Arsenal's poster boys

I have been fairly sanguine about Arsenal and their transfer activity this summer. I think it's fair to say that, I'm sure those of you who follow me on Twitter would agree. This is, mostly, because I think it's very naive to believe if the manager and CEO of our football club, or Stan's football club if you prefer, openly admitting that things need to change that they are then going to sit on their hands whilst the North London enormodome sinks into it's foundations.

That said, it struck me a few minutes ago that whilst I am relaxed about the new signings that will surely arrive to bolster our ranks, it of some concern to me that we haven't managed to ship out the dead wood within our ranks. I mean, we don't want the likes of Denilson, Bendtner, Eboue, Almunia and Rosicky polluting the group with their stinky "skills" when pre season training begins again in the next week.

I am a little worried that these guys that are on fairly generous wages are going to struggle to match their wages elsewhere- for obvious reasons. It seems logical to conclude, then, that selling them is going to be a lot harder than we hoped.

That isn't the case, however, for our club captain and Samir Nasri. I already talked at length about Cesc yesterday, so I don't want to dwell on him too much again here, especially as I believe he has committed his last act as Arsenal captain, but the Mirror reckons he could be off to Barcelona within the week. Nasri, they also speculate could be heading north to the champions for a fee of £20m, a move that simultaneously weakens us, but strengthens the one area that they probably really needed to. Part of me thinks that if he's gonna go there for free in a year's time, then we might as well take the money for him now. Let's face it, the deadline for him to renew his contract with us is two days away, it isn't going to happen now.

As for Cesc- £35m is too low. If Barca want him so badly, then they should stump up an appropriate fee. With four years on his contract, they are, blatantly, taking the mick offering such a paltry sum. Especially if the news of a 90m Euro buy out clause they have set for Thiago Alcantara's contract is true. In fact, I think that should be the starting point of any negotiation between us and them.

It's a dark day for Gooners, especially if you read the Mirror. Because not only do we have the Cesc and Nasri story on the backpage, but Jack Wilshere (that's Wilshere, not "Wilshire", Mirror folk) is on the front page as the assault case he is in involved in is now being heard at Isleworth Crown Court- incidentally, I did two weeks jury service there 5 years ago. I guess the effect, if you fold the paper out, is like the reverse of the poster you get when your team actually wins something. Which is appropriate for our band of ne'er do wells.

And, yes, I'm old enough to remember us winning something.

To end on a brighter note, Twitter's DarrenArsenal1 tweeted this morning that a player was having a medical this morning, we're hoping to find out just who that player might be at some point today. Although, knowing my luck, it will happen just as this article hits cyberspace. Nothing I can do about that. It would be great if Arsenal could make a signing of the calibre of Bergkamp- someone that makes the football world sit up and go "Bloody hell, how did Arsenal get him?" As it happens, I think we're going to have to content ourselves with, the apparently London bound, Gervinho. I can't say that I'm thrilled about that, but hopefully it's just the start.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rockthecasbah77

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