With a serious lack of news between games which are a week apart we are, with the season still in full swing, getting an early taste of the summer.  Perhaps there’ll be more transfer madness and speculation then, who knows.  Barcelona have apparently said they aren’t interested in RvP which is awfully fucking nice of them.  Could this mean that *finally,* after what seems like 10 summer’s straight of them annoying us and unsettling our best players they are finally going to leave us alone? I guess they’ve achieved their goal of playing like us now, tip tap, tip tap, unable to get around a bus parked across their pitch.  Their job, it seems, is done (awaits people who don’t understand sarcasm to have hissy fit).  A Barca spokesperson said “For Barça, any good player is of interest – and van Persie is a great player. But [we have] no intention of signing him for now. He came to our hotel in London because he is Dutch and so is Ibrahim Afellay. He didn’t come to see us and there was no conversation.”

On Tuesday I mentioned how I like to see Vela return and get a chance at Arsenal, however it seems like the player himself would prefer not to.  This isn’t the first time he’s said he’d like to leave, and as much as I think he could still have a chance with us, especially ahead of Park (bench) and Chamakh (non-attack) I really just want players at Arsenal who want to be there.  Vela said “From my point of view, from a footballing and lifestyle standpoint it is better to stay in this league.  I have a contract with an English team and if I have to return there I will adapt, but if I could stay here I would be happier. Wenger is the one who must make the most important decision. If he tells me I have to leave then I will look at my options. If he says I will stay then I will fight him.”  Vela has one year left on his deal.

Loanee striker number 345, Nicklas Bendtner, said about the possibility of staying at Sunderland “Never say never about Sunderland but it is not certain that I will be here if the opportunity arises. I obviously have to have a chat with Arsenal about my future but it’s not there that the first priority is going to be.  I think I have been fairly clear about it.” In recent months I’ve read Bendtner say that he will never go back to Arsenal and then that he never said that, so I really don’t quite know what to make of him.  Widely mocked for his supreme over-confidence, he’s been given a chance to play regularly in his preferred position and while he’s done well he hasn’t exactly set the world alight.  There is no denying he has talent, but if rumours about his lack of effort on the training pitch are true, that he already thinks that he has made it and doesn’t need to work hard in training every single day, then his loss will not be felt too deeply.  The players who go on to be the best are the ones who never stop working both on and off the pitch, regardless of the level they reach.

In some good news, well, not quite for us but for the BGF, it seems that he has declared himself fit for the Euro’s.  Out since February after he damaged his ligaments against Sunderland, Mertesacker told Sport-Bild he would be fit for the tournament which starts on June 8^th “I hope so, and I think that by the time the Euro starts, I will have achieved a level of fitness like never before. In the past, I have always missed out when it comes to getting the optimal preparation time. I haven’t had to bend and twist to accommodate Arsenal to be fit for the Euro.” Hmmm. That doesn’t read the way I’m sure the big German meant it to. At least I hope he didn’t meant it that way. Imagine a professional footballer having to ‘accommodate’ the club who pays his wages.  Whatever next?  The shop that wants you to pay them for their merchandise?  As I say, I don’t think he meant it the way it sounds and, as if often the case, much can get lost in translation, so I’m gonna give Per the benefit of the doubt on this one.

That’s about your lot for today.  More tormorrow.

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