Over and over

Well, that's that then.

A brilliant career prematurely ended and now the jokes are flying. I was stunned to learn, as I went to bed last night, of Michael Jackson's death from a heart attack yesterday. I know this is a football blog, and I know that there are more than few people out there with little time for him and his more recent antics. But people talk of the problems of dealing with fame as a 20-year-old, Michael Jackson must have been the most famour five year old ever, he grew up in public (if ever did really grow up) and still he made brilliant music. I'm not a Beatles fan, people tell me they invented pop music. Well, Michael Jackson invented pop music for me and his brilliance will live on in the Thriller and, to a lesser extent, BAD albums. RIP Mike.

Thoughts scrambled a bit by this news, I must admit, but carry on we must. And I'll try to stop making like Yoda.

It didn't take long for Francesc Fabregas to come out and make his 429th restatement of commitment to the Arsenal cause, in fact he'd made it almost as soon as I finished posting yesterday.

This is an excerpt from the statement on Arse.com: "So, for anyone who is unclear or may have misunderstood what my position is, let me make myself absolutely crystal clear. I am wholeheartedly committed to Arsenal and my future lies with this great club.

"It is a fact that we have not won a trophy for four years and yes, I am angry about that, but that anger stems from the deep deep desire I have to win things with Arsenal. I care about this Club and believe in this team. I am proud to captain this team and proud to wear the shirt."

Is that absolutely cruystal clear then? Good. There's more, but it does begin to sound as if Arsène might be pointing a gun at his head off stage somewhere. I jest, of course. Seriously, Cesc might want to think a little more before opening his mouth in the Spanish press from now on, his every utterance is an invitation to a media feeding frenzy and it must be very time consuming, not to say ebnergy sapping, to have to keep clarifying the same point over and over.

It's funny though, that whilst The Sun was happy to splash IMPOTENT all over their back pages yesterday, they've been less reticent to publicise Cesc's words. In fact, I looked at their website a second ago, and if, for some reason, your sole news source was The Sun, you wouldn't even know he'd issued this statement. A lesson in news management.

Meanwhile, Theo Walcott has been labelled overrated by Blackburn's Martin Olsson. Now I know there are more than a few Arsenal fans who wouldn't disagree with that assessment, but weren't Blackburn the team Theo absolutely ripped apart on his return from injury a couple of months back? Ahead of the under 21 semi-final, this might rank alongside that Gulbis fella saying Andy Murray wasn't really injured when he took an injury time out at Queens a couple of years back as gamesmanship gone wrong, very wrong. Time will tell.

The only transfer news out there today relates to Arsenal old boys, Everton are, for some reason, talking to Atletico Madrid about José Reyes. Yes the same Reyes that couldn't hack London life, whilst Patrick Vieira was said to have thought over a move to Birmingham of all teams. Not that bad in Milan, surely Pat? Finally, Thierry Henry has decided to finish at Bacelona in two years with a view to a money spinning move to MLS. Which would be an interesting end to an amazzing career.

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