Morning all,

and thanks to everyone who has pointed me in the direction of an article in L'Equipe which apparently says Samir Nasri could sign today for a fee of around €15m. I say apparently because my French is utterly poo. I used to be quite good at French in school but when I went to live in Spain all the French got squashed in my brain by the Spanish and now the only phrase I can remember is 'Where is the library?'.

Gunnerblog suggests he's more of a Hleb than an Overmars but the last couple of players we've signed from Marseille have done all right for us so let's wait and see. 

It's a slow news day so stories like Robin van Persie says he should be fit for Holland for Euro 2008 get some blog space. I couldn't care less if he was fit for Euro 2008 but I will care if he comes back crocked. Which he probably will. I mean, if he managed to get paralysed from the eyebrows down it wouldn't be even slightly suprising.

In Spain AS are reporting Real Madrid are interested in Alex Hleb. They say this is double bad news for Arsenal. Firstly because we'd lose Hleb (heh) and secondly because it continues the debilitation of the team and Cesc, having seen Flamini go already, would be much more inclined to go to Madrid if Arsenal also lost Hleb. Pffff. They reckon Barcelona are interested as well but suggest that while the two Spanish clubs are willing to pay good wages for him, Hleb has an offer on the table from Inter worth €125,000 a week. That's a lot of fucking ice-cream.  

Meanwhile Sport reports that the agent of Adebayor and Hleb (who they say is Vincenzi Morabito) will be in Barcelona today for some mysterious reason, while the best story of the lot is that of Sp*rs. Having apparently failed in their bid to bring Samuel Eto'o to White Hart Lane they have set their sights on ... yeah, that's right ... Thierry Henry. Excuse me for a moment:

Hahahahahaha ahahaha ahaha hahahahahahahaa hahahahaha hahahaha hahaha ha ahah ahaha hah aha ahaha hahahaha hhheeeeeeeeee

hohoho hahaha ehehe heheheheheh hahahah aahahah aaaaaaaaheeeeee hahahahah hahah ahaha

haha

hahahahahahaha

hah haha haha haha

*cough*

hahahahahahahaa haha ahaaha

Sorry about that. You have to laugh, don't you? 

Not much else happening at the moment. I could mention that shitfest in Moscow tonight, couldn't I? Barring some kind of natural disaster I can't think of any result that isn't a complete and utter load of septic goat cunt.

Come on natural disaster!

Till tomorrow. 

It's a quiet one today folks. not much stirring at all.

Some transfer speculation, as you might expect. Marseille's Samir Nasri is being linked after suggesting he's played his last game for the French club. Why us ahead of anyone else I don't know.

The Sunday Mirror says Arsene Wenger is going to spend £25m and handily lists a whole pile of players in one article. They repeat the Thuram rumour as well as linking us with St Etienne pair Mouhamadou Dabo and Blaise Matuidi, Roma's thoroughbred Alberto Aquilani, Valencia's Raul Albiol and Mario Gomez of Stuttgart. Quite the shopping basket.

The News of the World says Aston Villa want Justin Hoyte and were prepared to pay £4.5m for him last season. I don't think he's ever going to be first choice for us but I'd rather keep him as back up for Sagna and sell Eboue but Eboue has the pictures of Arsene Wenger doing that thing so it looks like it's curtains for Hoyte.

The People says Sp*rs are having problems signing Samuel Eto'o because he'd rather sign for us instead. And who could blame him? Can't see us being in for him though. He's too mental and his knees are a bit too fucked.

Former Gunner Kenny Sansom has released an autobiography in which he talks about his battle with booze. In the book George Graham reckons we'd have won more trophies if the players hadn't been out on the lash all the time. Probably true but I think the drinking culture was prevalent at most clubs, not just Arsenal.

El Mundo in Spain says Arsene Wenger is 'furious' with Emmanuel Adebayor for demanding to be the highest paid player at the club and feels the Togonian needs to keep his feet on the ground. This is naturally to the advantage of Barcelona which, of course, is the whole point of the article. More shit stirring but don't be surprised to see it crop up elsewhere - my bet is The Mail.

