Maroane Chamakh is still deciding his future and could even go to sunderland he told a french newspaper: ”I have good contacts from clubs and the possibility to join a Premier League club,” “Sunderland is a big club and the fanbase is almost as big as anything. “I will take my time because there is some very interesting interest and I have to make the best choice.”

The player he could be replacing Emmanuel Adebayor is very close to signing for Manchester City after traveling to Manchester for a hearing yesterday and having a Work Permit request granted earlier today,  The move looks to be ever closer with a fee of £25m plus add-ons likely to be agreed in the next few days, i wouldn’t be suprised if he signed for City by the end of tommorow, and then hopefully we can get on with the rest of our summer signings.

ky sports news are reporting that Manchester City are in talks with Arsenal over a possible signing of striker Emanuel Adebayor They say

”It is understood talks between affluent club City and their Premier League rivals Arsenal over a possible deal have begun.”

There is no concrete evidence yet (as neither club would comment on the deal)  but i will keep you updated on any progress i’m sure this story will have a few twists and turns over the next couple of weeks, but City are in the market for a striker and definately have enough money to afford Adebayor so it is possible.

If this deal does go through it will mean we will more than likely step up our interest in Marouane Chamakh.

Elsewhere the rumours regarding Blaise Matuidi seem to be gathering pace but again there is no evidence to suggest that we will sign him, Arsenal target Gokhan Inler says he is happy at Udinese. Brazilian Felipe Melo looks set to join Juventus after Juve’ winger Marco Marchionni has agreed a switch to Fiorentina so that deal looks likely to be completed in the next couple of days, but with Adebayor going we will have more funds available and could afford a bigger bid for Inler or Veloso instead of Melo.

Finally Arsenal’s Thomas Rosicky looks set to return this auttumn he said

“I think I will be back in the autumn,”

“According to my fitness coach Tony Colbert I could have been playing at the end of  last season as he thought my fitness was okay.

“I think it was obvious from the training that I was ready to play, if not for 90 minutes.

“But the club decided not to play me. They saw that I was okay, but maybe they just did not want to take the gamble.

“Until I play in a league match I will not be able to tell what my chances are, but when it comes to fitness alone I am in better shape than when I came to Arsenal.”

He also believes he can get back into the first team an admits that he will be like a new signing for the club;

“I am missing the competition,” he added.

“Playing along Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott makes you feel comfortable and I think that I will quickly forget that I have been out for a while.

“Now that I have recovered, I am a new option for the manager. We have a strong team capable of moving mountains in all competitions.”

Just a short one; Sky sports news are now reporting that Juventus’ deal for Melo is off after Fiorentina failed to meet Marco Marchionni’s wage demands:

“Unfortunately, nothing will be done,” Carpeggiani told Gazzetta.it.

“We only asked for €200,000 (£173,000) more than the amount Marco earns at Juventus, but Fiorentina wouldn’t agree. It’s a pity.”

hopefully more tommorow but this is definately good news.

Robin Van Persie has signed a new ‘long term’ deal with the club rumoured to be until 2014 the Van Persie told the official Arsenal website;

“I’m so happy to have signed a new long term contract. I’ve been at the Club for five years now and there really is a great feeling here at Arsenal. We have a top class manager, a squad full of superb young players, a world class stadium and brilliant supporters. Arsenal Football Club has a very bright future and I want to be part of it.

“My heart is with Arsenal and I just can’t picture myself in a different shirt. I just can’t see it now because I love this Club so much. If you look at the last five years, look at the steps I have made every season, if you look at the support the Boss and the whole Club gave me, the fans gave me, my team mates gave me – this is the right decision.”

Well that’s good news, all our main players are on long-term contracts, so now we can focus on one or two additions to the squad and have a good season.

