get bigger every day!

I'm going to tread carefully on this subject and as much as I would like to have an opportunity to slag off Manchester United, it's an area where Arsenal (along with many other clubs, not just the big four or even just English Clubs) have a history of treading slightly on the dark side.

I'm talking about the next big thing (this week it's United's 17 year old Italian) and the manner in which they were "coerced" into leaving their home country at an early age as a result of differing employment laws, ambitious agents, wooing of parents and, above all else (as usual), the money & greed of players and club. Lazio are the latest club to complain about the lack of fairness in their attempt to try and keep a young, talented player at their club. It's hard not to see their point (in the same way that Barcelona were unable to offer a young Cesc (or Merida) a contract at 15 - even if he left because he felt he would get more opportunities at Arsenal and that proved correct) that differing regulations across Europe (and, I guess, the world) mean that clubs with their global contacts and scouting systems will do whatever they can (mostly legally but as with the Mikel case, the line can be pushed) to secure the next superstar.

It's not just these cases but there are far more worrying stories regarding young players in poorer countries who may see football as the only potential way of a successful and prosperous future.  In these situations there are always individuals who can see a way of making a few quid at the expense of the gullible and desperate. It would be nice to think that Blatter might just spend a bit more time on these deserving cases rather than his quest for some of his other causes. France is the most likely destination for African footballers due to it's colonial past and historic links with the continent as well as the huge numbers of successful African footballers in the country. Of course, this makes it the target for more con men.

It would be nice to think that clubs would like to see both a level playing field but also a morally sound one but we know that too much money and too many parasites infest the game now for that to be as easy to achieve as it should..

Tomorrow - we'll mention the Arse!

A big Spanish club coming to take all our best players....

It never feels that it's a proper transfer window until Real Madrid or Barcelona appear on the horizon with some ludicrous story of likely transfers of our current stars.  I really wonder what goes through the mind of a journalist each and every morning as a list of bollocks masquerading as likely transfer movement arrives on their desk. Is it a random process for deciding which is a real story or is it, as we all really know, based on the relative number of readers from which club might actually believe some of them.

Which really means that all of these rumours are our (the fans) fault, we buy the papers, click on the links and some even ring those funny phone lines that claim to have "inside knowledge on the latest arrivals at your club".

I don't like this time of year as you may have gathered...

I've just seen the highlights of the last round of La Liga games and as it seems to be a hot bed of ex-Arsenal players at the moment and I have to blog about anything other than Eboué here are some thoughts on what I saw/heard.

At Villereal there are two old gooners, one we all know about and wish he was still at Arsenal (or had at least stayed on a while longer) and there's Pascal Cygan too. Our long lost friend Robert Pires scored an extremely strange goal (after 0.45) in a 3-3 draw after being 0-3 down. Our old and not so  missed French centre half wasn't playing and after his two mistakes last week I'm not too surprised.

Meanwhile over at the Camp Nou our top goal scorer seems to have finally made a real impact with a hat trick against Valencia for Barcelona. Henry was, of course, helped by that ex-gooner who divided (and still does) opinion whilst at Arsenal, Hleb. He did manage to show glimpses of his Arsenal form by finding himself one on one and never looking like scoring!

Oh and one other strange North London to Spain bombshell, Ramos to Real Madrid - blimey I didn't realise that they rewarded such incompetence so highly.

As the rain teems down here in Basel I can finally relax after last night's roller coaster of a game. Despite the fact that Fenerbahce never really threatened to win the game (even at 2-1 it was only a few minutes before we scored the third) there was a real relief when Alex Song scored just after half time. Even allowing for the fact that we only had one regular defender playing in Clichy I'm sure I'm not the only one to think that Almunia was up there for Man of the Match last night.

However, I'm not going to let that worry me and for the rest of the year I implore fellow Gooners to sit back, buckle up tight and enjoy the ride we're embarking on this year and, hopefully, for a few more years to come. It will be nerve racking, stimulating, remarkable, unpredictable and, sometimes, a little depressing but it's better than being boring or just fielding multi-million pound bought players. Well that's my view anyway.

Meanwhile, here in Basel, the local team are getting ready for the visit of the mighty Barcelona and, with a mere nil points so far, they need some luck, divine intervention of great magnitude or a really wet pitch to maybe get a result. Well the rain here has been constant for 2 days so maybe, just maybe we'll get repeat scenes of the Switzerland v Turkey game  (see below)during Euro2008 but I still think it's asking far too much. However, Barcelona have been know to slip on a few banana skins so let's wait and see.

