This was supposed to be the summer where he just buys a few reinforcements and now it seems very possible that we will be three first team players down. THREE from ELEVEN is a hell of a lot of changes from a first team

I have rubbished it, I have doubted it, I have denied it. But I do not think I can do those things anymore. Something smells fishy around Arsenal football club right now.

Adebayor’s quote about not being able to say anything right now, and then stories in Barca saying that they have agreed a deal with Arsenal seem a little smokey to me.

If this is the case then it will probably happen when Arsenal find a replacement. So how do you replace Adebayor? Will Wenger make drastic tactical changes to the team? Adebayor is the one player who has the pace to get behind the opposition back four (apart from Theo who is a wide player for the moment)

Van Persie and Bendtner are two highly technical players who some might argue are more talented than Adebayor but none of them are going to out sprint anyone these days.

Will Wenger discard the big man tactic and go back to the Ian Wright, Anelka, Henry last man sprinter? Does he have someone in place already but is waiting for the Euros to finish? If there is one man you can rely on making a team change it is Arsene. We have gone from a power team in 97/98 to a 1 touch counter attacking team in 2003/2004 to a possession team in 2008. He will build the team according to type of player he can bring in.

There are so many questions to be asked right now. How I would love to know a) What Arsene is thinking and b) What Arsene’s plans are.

This was supposed to be the summer where he just buys a few reinforcements and now it seems very possible that we will be three first team players down. THREE from ELEVEN is a hell of a lot of changes from a first team.

If these three do leave this could be the most eventful summer of Arsene’s rein. If true then I would expect massive wheeling and dealing. Ade and Hleb will go for big money and Arsene will want to pay less for the players he brings in to keep the budget balanced. I would assume that Arsene would want to have more than three coming in.

According to the press, so far we have signed Ramsay who is bought for the future and not now, we are close to signing Nasri which I would expect to go through Monday or Tuesday. We have had a 9.5 million bid turned down for Zapata and now we have had a bid rejected by Brazilian club Portuguesa for striker Diogo.

“We have refused an offer from Arsenal, because it was too low,” Portuguesa director Andre Heleno was quoted by the Daily Star.

“Up to now the biggest offer has come from Italy, which was £9million, but we will start to think about selling him at £12million.”

It would be hard to tell how much truth there is in these stories as clubs are always trying to bump up prices and start bidding wars for players who are leaving but they are very possible.

Apparent Arsenal target Andrei Arshavin is set to leave Zenit St Petersburg. But coach Dick Advocaat has played down rumours linking him to Arsenal.

So what of this Samuel Eto’o rumour? Apparently he has been spotted in London as he is taking a medical at Arsenal. Well his agent Jose Maria Mesalles has come out and denied this.

“Saying Eto’o had a medical at Arsenal is totally wrong, there’s strictly nothing,”

What? ‘there’s strictly nothing’? What does that mean. Nothing in the rumour, nothing in medical. To be honest I couldn’t imagine Wenger buying someone with his ego and more importantly his wage demands.

Wanna hear good news now?.. yeah I do.

Gael Clichy has knocked those rumours of departure firmly on the head by signing a long term extension. Yesterdays rumours (although I knew he would never leave) made me think about how highly I rate him. Give me a choice of losing Clichy, Flamini, Hleb or Adebayor and it wouldn’t even be a choice. I suppose it is easy to say once a player has committed himself but I rate him second behind Cesc in terms of value to this team. Left back is not the most valued position I guess but only Clichy can do what he does. His recovery and his interceptions are simply exceptional.

Arsene Wenger has been speaking (on video) about the quality of the Euro 2008 on the BBC its worth listening to.

That’s me done, have a good day. Drop your view in the comments.

Until tomorrow.

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