I have to say, it always makes me laugh when it happens.

Every summer, we get linked to established names of European football and every summer, Wenger just looks elsewhere. Who expected Sagna last summer and who, for that matter, expected Diaby, Walcott and Adebayor in January 2006? The list is endless, but when we are all looking one way, Le Boss is peering in a different direction.

Now, I don’t want to appear to be jumping the gun, because lord knows the gun’s gone off enough times already this summer, but who expected names like Ramsey, Nasri and Bischoff to be linked to us? Nasri has been bubbling along all summer (Has Ben Arfa’s move to Marseille been the stumbling block? – well now it’s been agreed) and the noises coming out of Bischoff – if indeed that is the correct phrase – are interesting. He might be bluffing his arse off, of course, but the fact he is young, half French and half Portuguese, and playing in Germany marks him down as just the kind of footballing itinerant Wenger is the master of snaffling up. Is he any good though? Anyone remember Alberto Mendez-Rodrigues?

It might not seem like it, but even with just one incoming player confirmed we’re already ahead of the pack – Euro 2008 has delayed the majority of transfer flurries thus far.

Right, I must dash. I’m off to rattle collection tins for Emmanuel Adebayor – the man who is wanting for nothing except some tips on good PR, a decent agent and of course, an extra £80k a week.