When Will Barcelona Respect Arsenal's Wishes And Stay Away from Cesc Fabregas?

Good morning from a slightly chillier Dublin than of late. I thought I had to work today but thankfully I was mistaken and instead I can spend some more time painting my house. I'm sorry the blog is a little late but I'm working on my PC as my laptop died last night and I am not very hopeful of getting it fixed.

First things first, and despite there being absolutely no word on the official club site, the rumours are that Koscielny has signed and will wear the No. 6  jersey next season. We all know how notoriously slow the club site is to post news but it is the only source that can be relied on 100 percent to confirm arrivals or departures. I hope he has signed, but I will be waiting for that official confirmation.

The latest German player to be linked to us is Serdar Tasci of Stuttgart, who is a member of the German World Cup squad but hasn't played yet. He's a centre back and that's a good enough reason for him to be linked to us as we have so many players departing in that position and no official replacements yet.

With the World Cup semifinals tonight and tomorrow night we will hopefully get to see RVP and Cesc in action for their countries. RVP injured his arm in the victory over Brazil, but from what I've heard he looks set to feature for the Netherlands against Uruguay tonight.

Cesc hasn't started a game yet for Spain and he has only had limited time as a sub in the three games where he has come on, but he made a telling contribution against Paraguay when he did come on for the clearly unfit Torres.

Spain play a lot of very similar players in the centre of midfield and if they don't get their team selection right they might just pay the ultimate price tomorrow night. In my opinion, the correct choice is to play Cesc and he will make things happen, but it remains to be seen if their manager will stick with his tried and trusted selections.

Speaking of Cesc, there are also reports this morning that Barcelona's manager paid a visit to the Spanish squad to speak to his players and while he was there he had a chat with our captain.

He is believed to have told Cesc that Barcelona will do all they can to sign him from Arsenal this summer. It's impossible to tell if he actually met Cesc, but if he did it's just another chapter in the enormous saga in which Barcelona continually flout the rules and FIFA/UEFA do nothing about it. 

The story is in an English tabloid and they love to do all they can to unsettle players at English clubs, unlike the Spanish media, who almost act like an extension of certain clubs and do all they can to further their aims and interests. Short of having a recorded copy of a meeting between Cesc and Barcelona, there is no way that we can prove anything for sure and even Barcelona aren't stupid enough to allow that to happen.

However, they are stupid if they think they will further their aims by illegally approaching our captain, who has a five-year contract at the club. Arsene Wenger is a notoriously stubborn man and he will only use these approaches as further reason to insist on Cesc staying.

Barcelona think we are playing mind games to increase the price, but they really don't get the fact that Cesc is not for sale. In their arrogance they don't even consider that a team or a player would turn them down—such is their high opinion of themselves.

Last week there were rumours linking Ozil of Germany to Barcelona and today it's supposedly Bayern Munich and Dutch international Arjen Robben that they want if they fail in their bid to land Cesc. These are ploys on their part to try to make Arsenal realise that we might miss out on their lovely money, but we care not about them as he is not for sale at any price.

They made have made money from the sale of players but they still have a huge debt and the Spanish economy is up the creek without a paddle. Arsenal's financial model is the envy of most clubs and as long as we continue to act within it we will continue to grow in strength.

Speaking of our financial model, we all know that it allows for quite a deal of money to be spent this summer and the boss hasn't spent a penny of it yet. I'm sure that the Koscielny deal will go through and that others will follow, but the fans are getting very impatient. The team were not good enough last season and we need to see an improvement in certain areas of the team that the boss is fully aware of.

I have wanted the club to get rid of Almunia for a few years now as I have always said he's not good enough to play at the very top level and that is where we want to play. I thought that Portuguese goalkeeper would be a good purchase and at €4 million he would have been a steal, but it appears that he was offered to us by Braga last week but he seems destined to join an Italian club.

This can only mean that the boss has a new goalkeeper lined up elsewhere as he has got two eyes like the rest of us. I don't like to be overly negative, but in my opinion we cannot win the league with Almunia or Fabianski as our first choice goalkeeper.

Finally for today, there are rumours that Bendtner will miss the start of the season due to injury. I know he was doubtful for all three of Denmark's World Cup games, but he played anyway and I would imagine that Arsenal will now pay the price for that.

To be honest, I don't see him getting a place in our strongest team no matter how good he thinks he is himself, but it's worrying that the injury situation is rearing its ugly head again before the players even return for preseason training. That's it for today.

Here's a few goals from Charlie Nicholas in his prime.

See You Tomorrow.