Is any of the dead wood going to leave? Spurs new stadium bid again

Rosicky stays - "oh for fu..."

Amid all the talk of Nasri and Clichy and Fabregas possibly leaving Arsenal it seems that we have been overlooking those players we would actually be content to lose for next to nothing. Unfortunately it seems that every other club in Europe is also overlooking them. This past week we have heard a bit more about three of them - Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson and Tomas Rosicky.
We'll start with Bendtner. Despite his father/agent doing his best to offer him to every side in Germany there have been no takers. This week it was claimed, in The Sun, that any deal for Gary Cahill may have taken a setback as Bolton weren't interested in taking the Dane as a make-weight in any agreement. If you consider that Nicklas Bendtner is on £52000 per week it is probably not too much of a surprise. He's the sort of player that would do well at a side like Bolton - with Lee planting crosses on to his forehead Bendtner would get plenty of goals and would be an ideal (and better) replacement for Elmander. However, if a team won't pay the wages he is on (or even get near to those wages) why should he go anywhere? This is a problem for us as, while he continues to be a passenger in the Arsenal squad, we have to foot the bill - and this prevents the acquisition of other players.
Denilson's agent, meanwhile, has made it clear that AC Milan are not interested in signing him. It seems that they are not the only ones. Consequently the modern-day Ray Wilkins is returning to Arsenal for pre-season training this week. Again, Denilson is on a higher than average weekly wage for a player of such average ability. Can you see a pattern developing here?
The final denouement was added by the news that Tomas Rosicky is also going nowhere and that Arsene Wenger has told him he continues to be part of his plans. What sort of wage do you reckon Tomas might be on? Given that he was given a new contract despite missing more than a year through "injury" I suspect it is a very healthy one. 
The point is that Arsenal are paying these guys so much money that they have become nigh on impossible to sell. From their point of view they have no desire to move somewhere and get paid less - particularly not a veteran like Rosicky. Make no mistake we have a problem of Wenger's making - he decided to pay these guys based on potential, rather than achievement. As a result they now sit in an artificial comfort-zone from which they would be mad to escape voluntarily. Frankly, I could cry, such is the state we have got ourselves in to.


I heard this morning on Sky that Tottenham have resurrected their plans for the swamp and their attempts to make it open to 60,000 neanderthal-like knuckle-draggers. I have to say that I paid very little attention to the news item but I did notice one bit that stood out. The news-reader said that Spurs would be looking for "public-funding" to assist with the plans. What? Public money to develop Shite Hart Lane? In a recession? With thousands of public servants being put out of work and having their pensions slashed? A multi-million pound private enterprise wants tax-payers money to fund some new stands? If that happens then there should be some kind of national protest, shouldn't there? After all, this is the Club that pays Tom Huddelstone thousands of pounds every week to masquerade as a professional athlete - that puts paying Bendtner £52000 in the shade in my opinion. Public money? Not a scooby.


I'll leave you now and await the inevitable backlash from the newsnow Spurs feed (I'll be disappointed if I don't get any abuse whatsoever). More on Monday.