So what’s going to happen this week? Well, given the experience of the last month, not a whole lot. Wenger, as we know, is working out in Austria and Switzerland (he has got his eye open for a deal he tells us – though I’m not sure how flexible the Uefa rules are about domestic managers with chequebooks and fountain pens pouncing on players on national duty).
We may hear more on Hleb’s future via one of his myriad representatives, and we may hear news of Adebayor and his money requirements. The fact has obviously escaped him that he signed a new deal about six months ago. (If only it were that simple – I suspect something will give, one way or another). And we may hear van Persie adding his tupp’orth about the Arsenal wage structure/keeping the squad together – that’s if he can fit it in between training ground spats.
Is any of this worth worrying about? No – because at this stage it’s all just talk. This summer has seen full of the stuff – small snippets of info being changed, expanded, shrunk, exaggerated.
Who knows what the hell’s really going on.
One further thing: £200k a week after tax for Ronaldinho to Man City. Sound business or even further proof that salaries have got way out of control? How can we reign the players’ demands in?