A quiet Bank Holiday so far for Arsenal. The main news around the Club concerns the late-night antics of our finest youngster. Jack Wilshere was arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning following a "fracas" (that's a fight to you and me) at London night-club. The Sun decides to make some front page headlines from this story, but finishes the story on the cover with the following line "is unlikely to face any charges" - so why, exactly, is this front page stuff? It appears, according to the police, that Jack was trying to be a peace-maker in the confrontation, though this doesn't explain why he would have been arrested. Whatever the story is, and we will probably never hear the facts, Jack is a very silly young man to put himself in this position. I accept that he is 18, and things like this happen everywhere. The difference is that Jack Wilshere is not an ordinary teenager but, in fact, is the most exciting English footballer to appear since Wayne Rooney. He needs to work out very quickly that he can not be going out and about until all hours because he is famous, and someone, somewhere will always be looking for a story on him. Hopefully this arrest will be enough to scare him in to thinking carefully about his status as a footballer for Arsenal, and for England.
If you haven't yet seen it you must log in to youtube and search for "Harry Redknapp NOT a wheeler dealer." Following Saturday's defeat at home to Wigan Twitchy told Sky's Rob Palmer to "f*** off" when he was called a "wheeler-dealer" by the reporter. This really should have been major news - "Premiership Manager swears at reporter" - but because it was rent-a-quote-Redknapp no paper/TV station is going to report it. They want Harry to keep the soundbites coming so the last thing they will do is make him look a (bigger) twat. You might remember Arsene Wenger getting panned for using the f-word during a pre-match press-conference last season. Double standards in the English press? Surely not?
Twenty-four hours to go until we know for certain where we stand with our squad until January. I think everyone will agree that it really can't come soon enough. Sky Sports News have just announced that Shay Given has been permitted to leave the Ireland squad to tie up a deal. I get the feeling that this deal will have some sort of Arsenal involvement - the unlikely outcome being his arrival at the Club, the more likely being his arrival at Fulham - thus facilitating Schwarzer's move to Arsenal. We will see, but I am fairly sure Wenger will be making at least one addition before 6pm tomorrow evening. I would dearly like a defensive-midfield player to partner Song, as well as a goalkeeper, but I am not sure that will happen.
Finally today a departure from the football. I am not surprised in the slightest that Pakistan cricketers appear to have been caught match-fixing. Just how far the dodgy behaviour goes is anybody's guess. Anyone that knows me from a cricket background will know my views on the Pakistan cricket team - I have suspected them of throwing games etc for a long, long time - not least this Summer. I could go on but this is supposed to be a football blog, so I'll leave it at that.
If we make a signing before lunch tomorrow then I will post something here. Unfortunately I am at work tomorrow afternoon/evening so I will miss Sky Sports News countdown to the transfer window closing time at 6pm. I daresay that, if I miss something, I will pick it up when I get home.
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