Story number 3 Clichy to leave, last year of his contract, hasn’t signed a new deal and no updates on progress of negotiations. This one might have legs, Clichy is Arsenal’s longest serving player and so clearly has some loyalty to the club. The story goes Clichy wants Arsenal to sign big name(again) players before he signs a new deal but hang on a second has Clichy even been offered a new deal? no one at Arsenal or Clichy himself said anything about talks over a new deal.Clichy has according to all sides regressed over the last 3 years, just when he was starting to fulfil his potential he turned around

Being 20 its hard for me to tell if transfer gossip has always been like this, most of what we hear are rumours and by rumours I mean the idea that some journalist had that he/she thought might interest football fans. A very small percentage of the stories we read actually happen I’m guessing under 15% although when you consider the hundreds of transfer stories each summer a large number may actually be true. So how do we decide which stories are actually likely and which ones are clearly false?

A huge number of players have been linked with moves in and out of Arsenal this summer. We need to look at the FACTS surrounding each deal to see if there is any truth in that particular story.I will go trough the biggest rumours and likely deals.

Story number 1 THE transfer of the summer Fabregas to Barca, fact or fiction, the last thing Fabregas himself said was “the dream of Barcelona is dead” he said this last summer the word dead has a certain finality about it. So far this summer there have been no official words from either side or even from the Barca players sure Pique and Puyol were acting the b****x with photos of Cesc but only quotes from last year have been recycled by the media.Barca have confirmed their transfer budget this summer is 45m euros. Everybody knows that would fall far short of Fabregas’ value. FICTION

Story number 2 is Nasri wants out, contract negotiations haven’t concluded either way yet. Nasri has not signed despite being offered a sizeable pay rise the numbers haven’t been confirmed. The story goes Nasri was offered 90k he wants 110k parity with Fabregas, and that was the only stumbling block. Recently the story has been updated after an interview(in French) where Nasri appeared to not reject links to ManU, now I discount all interviews that have to be translated because words such as no tend to disappear. However the media ran with “Nasri to Utd” this week Nasri tweeted “don’t believe everything you read I will keep you updated when something happens” now thats open to interpretation. The story has been updated again that Nasri is waiting until Arsenal sign some big names(hate that phrase) and further still that he wants to Arsenal’s top earner. Despite only 1 piece of genuine information the story has changed 3 times. the facts are a) Nasri postponed talks until the end of the season b)France are just finishing their season this week c) Negotiations stalled during the season for some reason and d)Nasri’s season is just ending this week. Nasri didn’t state much other than negotiations were ongoing. Nasri to ManU is FICTION. Nasri to leave is not so clear.

Story number 3 Clichy to leave, last year of his contract, hasn’t signed a new deal and no updates on progress of negotiations. This one might have legs, Clichy is Arsenal’s longest serving player and so clearly has some loyalty to the club. The story goes Clichy wants Arsenal to sign big name(again) players before he signs a new deal but hang on a second has Clichy even been offered a new deal? no one at Arsenal or Clichy himself said anything about talks over a new deal.Clichy has according to all sides regressed over the last 3 years, just when he was starting to fulfil his potential he turned around and went downhill, his defending is shaky at times and his final ball is non existant. Could Arsenal want to get rid of Clichy? Its a possibility Liverpool have according to reports bid £5m unconfirmed of course. However despite very little factual information it looks like Clichy leaving could certainly be FACT.

Story number 4 Denilson and Bendtner leaving, both players have confirmed they want to leave, Arsenal have said nothing. FACT

Story number 5 Rosicky leaving, sign just before he proved his talent as a world class player then horrific injury trouble robbed him of his pace, shooting ability and most notably his reading of the game. Simply nowhere near the player Arsenal signed for a bargain £10m. Story goes Arsenal are willing to let him go, no factual information from anybody on this but Rosicky is a high earner at Arsenal and is at best a squad player these days which clearly doesn’t justify his salary. If someone bid for Rosicky it would certainly be attractive for Arsenal but so far nothing. FICTION.

Story number 6 Arshavin leaving, I just don’t like Arshavin so I wont write anything either way as I would highly biased for the fact side.

