Well if this is the way the close season is shaping up to be it can be shoved somewhere damp.

Last season we polished off all our signings right at the beginning (Rosicky) and right at the end (Gallas), leaving a vast chasm in between during which some of us pretended to enjoy England stumble from one disaster to the next.

If the arrival of Fabianski is as done a deal as we are led to believe then le Boss seems to be following a similar pattern. In which case you can shut your internets down until late August. On the 31st, at about 11.45pm, it will be a transfer shindig.

Incidentally, how many of the players we have signed over the last five years or so have been labelled ‘highly rated’? If I was a cynic I’d say it’s a euphemism for young and cheap. I’m not a cynic of course, which means I fully expect the highly rated Fabianski to leap like a salmon between the sticks for the next ten years.

Do I need to remind anyone that 12 years ago today we lost in the Cup Winners Cup final? I remember it well; the faint whiff of tear gas, the non-existent stewarding, the surly robocops and, of course, a goal about six seconds before the penalty shootout that made spunky Dave look a bit of a fool.

Incidentally, the team that day was:
Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Linighan, Winterburn (Morrow, 47min), Parlour, Keown (Hillier, h-t), Schwarz, Merson, Wright, Hartson.

Looking back on it, the arrival of the two men in brackets can’t have helped.