Arsenal Chase Barcelona Starlet

Good morning from a beautifully sunny Dublin. Luckily for me, I have a month off work(except for two days in the middle) and I can make the most of the weather.

When the kids get off school today, we will be heading to the beach for the weekend as we have a lovely place to stay free of charge next to one of the most beautiful beaches in Ireland.

It will just leave our 19-year old son at home, and I'm sure the house will be in safe hands with him.

Anyway, enough of how difficult things are at the moment and on to more pressing matters like Arsenal.

It would seem that Barcelona has not given up hope on signing Cesc after our refusal to do business with them.

A spokesman for presidential candidate Sandro Rossel said that it would be easy to sign Cesc. He said the player was made in La Masia, has publicly stated that he wants to rejoin the club, has told his own coach that and has the support of the Barcelona manager. He also said that the price depends on how long the player has left on his contract and said that things are in Barcelona's favour. 

Obviously, he has forgotten that Cesc has five years left on his contract and that Arsenal have said he is not for sale. It does show us though that no matter who is the next president of Barcelona the tactics won't change and they will be another tin pot dictator.

The shoddy journalism is proven when this article says that Cesc is 28-years old. He will be 28 when his contract ends in five years and if he leaves or not before that time it is ultimately up to Arsenal and the player and Barcelona can do nothing about that.

The BBC are reporting that Cesc is set to look for showdown talks with the boss, as he isn't particularly pleased with our refusal to do business with Barcelona. It's all pure idle speculation and nobody but the player and the club know the real truth of the situation.

Apparently, we have upped our offer for Laurent Koscielny and we are willing to throw in Traore and Coquelin as well. I know very little about the player but he is a centre back and we need a few of them quite urgently.

He plays in the French second division but a host of first division French clubs are supposedly after him as well. If we actually sign him it might give us fans a reason to visit the club site as otherwise it's not much more than a source of useless information at the moment.

Another player we are linked with is Loic Remy of Nice, and he's a player that has been mentioned many times before. He's a striker and I can't see us signing another striker as we are already overloaded in that area, especially as we now favour the 4-3-3 formation which leaves room for only one striker in the team.

I would prefer to see a tricky wide player who can make things happen coming in to the club than a striker.

The last player linked for today is described as the next Messi. He's 19-year old Guy Assullin of Barcelona and Israel. Apparently he's a highly rated wonderkid who's contract is up and he might be available on a free transfer.

His reasons for leaving would seem to be that he wants to get a chance in the first team and he feels that he might get that chance at Arsenal.

I don't know what truth is in these rumours but it makes a pleasant change from the Cesc to Barcelona rumours. Obviously other clubs are after him but we are said to be the favourites as his chances of making a breakthrough at Arsenal are rated higher.

Cesc made his return from injury yesterday as he played for Spain in a 1-0 friendly win over South Korea. Carlos Vela scored the opening goal in a 2-1 win for Mexico over Italy in yet another pre World Cup friendly for the Mexicans. 

That's almost it for today except to say that I'm looking for players to sign up to my Fantasy World Cup competition and if we get 100 teams in it there will be a prize of sorts.  The link can be found here and the code to enter your team is 221858-52981. The players for each team can be chosen from today and this time next week the whole thing kicks off. 

Here's the highlights from Mexico's victory over Italy including Vela's goal.

See You Tomorrow.