Arsenal Miss Out on Three Targets and Cesc Fabregas Returns To the Club

It's nose to the grindstone time for me again this morning as things start to get seriously busy in work but fear not dear readers I will still attempt to keep you up to date on all things Arsenal from my perspective.

First of all today there's the news that a few of our supposed transfer targets have been told by their clubs that they are going nowhere. At various times this summer we have been linked with Mertesacker, Schwarzer and Frey but according to their clubs none of those players are going anywhere. If that's the decision of their clubs then all we can do is respect their decisions and move on to other possible targets.

Personally I was hoping that Mertesacker would join us but it would seem that our options at centre back are decreasing by the day. The media are mentioning all the same names again after our failure to capture Mertesacker but I have my doubts about any of Jagielka, Cahill, Spahic or Vertonghen signing and I'm hoping the boss pulls a rabbit out of the hat very soon.

There are also reports that Rosicky is mulling over a move to Galatasaray and while I don't know whether it's true or not I would be surprised if we let him go. With Ramsey injured it would not make an awful lot of sense to let Rosicky leave unless the boss has another player lined up to replace him. We cannot continue to lose experienced players from the squad and expect the younger players to step up and take their place immediately. Wilshere has an awful lot of potential but if we put too much weight of expectation on his shoulders it might work against us.

Speaking of Wilshere, both he and Gibbs have been left out of the England under 21 squad for their game against Uzbekistan. It has led to speculation that both of them will be included in the senior squad  when it is announced along with Walcott. I know Walcott probably deserves another chance on the England team after missing out on their World Cup shambles but surely both Wilshere  and Gibbs need to cement a place in the Arsenal team before they should be picked for their country. I know England feel the need to change things after their World Cup failure but that's going from one extreme to the other if they are picked.

With Man City seemingly having bottomless pockets and a choice of two very good keepers we are being linked with a possible loan move for whichever of their keepers loses out in the race for the keepers jersey on their team. It has been reported that Hart is not prepared to sit on the bench as he feels it will harm his chances of playing for England and at Given's stage in his career I can't imagine that he would want to have splinters in his arse either. At the moment I would take either of them as they are both better than both Dropsy and Flappy in my opinion.

There was a lot of talk on Twitter yesterday about the boss cancelling a press conference and many reasons were muted. With the return of Cesc to the club there were rumours of showdown talks with our captain, there was talk of a transfer deal being finalised and of course it could well have been his convenient sore reappearing when he had plenty of other things to do. Personally I hope it's an incoming transfer that needs attention but I won't be holding my breath.

Plenty of players have been having their say on the club site on their hopes and expectations for the new season. If you're interested in what Vermaelen, Clichy, Chamakh and Frimpong have to say about our strikers, extra pressure on them (or not),  our defence and playing the Arsenal way then it's the place to go but to be honest it's the usual fare you expect from players at this time of the season.

The members day takes place at The Emirates today and 10,000 fans should be there to see the players train and take part in various activities to make the day pass pleasantly. I think the squad photo should be taken today as well as both Cesc and RVP will be there too. It would have been great if there were a few more new players to take part in that photo shoot but I'm sure the photo can be taken again on September 1 when the transfer window closes and we have completed all the deals that we need to complete.

Finally for today there's the small matter of my fantasy league and the fact that it now has over 200 teams in it which means that there will be trophies for the winner and the runner up. If you want to sign up the link is here and the code to join my league is 33954-12064 after you have set up a team. 

I'm running the league this season with a little help from 11Gunners and I'd like to thank them for their help in promoting my blog and the fantasy league too.

If you do sign up please take the time to join Captain Arsenal's league too as he has been a great help to me in promoting my blog on Twitter. The code to join his league is 13028-5211 and he would be delighted to welcome you to his league.

I'm also running a results prediction league on "I know the score" which is a part of the Fantasy Premier league site. Here's the link to sign up and make your predictions and the code to join my league is  FBE3B-ZGP if anybody would like to try their hand at it.

Here's a video showing some ups and downs for Arsenal.

See You Tomorrow.