Sorry guys I'm back

I'm back folks, after a few weeks off the ball I'm back for good now. To be honest not much has happened since I have been away. The biggest news is that we rejected a quite embarrassing reported offer of £29m for Cesc. Other news has been surrounding Theo's omission from the England team, as well as Big Phil's departure from the club, and also potentially Campbell and Gallas also next to walk out the door. I will touch on all of these subjects today, as well as the rumours surrounding Joe Cole's future.

Lets start with the Fabregas topic, now I know its a bit late, but since I didn't get a chance to put my opinion out there I will do now. I'm still a bit in shock over the valuation put on the head of Fabregas by Barca. For a team that has been trying their up most to unsettle and sign Cesc for the last 3 or 4 seasons, the £29m reported offer comes across as a bit of a joke. 5 years left on his contract, one of the top 5 centre midfielders in the world currently, still only 23, they could sell Cesc for that much in another 5 or 6 years, but right now surely that isn't the market valuation for a player of Cesc's quality. Barcelona are one of the clubs that have set the ridiculously high bar for transfer fees. The acquisition of Ibrahimovic from Inter for £40m with Eto'o also going the other way is ridiculous in itself. So if Ibrahimovic is worth at least £50m then so is Fabregas. Its time to play some hard ball with Barca, if they want Cesc so bad, then they have to come out all guns blazing. We are not in financial position where we have to sell, so we shouldn't be bullied into accepting a sub standard bid. If they don't want to or don't have the money to match our valuation then Fabregas should play for Arsenal next season, there's no rush to sell him, another great season from him could raise his value even more. I don't think there is the worry of Cesc not wanting to play for us any more, he is a great professional and I'm sure is smart enough to understand the politics behind the move, after all its inevitable he will be play for the Catalan's one day.

Theo's omission from the England team raised a few eyebrows across the nation, I personally cant remember the last time England have failed to have an Arsenal representative at the World Cup. Arguments can be made from both sides of whether Theo should have gone to the World Cup. Personally I felt we should have taken Theo. Yes, he can be inconsistent, unpredictable and lacking a final ball, but it is precisely those reasons why I would have taken Theo. You never know what is going to happen when Theo has the ball. His pace scares defenders to death, and offers a threat that no other England player possesses. Of course you can argue that Theo has done nothing to warrant a place in the England team, statistically he hasn't, but neither has Shaun Wright Phillips and Aaron Lennon is still questionable to me. I wouldn't have taken Theo as a starter, I would have merely taken him as an impact player, someone to take off the bench when we are in a bit of sticky position. However Mr Capello decided against taking Theo and you can understand why, Theo simply just hasn't progressed at the rate he has needed to.

Speculation surrounding Philip Senderos' future at the club has been going on for a while. I've never been a fan of Big Phil, too lackadaisical and slow. Very prone to make mistakes and another one who has not progressed at the rate he has needed to. It may be harsh but I felt the only reason he was kept at the club was because he was a nice lad and got on very well with everyone. Well Senderos this morning left the club to join Fulham on a free. It may not be the biggest news coming out of the club, but if you look at futures of other players at Centre Back we are left worryingly thin. I have spoke about this before, what would we do if Senderos, Gallas and Campbell left. We would then be left with Vermaelan, Silvestre, Djorou and Bartley. Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence does it. Newspaper reports have linked us with Laurent Koscielny. A French centre back with polish descent from Lorient (no not Leyton Orient, well I hope not anyway), is about as much as I know about him. It is reported that we have a bid turned down for him already, so we shall see in the near future how that pans out. I've never seen the lad play before, so for all I know he could be the greatest centre back in the world, but if we were only to sign him at centre back and we lost both Campbell and Gallas I would not be happy. We must sign an established name to sit at the back. I'm not sure whether Wenger has plans to partner Vermaelan with Djorou at the back, that could be the plan but until I see how that works out I wouldn't be too confident in that pairing. Reports have linked us with Per Mertesacker and Brede Hangelaand, one of those two names would go a long way to giving me an ounce of confidence with our back line. I would expect a lot of activity both in and out defensively this summer.

So Joe Cole will leave Chelsea this season....I can't see us pulling it off but what a great move that would be. Joe Cole is a world class player with Premier League and Champions League experience in abundance. He is exactly the sort of player we need, he is a winner and has experienced winning trophies. Extremely gifted and a real footballer, he would fit in well at Arsenal, but with stiff opposition from Tottenham, Man Utd, Man City and even Real Madrid have been thrown in the hat, a successful move for him seems unlikely. His wages could prove a stumbling block, I'm not sure whether he would want to take a wage cut to come to us. The only thing we could have in our favour would be his desire to stay in London, but with Joe being very well acquainted with Harry just across the road, even though Harry was resigned to defeat in signing him last week, I'm sure Tottenham are favourites to sign him.

Well that about sums it up, I've been away for two weeks, lets hope that things start to hot up in regards to transfers and hopefully sooner rather than later we will see how this Arsenal team will look next season

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