Morning people! How’s the extended weekend treating you? Good I hope, the weather has been pretty damn fine.

Onto football news, Arsene Wenger has been talking on French TV about how much he likes Grenier of Lyon. The attacking midfielder is on his radar apparently. To fuel the fire that little bit more, we also have one of our explayers managing that club… I’m not sure how that fuels the fire, but I just pretended it did to keep you interested.

Now, for me, the only attacking midfielder we should be tracking this summer is Cesc Fabregas. He’d be the re-sign of the century. There are rumours United are going hard for him, if that’s the case, there’s no reason we can’t be in for him. We can afford his fee and wages… and how could we not be in for super, super talent like him?

In German news, Podolski has confirmed his summer intentions lay with us.

“I feel very comfortable and I am completely satisfied with my first year in England. I have no intention to leave the club. Rumours are rumours and I cannot stop them,”

He had an ok first season, but he certainly didn’t live up to his big name billing. He’s a bit in no mans land as a striker, not quite big enough or fast enough… plus, a little bit lazy. Still, he banged in some goals and he did some good work out wide.

The women brought back a trophy after dismantling Bristol 3-0 in the FA Cup final. Great work from them… Hopefully a bit of inspiration for the boys!

Right, as there’s no news out there today, that’s your lot.

Catch you tomorrow…

Morning everyone. I took things too far last night so this… as well as tomorrow’s post might be a bit of a write off. But what can I do? Nothing.

Ok, so most of the transfer tittle tattle this morning seems a touch laboured. The big news is that we’re apparently chasing down Paul Pogba of Juventus. The story links us off the back of the young Frenchman being racially abused. Then it goes on to say we’d have to spend £15m to land him. Now, I’m not an expert on player valuation, but I’m pretty sure £15m is a low price for a 20 year old France international. Not really feeling the vibe on that story.

The Mirror also ran with a story about Simon Mignolet. The Belgian stopper is rumoured to be on the managers shopping list and apparently we can snap him up for around £10m. He’s a very good keeper, mostly known for his great shot stopping. I haven’t watched him enough to be truly blown away by him… but the simple fact is he’s an improvement on what we have. I’d prefer Begovic… but that’s just me. It’s so hard buying a keeper from the lower reaches… because you’re not buying a shot stopper, you’re attempting to buy someone who can maintain concentration for 89 minutes then make a save that can win you the game. Richard Wright couldn’t handle that pressure. Nor could Ben Foster at United.

I didn’t watch the Champions League final last night, but I saw the Bayern won. Slightly disappointed as I’m a Dortmund fan… but there you go. There’s a superb article on The Times about Bayern written by Boris Becker… they are basically the club Gazidis wants us to be over here… minus the fan ownership. I guess the really telling part was based around the board set up… Becker, a board member for ten years lauded the club for taking world class sportsmen and turning them into smart businessmen. That’s something we don’t have at Arsenal. Zero player representation on the BoD…

Now, part of the issue here is there aren’t an abundance of smart explayers. I mean seriously… who can you think of who is ex Arsenal… that you’d let sort out your mortgage? I can’t think of anyone. Well, maybe some of the players from the invincible. Thierry is a smart guy… Paddy is a good guy, but I’ve not had the pleasure of listening to him speak at length. Outside that, there really are few people who could match what Munich have.

I guess the warming part of that story is that it’s all based on a sustainable model. The club has a family feel at heart… the key? They are ruthless when it comes to sourcing success. We’re not that club. If we are serious about being a force, we need to be. Hopefully, post Wenger, that can start to happen. 4th place should never be a point of celebration. Now the club are out of the woods financially, the goal posts of expectation need to be realigned.

Right, I’m pretty much finished here. Have yourself a great day and I’ll catch you tomorrow… late.