Now for the fun part the Ins;

Story number 1 Eden Hazard joining, he looks a wonderful player just the type Wenger loves.The player himself stated in the past he would love to sign for Arsenal(translated interview) he reportedly has a £25-35m price tag. Arsenal, Lille, and Hazard himself have said nothing this summer so sadly FICTION

Story number 2 Gervinho joining, Arsenal have watched him before on numerous occasions, he wants to leave and he would certainly suit the Arsenal team A pure athlete who can play football a classic Wenger signing. Arsenal have said nothing, Lille have said it will be hard to keep him and the player is supposed to make his ‘decision’ next week ala LeBron James. We should know a lot more next week but for now it appears just FICTION.

Story number 3 Jan Vertonghen joining, ticks all the boxes Arsenal need to tick, an Ajax graduate so you know he can play a bit, watched by Arsenal closely for some time now. Only loosely linked surprisingly, probably because journalists just know the name and not much else. Factual information again very little at a recent charity even in Belgium when speaking about TV5 he said he was looking forward to playing together again(translated) might have meant international. Only talk of admiration for Club and player so far.Expect this story to pick up a bit in the next few weeks. FICTION.

Story number 3 Ricardo Alvarez joining, an easy one as Arsenal are in talks with his club about a fee so clearly FACT.

Story number 4 Falcao joining, no factual information either way the player has stated he wants to play in England(translated) while Arsenal have said nothing.FICTION

Story number 5 Benzema joining, Arsenal were reportedly interested when he left Lyon, Wenger has said a deal is not impossible and that he will look to spend money this summer. One would imagine if Real are trying to sign Adebayor, then another striker will leave. Benzema said he wants to stay(translated). Wenger is not one to speak about players this is a potential transfer FACT.

Story number 6 *wow theres a lot of these* Samba joining, reports are Arsenal had an 8m bid rejected in January. Samba said he “isn’t trying to leave but we will see what happens”. Arsenal bid 16m for his now former partner doubtful Blackburn would sell both in one summer.Unlikely o happen now even if reports are accurate, with no factual information available FICTION

Story number 7 Gary Cahill joining, Wenger has admitted his admiration for Cahill Bolton have said 15m+ We know Wenger wont pay that for a player in the last year of his contract who isn’t worth that much with 5 years left anyway. If Bolton will accept about half that then it could go through but I cant seenor would I advise to Arsenal pay that much for Cahill. However there is interest confirmed and Bolton have stated he may leave this summer so FACT.

Story number 8 oxlade-Chamberlain(i just wanna call him oxtail) joining, Arsenal have confirmed an interest, the players father has confirmed he wants him to go to Arsenal,Southampton have said they will let him go. For some reason this hasn’t happened yet no talks, no bids, nothing; its a strange one it looks like the kind of deal that happens on June 1 something we don’t know is holding this deal up however there is definite truth in the story FACT.

Story number 9 Scott Parker joining, average fan’s dream signing however no tangible links, neither player nor Arsenal not even West Ham have said anything about this deal other than Parker says he needs premiership football. FICTION

Story number 10 Willian joining, the Shaktar winger who gave us a torrid time in Donetsk is a rumoured £11m signing no factual info from Arsenal Willian or Shaktar FICTION.

There are the main transfer rumours involving Arsenal so far this summer a few may change status particularly the Gervinho deal. It was hard not to be biased and I might have been on 1 or 2 of these but I think is a fair conclusion with the factual information available to us. I could be wrong about every single one but I would put money on at least 2 of the FACT Ins happening and all the FACT Outs ,as well as the FICTION Outs staying at Arsenal

Mean Lean’s Response

As your article is now a few days old, I suspect that some of your fact and fictions will be changed. I actually really like the fact or fiction idea, a great way to try and separate the realistic and the total rubbish.

As you say most transfer rumour is just stuff to sell newspapers. Most of the ‘news’ is fabricated whilst agents and selling clubs use the media to either let everyone know that the player is for sale or increase a players value.

If I was a betting man then I would guess that Almunia, Denilson, Bendtner and a few youth players will be heading out of the door whilst Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gervinho will come to the club. I expect more incoming players and also outgoings but we just do not know who or which area of the team Wenger will be changing.

I am guessing that everything will start to go mad in July.