Oh well it was a dream that lasted all of 2 games as Basel now have to play their next two games against Barcelona having got a big great zero points in their campaign so far. Miracles can, of course, happen and maybe Messi won't play in either game as it seems, on the evidence of last night, that he is the absolute key to their season. They have a guy who plays at 14 and he looks a bit like a really good player that used to be at Arsenal. However, that's where the resemblance ends as this player would struggle to get into the Spurs side at the moment. He does seem to be blaming his poor form all on the fact he's not living in London anymore.... Well you wanted to move there and c'est la vie as they say.

In the UK I know that Sky show all eight Champions League games via their Sky Active service, allowing any viewer to switch games at will but it was always quite hard to see all games and see al the goals as they happened. What they need was commentary to interrupt a game when a goal was scored at another game. Well, here in Switzerland, I get access to the German coverage provided by Premier (called Teleclub here) and they offer all the games on individal channels PLUS this service called "The Konferenz". On this channel they go from game to game (a bit liek Radio 5 used to be with Saturday commentary) but then you suddenly hear, "Tor Madrid", and off we go to Athletico Madrid to see the goal (or penalty/red card etc). Each time the coverage switches (when there is no goal) they try to show key chances or misses. It works really well and saves me having to channel hop! Apparently they do it for their Bundesliga coverage and I wonder if Sky will try this style of coverage at some stage?

Not much going on around here in the middle of Europe today. I did, for a moment, cheer up when I saw a headline in L'Equipe saying that the lovely old French player, Diarra, was injured. However, it turned out that he was only lightly injured and will be fit for the Charity Shield this weekend and won't be out for 2-3 years as I had previously hoped. L'Equipe's transfer round up suggests that good old Jose Antonio Reyes may end up in Benfica for a rather small fee considering his fee to Arsenal and Berbatov is still wanted by Barcelona (having been turned down by Benzema, Adebayor & Drogba) - but no real actual facts here, of course.

According to Swiss media, Ronaldo may not be travelling back to Manchester today as he is expected to do, for checking up on his ankle injury. However, according to the same paper the agent of Swiss player, Gokhan Inler, is in London to day to meet with Arsene Wenger - so that must a deal done then :-)

One of the really useful bits to the profile page provided by oleole.com is the ability to see the most recent blogs/photos etc that have been posted in relation to your team(s). It's worth having a look at some of them, you may not agree with what people say or think but, hey, this is the new world of Blog space and it can be inhabited by a wide array of opinions. If you don't like someone's views then just ignore them - it's not worth getting worked up about.

The recent blogs seem to be of the relatively sensible what will be will be(Arseblog), we have to win something this year or else (Blog, my arse), the ramblings about a club e-mail (Bastin178)and comments on new signings (the Gooner Guru). Someone has to see that you get a tiny bit of recognition...

In the media world, L'Equipe seems to think that the PSG home for the elderly will now be joined by Eidur Gudjohnsen so we just need it to move to Eastbourne I think. Apparently Thierry Henry is going to live a year rich in goals according to the French paper. The new Barcelona coach is making him the main front man even if they are searching for another striker.

Locally, tonight sees the second round of Swiss Super League games begin, with current champions, Basel, taking on Grasshoppers for their first home game of the season.

I've beenlooking around at most of the Arsenal related blogs and message boards, nobody seems too bothered to see the back of Mr. Hleb. We've actually already got two replacements in Vela and Nasri coming into the squad so it really won't be much of an issue. It also looks as though young Mr Adebayor will be coming back with his proverbial tail between his legs but since there are still 6/7 weeks more of speculation to come we'll wait and see.

Today I spent most of the morning trying to book flights for Arsenal home games. Now it used to be relatively easy to  arrange travel to games as you looked at the fixture list and saw 38 games at 3.00pm on a Saturday. Of course, this has changed over the last 20 years, gradually at first with maybe one or two games on a Sunday. Then Sky arrived and we had Monday night games, we've even had Friday night games and, of course, with Setanta now we have 5 different potential kick off times. Then there is the added component of UEFA cup games on a Thursday which means that any Saturday game could be moved (not because of TV) to a Sunday if you're playing Everton, for example. So before booking any flight it's a search of all potential combinations before hitting the confirm button.With all that in mind, I've booked for 3 games so far - I'm now awaiting the potential CL game combinations before booking any more.

It seems I made a mistake yesterday in saying that Barloworld had pulled out of the tour due to the positive test of Duenas. Anyway Saunier Duval have pulled out today after the positive test on Riccardo Ricco, winner of two stages this year, announced this morning. There had been rumours about Ricci and, unfortunately, they seem to have been confirmed by this announcement.

L'Equipe has rumours of Chimbonda going to Newcastle or Everton , though why anyone would go near a player with his contempt for any club he seems to play for remains a mystery.

20 Minuten continues to look at the start of the Axpo Super League, here in Switzerland, this Friday night. Apparently some clubs ( Young Boys, FC Basel) offer reasonable prices to away fans but not all are so hospitable.