Half the time I'm convinced that journalists sit around the conference table dreaming stories up. Things like Henry to Red Bulls one year after a twenty plus goal season with Barca. Or maybe Cesc has been seen sporting a Barca pair of undies. But then pictures surface and the eyes need little convincing so maybe my cynicism is undeserved.

Round the world then. Tom Adams of Soccernet claims Wilshere is the future of the England squad. Well part of it anyways. Course he also named Phil Jones and Mikel Arteta as part of the future as well so he clearly doesn't know his shoelaces from his jockstrap. You can read that here.

Mario Balotelli is almost twenty. He's only nineteen now. And word on the street is he's demanding £180,000-a-week wages. That's a bloody laugh. Does everyone realize that's close to £10 million a year. Absurd, really ludicrous for a player who's got Anakin Skywalker's temperament and not even Hayden Christiansen's footy talent. Read on here.

In another interesting article floating around the internet, Arsenal have the highest priced season ticket. Can't say I feel great about that. Sure Arsene has eked out a profit these last few years, but I thought we at Arsenal were some of the good guys. It's those evil capitalist pigs at ManU and Chelsea who are bleeding their fans dry. Or so I thought anyways. That article is available right HERE.

Now, on to Arsenal transfer news. Now that Henri Lansbury is available to go on loan, the teams are queing up around the block for him, or at least two of them are anyways. Newcastle and West Brom both want him, both are shite but either way will be good expereience for him. I can't see him not playing with paraplegics like Kieran Dyer running around. Link.

Unfortunately, Werder Bremen released a press release claiming Per Mertesacker is not for sale. My heart really sunk upon reading that, but with our luck in the transfer market, is anyone really surprised? Ok, so he was really tall and blonde, but was he a world-class center back? I'm not sure. Yeah he started on the Germany team that went to the semi's and yeah Werder Bremen are a decent squad, but to be honest, I never heard his name before this World Cup so maybe I just got excited about the 6'6'' stat. Link.

Now that he looks to be out of reach, Emir Spahic must be the favorite to arrive in defense. He's been telling anyone who will listen that he'd fuck Arsene given half a chance, and the Arsenal squad and he are going to all be best mates. Looks like Wenger will pick him up for around £6 million. He's 6'2'' and has been rated as one of the best centre-halfs in the french league, but I'm looking at the French team of the season and it's got Ciani and Diawara in his place. Funny, I don't see Kosielcny in there either. Must be a mistake. Link.

Now yesterday Mark Hughes was muttering under his breath to anyone who would listen that Arsenal could take Schwarzer over his dead body. While Mark's been glaring at anyone who looked cross-eyed at his marvelous white head of hair, West Ham have offered him Bobby Green for £6 million. That's not a bad deal for a guy who was a great keeper before the entire world saw him drop a sitter from some Texan. Should Schwarzer come to Arsenal, Green would go to Fulham, and in an interesting love triangle type action, Marchetti would go to West Ham. Federico Marchetti is the 27-year-old Italian who stood in for Buffon at the WC, and who Arsenal have supposedly been following quite closely. LISTEN, I care who it is or what it means for West Ham, just give us a keeper! Please! Link

Arsene must have a good grasp on who's in and out of the first team this season, because he's letting kids leave the nest like Roman Polanski's been locked up. Jay Simpson is the latest to look waywardly, as Hull have come calling. They can apparently have him for £1.2 million. I think he's a pretty decent player for a 19-year-old and he could be a good player. He's big and strong, and to be fair black which might as well be an athletic advantage these days. I'd love to have a big bull up front at Arsenal, but maybe that's JET's job. So with Simpson surplus in the wake of E. Thomas' dancing feet, it's goodbye to Jay...er, Jay Simpson that is. Link.

On the Fabregas front, the papers are still spewing nonsense. The Mail claims Fabregas' family is heartbroken over Arsenal's refusal to let him go home. Yeah, well they can fuck off. I've had about enough of Fabregas' father wagging his tongue to anyone who'll listen about what his son wants. If Cesc doesn't come out this week and tell us what he's really thinking, I personally will begin to lose faith in our captain. He just has to tell the media to either shut it, or tell the team he's off. Van Persie and Fabregas are both due back at training on Thursday for the team photo and the first public training session. This is always a bit of a joke for the players. Last season there was nonsense like a crossbar challenge from twenty-yards out and Eboue was even there making balloon animals. Like I said, nonsense. However, with players like Djourou who are made out of glass, maybe a nice walk in the park is what we need. According to Wrighty7, however, Cesc is back in London today, so maybe we'll hear his plans sooner rather than later.

Last night, the Reserves and Youth squard beat Boreham Wood 3-0. Wojeich Sczezny and Havard Nordveit both played witht he Reserves in what was quite an interesting match. Believe it or not, Mark Randall lobbed the goalie in the first five minutes with what can only be described as a wonderful effort. This from a player who three days ago, couldn't score from five yards in a one-on-one with the keeper. Oh, and he failed to score in that particular one-on-one, TWICE! Anyways, Ryo Miyaichi, our Japanese trialist started from the beginning and was fairly fantastic. He tortured Luke Garrard at right-back all night, showing proficiency with both feet and a wonderful ability to run past young whiteboys with ease. Silva came on at half-time and Miyaichi went off around the hour-mark. From that point on it was the Silva show. Unlucky not to get a goal, the Brazilian was all over the park and hammered in shots like you wouldn't believe. Unfortunately, we can't officially declare him an Arsenal player until his 18th birthday, in January. You got to see a red and white cake coming there. Starting line-up was as follows.

Szczesny

Nordtveit – Bartley – Miquel – Cruise

Aneke – Randall – Ozyakup

Murphy – Afobe – Miyaichi

 

Right, so interesting day yesterday, if Spahic signs today I'll jump back on the horn to let you all know how relieve I am we've just signed another relative unkown but highly recommended player from the French league. In case you didn't know, the French don't even like football that much, nor know dick about it. Well, I suppose that doesn't apply to Arsene. At all.