Elsewhere Sky sports news have reported that Arsene Wenger still wants to sign Melo with them saying that ‘Eboue is a valid swap’

” Wenger wants to talk to me,” said Fiorentina sporting director Pantaleo Corvino to Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I have no objection also because Eboue seems a valid swap.”

and they also denied that melo has nerly completed a deal to join Juventus saying:

“In order for that (Melo to go to Juve) to happen, there needs to be a payment of €25million as stipulated in his release clause,”

“No club has made such an offer and there are no meetings arranged in the near future.

And finally reported Arsenal target Brede Hangeland would like to stay at fulham;

“I’m very happy at Fulham and would like a new contract, but then we must agree on something that both parties can be satisfied with,” he told TV 2 Sporten.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger wanted Karim Benzema but will now turn his attention to morroco forward Chamakh if Adebayor leaves this summer he was asked about Chamakh and he replied;

‘Yes, but only in the event of a departure. There is one who interested me, but he left for Real Madrid.’

‘I did not make an approach because i would never have thought that lyon would sell this year’

Now i’m sorry but i think this is a mistake nearly as big as last summer when we waited until the last minutes of the transfer window to sign Alonso, he could have even enquired about a first-rejection contract where if lyon are to sell Benzema we would have first choice. Oh well we will have to hope that Chamakh is as good as Wenger thinks he is. I must admit i havn’t seen a lot of him but he seems skillful and is apparently very dangerous in the air.

The most un-original and boring transfer rumour of the summer looks set to run on into the new season as once again cesc Fabregas is linked  with Barcelona, i don’t knjow how many times the poor guy has to come out and say ‘i’m staying at Arsenal’ before the media and even some of the ‘Arsenal blogs’ get off his back. One day he will go to Barcelona but that is not for a long time yet. Laporta once again opened his big mouth saying:

“Cesc Fabregas has the Barcelona DNA in his body and we know that he wants to play for this club,”

“At the moment he is the leader at Arsenal and a very important player for them. But Cesc is wanted by me, by the coach Pep Guardiola and by the sport director Txiki Begiristain.

“We are concentrating all of our efforts on it, but at the same time we have a lot of respect for Arsenal.

“We have positive relations with Arsenal so it will not be an easy topic to talk to them about.”

In other news; Kieran Gibbs has signed a new long-term deal with the club, which after last season i think he deserves he looks like he could be a great player for Arsenal and England in years to come. Also unconfirmed reports this morning suggest that Robin Van Persie has signed a new deal keeping him at the club until 2014 which would be great news if it is true.

Finally what is Fergie thinking?  If  Michael Owen is the best he can get, we may aswell not sign anyone else. Haha back tommorow.

Arsenal Chief executive Ivan Gazidids has had his say on the concept of salary cap’s in english football he told the guardian:

“I think it is worth our while to investigate whether there are elements of the salary cap system, which they have in US NFL and baseball (sic), which would benefit football,”

“Clubs have a duty to provide more stability in our business models and some form of wage restraint is one element worth looking at.”There are many ways in which it could work.”

Not a lot going on in the way of Transfers this morning but apparently we’re in the chase for another defender: Naldo of Werder Bremen the club said;

‘We expect to move him for somewhere in the region of €10 million, and English side Arsenal is as of now the most likely destination’

That’s it for today apart from some rubbish about Adebayor which i’m not going to report because it mentions him ’staying’ at Arsenal and i do not want to accept that.

Arsenal target Felipe Melo has signed a new 1 year contract extension with current club Fiorentina, this could mean one of two things;

1. He intends to stay at Fiorentina, or
2. They are trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of the deal

The official statement:

“Fiorentina announces that its sporting director Pantaleo Corvino met in Milan with Felipe Melo’s agent and an agreement was reached to extend the player’s contract until 2013 with a buy-out clause also included,” read a statement from the club. Now i don’t know exactly what this means as far as Melo coming to Arsenal is concerned but i know that he is the ‘high priority’ signing in Wenger’s plans but if he can’t get him i’m sure he has one or two alternatives in mind.

