We all knew right from November 2001, on the night that it was announced that the 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium at Ashburton Grove would indeed become a reality, that transfer cash on players, world class players, would be hard to come by

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By Mohamed Hassan

Listening to Arsène Wenger’s interview on BBC’s Football Focus on Saturday lunchtime provided an enchanting insight into the manager’s opinions and views on Euro 2008.

The return of vibrant, attacking football to the international stage, the acceptance and embracement of different cultures, and the contributions of Messrs Fabregas and van Persie were just a few issues on the agenda.

But what caught my swift attention (and admittedly initially grew seeds of doubt and frustration in my mind), was Ray Stubbs’ question to Le Boss: “So then, you said that you have brought your chequebook to these finals, has anyone caught your eye, you gonna use your chequebook?”

To which Wenger’s jokingly terse reply was: “Of course, but having looked at some of the figures in the newspapers I realised that my chequebook maybe isn’t big enough!”

Now there’s a surprise. We all knew right from November 2001, on the night that it was announced that the 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium at Ashburton Grove would indeed become a reality, that transfer cash on players, world class players, would be hard to come by.

This is particularly since Manchester United have been generating profits on a regular basis, and of course since Abramovich invaded west London and kick-started the Russian Blue Revolution.

Whether or not we will sign any major player in the summer, and whether or not his identity will be from the Euros, are both, in doubt, but at the same time not in question.

After all, if you believe all the classified rubbish written in newspapers and on the Internet on a daily basis, you’d now be sweating that Arsenal will be left without any players to represent the club come August.

Adebayor, Fabregas, van Persie, Clichy, Eboue, and of course Hleb have all been linked to moves here, there and everywhere, and even the manager himself was linked to becoming Paris-St.Germain President, albeit in 2011!

On the other hand, you will also believe that we are on the verge of signing any of Eto’o, Touré’s brother Yaya, Villa, De la Red, Guiza and/or Albiol from the Spanish shores, Aquilani, Gattuso, Amauri, and Trezeguet from Serie A, Russian play-making wizard Arshavin, Podolski, van der Vaart, Moutinho, Quaresma, the list just goes on and on.

Now I apologise profusely for bogging your minds with a plethora of names, but having compiled that list from various articles and television “reports”, I was amazed at how influential the media is on football fans; to a certain extent just brainwashing keen supporters’ minds with all sorts of fantasies and permutations.

I was also amazed at that sheer number of world-renowned footballers only being linked to us (as well as half the team leaving of course). I am sure that I have left some players out, but that’s for another day.

I guess my main point is that we should not be entirely desperate for wholesale changes at the club. Granted, certain things with individuals went wrong at the business end of last season, but having taken time to reflect on our season’s achievements, I am sure you will agree with me that the past campaign was the coming-of-age of many players, and that we do not really need that much of a revolution in order to achieve success, as the papers will have you believe.

A perfect example would be the attack. Spare a thought for a striking partnership of Adebayor (who, despite repeatedly insisting that he is going nowhere, continues to be linked with moves to AC Milan, Barcelona and Mars…), and van Persie, a man on fire in Austria and Switzerland.

The makings of one of the deadliest partnerships in Europe is surely upon us, providing (and praying) that Robin stays fit and ready to roll for next season. That is without mentioning the likes of the fast-recovering Eduardo, an improving and maturing Walcott, Bendtner, the possibilities are endless.

Whilst our attacking verve is definitely a situation to be envied, I can hear rumblings amongst supporters regarding the defence. But, we have shown some dramatic improvements in that department over the past two years, where we are now simply “switching off” at sporadic moments, as opposed to going AWOL for a whole second half.

Having dealt with the rumours, a quick point about the “maybes”, the one or two seemingly solid facts that have been circulating over the past month or so.

The fact that we are on the verge of signing Marseille’s Samir Nasri feels like it has been going on since Euro 2004, never mind since the beginning of the current tournament!

Nevertheless, sources in France insist that the deal is done, and that only Hleb’s departure to a sunnier and quieter place is delaying an official club announcement. Wenger has previously said that he will look to improve the squad with one or two “big players”, and a holding central midfielder seems a certainty, although no realistic names have been firmly mentioned.

Apart from that, I’m afraid that’s as far as I can go with the nearly true transfer targets and departures, which is a very telling feature of the ratio of fact to fiction in the world of summer football.

As for Wenger’s final words on Football Focus, he perfectly summed up the need for stability and keeping what is an already brilliantly talented squad without necessarily going all out and succumbing to the overly-inflated prices on the market: “I will first use my chequebook to keep my players.”

Many would agree that he is far from wrong