There was me thinking the bitter transfer feud between Arsenal and the Russians had finally ended. Then along came last night’s astonishing press release.

In all honesty, I can’t remember anything like it ever having been released by a club before – it’s staggering in its viciousness and vitriol. And as Arseblogger says (amongst many other wise points in his entry this morning), unless the accusations can be proved beyond doubt, it’s also incredibly slanderous.

I’m not trying to defend our new signing at all – perhaps his methods for securing his release were below the belt, to say the least. But should not what was said in private remain just that? And besides – he wouldn’t be the first footballer to have engineered a move away in controversial circumstances, now would he, Mr Cole?

The trouble for Chelski is that, even if everything they say is absolutely true – and I’m sure it’s not a pure fabrication, I’ll give them that much – the way they’ve released this doesn’t help them one bit. It feels on the one hand that they are trying to destabilise Gallas, and by proxy, Arsenal. And on the other hand, it smacks of bitter, sour grapes.