We have also been linked with Stuttgart’s Serdar Tasci He says;

“I have the ambition to move clubs one day, but the time and circumstances have to be right for me,” he told spox.com.

“I have to admit I’m flattered that clubs like Arsenal, AC Milan and Juventus have had their eye on me in the past.

“But I’m not getting carried away with this. I’m focused on Stuttgart and looking to return to action following my knee injury.”

Tasci is  also looking ahead to the champions league qualifiers where ofcourse he could play against Arsenal for stuttgart.

He said: “I’d love to play in the Champions League this season. We’ll have to show up in qualifying of course, but I don’t mind who we play.

“We want to advance to the group stages. We might be paired with Arsenal, but we can beat them as well.”

The german media has recently reported that Arsenal have opened negotiations with stuttgart but we’ll see hopefully the next couple of weeks will see some new additions to the squad.

William Gallas could still be at Arsenal next season after stating that he is happy at Arsenal and intends to see out his contract Gallas told skysports.com: “I am at Arsenal, my contract is still valid for a year, so I am an Arsenal player.

“We have not talked about renewing the contract, but I am relaxed and looking forward to next season with Arsenal.”

Former Arsenal midfielder Gilberto Silva says that he has encouraged Arsenal target Felipe Melo to ‘go without thinking’

”We heard rumours and he asked me. I said it’s a fantastic club and if he’s interested he should go without thinking.”

”I’m sure if they got him it would be a good signing. I have told him Arsenal is a great club and I am sure next season they will improve. He is exactly what they need – a powerful player with quality”.

”I am sure he has a lot more to grow as well. He is a young player, strong, powerful and has a good quality in his pass.”

Thank you Gilberto, even after the way the manager treated him in his last season, which was unfair after all he did for the club, he is still a true gentleman and proffessional. This story is really starting to gather pace and i think we will be seeing Melo at arsenal in the very near future, i know for a fact that he is Wenger’s number 1 target, so fingers crossed we get him.

After signing Vermaelen last week wenger is still on the liik-out for more players to ‘knit’ his squad togethre and i think two signings could transform our team from a good team into a title chasing team next season,
The loss of  Hleb and Flamini last season had a damaging effect on the team in the early season, Fabregas certainly seemed to struggle without his fellow midfielders, so maybe one signing in the centre of midfield and a striker and we can take the title to the emirates for the first time.

After signing  Arshavin which in effect  kicked our Premier League season into life (he pretty much carried us in some of our games), a lot of the Arsenal fans are expecting Wenger to make a few more ‘big name’ signings in order for us to make a challenge for silverware next season, but i doubt he will, i think he will more than likely add a couple of very good players who he will bring in under the radar e.g a Sagna or An Eduardo.

“We lost Hleb and Flamini last summer and we have had to rebuild. But we have done that now and the future looks bright,”

“We don’t want to have to rebuild again so I want to keep all the players together for next season. I don’t want to lose anyone.

“I want to add to the squad and I have identified one or two targets. But identifying players and buying them are two different things.

“Ideally I would like to bring everybody in before we start back in pre-season training in July. I don’t want to leave it until the end of August.

“We are at a stage were we need to convince people that this team does a lot of things right. It does not need to be transformed.

“When you go on a long unbeaten run in the Premier League and reach two semi-finals, common sense should tell you that.

“We have to take encouragement from what we have done in the season just gone.

Arsenal spent much of last season outside of the top four places as Everton and Aston Villa threatened to break  into the top four.

In the end though Arsenal secured fourth spot comfortably after a long unbeaten league run and Le Boss believes his team will be less predictable next term.

“Next season we will play the formation and system that most suits the players and the balance of the team,” he said.

“That means it’s not rigid. It can evolve throughout the season, depending on circumstances and personnel.

“If you play with Theo Walcott for example, you are more tempted to go for three midfielders because Theo is more of a forward than a midfielder in a 4-4-2.”