Meanwhile Sport, the other Catalan daily, says Barcelona are looking for a winger and the three names they have splashed all over their front page are Valencia's David Silva plus Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie. Honestly, going by the last few days in the Spanish papers Barcelona are going to have a 53 man squad next season.

And that my friends is about that. Have yourselves a good Sunday. More tomorrow.

Lots going on this morning as the players drift away.

Most of the talk this morning is about Emmanuel Adebayor and the 'I'd love to play for Barcelona' stories. Now, I've read the interview as it appeared in El Mundo and some of the stuff he says could certainly be interpreted badly but I suspect it has been well and truly doctored.

I'm not 100% confident that the questions haven't been made fit the answers, if you get my meaning. It is El Mundo, after all, and we know how the clubs like Barcelona use the papers to unsettle players. Now, I think Ade could probably have been a little more circumspect but to me he seems like a very open guy who loves to talk and I think he got taken advantage of a little bit. The bottom line is that when the story appeared in the Spanish press an article was posted on Arsenal.com with the following quote from the player:

I don’t know why people want to put words in my mouth. As I said on Friday, I love Arsenal and I will be here next season. I am off to Togo tomorrow but will return to Arsenal for pre-season training in July.

And to be fair to Adebayor this isn't the first time he has well and truly shot down speculation surrounding his Arsenal future. It's easy to do it if you want to. We'll see him in July and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned. It won't be the end of the shit stirring from the Spanish press, of course, those rancid horse fisters will be at it all summer, but we're used it by now, aren't we?

Tomas Rosicky is confident he can be fit for next season after his knee was made bionic. He's got two titanium anchors keeping his ligament secure so fingers crossed that will do the trick.

Lassana Diarra is still mouthing about his move from Arsenal, the little dolphin headed cunt. He says he wasn't treated well enough - I say he was a fucking pussy who gave up at the thought of a little competition. He says he hopes he ends up with more silverware than Arsenal did this season. I say 'COME ON CARDIFF!'.

You know silly season is well and truly upon us when we get linked with a £20m move for Argentine Mauro Zarate. He played for Birmingham this season, on loan from some Qatar club, and scored a couple of very nice goals but £20m is just ridiculous. I'll give them £186.98p and I will say 'That is my final offer' and when they try and speak I will go 'Shhhhh, final offer' and then when they try and speak again I will go 'Shhhhhh' again because that's really fucking annoying but they'd deserve it for trying to get me to pay £20m.

Jens talks about his time at Arsenal, the last season in particular, and has some words for Manuel Almunia. No, not those kinds of words. Jens says:

I told him he should never take anything personally and that somehow he will realise he will benefit from that competition between me and him because it made him better. That is basically what I told him and we're OK now. From my point of view, it's over. If I see him next season somewhere, I can always come to him and shake his hand and wish him all the best. I respect him. You will have to ask him what he thinks.

There probably is a good deal of truth to that. Knowing someone is breathing down your neck all the time does keep you on your toes. Let's hope Fabianski can do that next season. In fact, the young Pole said he learned a lot from Jens - I expect the first 'Almunia is shit, I should be playing' stories to hit the wires by the end of August.

Newcastle have apparently told us Obafemi Martins is not for sale. We've been linked with the 43 year old for some time now but I can't really see that we need him.

A new name has cropped up in the search for Arsenal's new MD. Fulham's David McInally is linked with the job. I don't know the first thing about him. Except his name. I know his name.

And that's about the size of it. I'm trying to sort something out for tomorrow's Arsecast whereby you can call in but the number isn't working just at the moment. I'll update here when I have it sorted and give you some info about what I'm looking for.

Update: Ok, there's a telephone number you can call - I'm looking for your best moment from last season (it can be a goal, a result, a trip, seeing someone fall and hit their face on something) and your worst moment. Just leave a voicemail, try and keep them as brief as possible, save me the editing!

The number to dial is 020 7193 6971 from inside the UK and +44 20 7193 6971 from outside. I'll leave lines open until I get too many to deal with.

Line is currently: CLOSED - Thanks.

Until tomorrow.