The likes of Rooney and Ferdinand went to Manchester United for huge sums, sums that we simply could not compete with while the likes of Gerrard and Scholes and co were developed from young at their clubs. The club have been working on doing just that. Developing future British players and it is

I usually start an article with good afternoon etc but that would be unfair to readers from outside of the UK. Sometimes I forget that the internet is such a big place. Which clever sod thought of the internet ey? It is hard to imagine what life would be like today without it. For a start, I’d probably be reading the sports pages trying to get a sniff of Arsenal news that wasn’t made up transfer rumours. Instead I get to ignore that on the internet.

Anyway, as you may or may not know, I have been away for a little while and will continue to do so for the next few weeks. Meanwhile some excellent people will be having their say in my place so many thanks to them.

In my absence some interesting things have started to unfold at Arsenal. As I assumed activity has increased as the transfer window is coming closer to shutting.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has finally found his way to North London from Southampton, we have been tracking the lad for sometime and other major clubs have been trying to obtain his signature but he chose us. While us Gooners often complain about our youngsters being over paid the benefit of the club working so hard on the youth side is that we should remain one of the biggest attractions in the world for the best youngsters in the world.

The fact that we have one of the best developmental managers as well as paying youth players the equivalent of Chelsea paying their first teamers should mean that we should regularly have world class players coming through the system for the foreseeable future.

As already mentioned by Squid Boy in yesterday’s blog, the idea that signing Chamberlain will prevent Arsenal from signing a center back is somewhat ludicrous.  I haven’t seen the latest version of Football manager but in the real world deals are not done individually by priority. I am sure many deals, offers, bids, talks are done at the same time. The player who signs first and last is not usually done on the priority of the player.

In other words, the signing of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain should have no impact on our decision to buy or not buy a defender. The same names appear to be floating around the place. Phil Jagielka was on everyone’s lips and then back to Gary Cahill. The rumours have now switched to Scott Dann of Birmingham City. Judging by the comments from Wenger and Gazidis, I would expect someone to be heading into the club before the window closes.

The signing of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seems to continue a theme this summer. The promotion of Jack Wilshere, Emmanuel Frimpong and Kieran Gibbs in place of Gael Clichy. The signing of Gooner Carl Jenkinson and now the signing of Chamberlain shows that Arsene is building a future British base of young hungry Gunners, all within the same age group.

Arsene Wenger used to talk about keeping the balance between the English players and the foreign players back when the likes of Ray Parlour, Martin Keown and company complemented Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and the rest of the talented squad we had.

After those legendary English players retired or were moved on as they were past their best we had to rebuild the side but top quality English players with the technique to play Arsene Wenger’s brand of football were extremely over priced.

The likes of Rooney and Ferdinand went to Manchester United for huge sums, sums that we simply could not compete with while the likes of Gerrard and Scholes and co were developed from young at their clubs. The club have been working on doing just that. Developing future British players and it is only now that we are starting to see the benefits of this.

I would say that if we manage to keep hold of these players which should be easier than trying to keep hold of players like Nasri, Flamini, Adebayor etc who have no natural loyalty to the club then we could well have a base that will catapult the club towards the very, very top for many years at least domestically.

Obviously a large section of support do not want to engage in conversations about our potential future, so it is important to supplement these players with quality bridge players who can help the club win trophies today and not just waiting for tomorrow.

Players like Gervinho are an excellent start if you ask me, but we still need to add to our squad with some more established talents.

The rumours persist that Cesc and Nasri will be heading out the door. Chamakh pretty much said that which probably isn’t wise saying so publicly at this time. Apparently Manchester City will be launching a £22m bid for the player and with a year to go, that would be great business for us and probably for them as they have endless pockets.

Barcelona continue to try and force through a Cesc deal by stating that Arsenal have realised that Barcelona will not meet the £40m and will accept a lower offer, they are waiting for a response. I hope we continue to send a fax back to them with Gazidis’ sticking two fingers up at them until they pay what Cesc is worth.

While Nasri, Bendtner and Cesc are still at the club I suspect those replacements will be on hold until anything changes. The central defender that we are trying to buy will not depend on any outgoing players which should make people feel much better, I hope.

And finally, we were greeted to some rather lovely news yesterday evening that Ryo Miyaichi has been granted his work permit. That is great news for everyone. I am looking forward to Arsene sending him on with 20 minutes to go against a tired looking right back. Immensely talented, full of tricks and speed but needs to be eased in slowly. From what I have seen, he will take time to make the right decisions at the right time as well as needing to improve physically. Once that comes then it will be hard to keep him out of the starting eleven I would say.

Like I said earlier, fans do not want to talk about the future of the club too much but how can a potential team of Wilshere, Ramsey, Miyaichi and Chamberlain not tingle the senses just a little? Now that Joel Campbell’s Costa Rica have been knocked out, perhaps it won’t be long until we see him wearing the Arsenal shirt on the official website.

Anyway, Squid Boy might be around tomorrow and I shall be reappearing soon.

til tomorrow.