Good morning sports fans!

And may I quantify that by stating that the only sport worth watching is an Arsenal related one. I, probably like you, have been watching the Olympics and choosing to watch some different types of sports that I normally don’t bother with. Basketball, handball, etc. But one interesting thing about some of these team games would’ve whenever the Spanish sides are playing. The club level sides are named after the football teams in Spain, so you have Real Madrid, Athletic Madrid and Barcelona all mentioned. That got me thinking: imagine how good it would be to have Arsenal across many sports? Granted, I probably still wouldn’t watch them very much, but at least it would give you a sense of affinity with some of the players.

Anyway, on to the REAL Arsenal, and Benik Afobe has joined Owen Coyle’s Bolton on a season long loan. It’s a good move for Bolton – looking to bring in a talented player to help them achieve promotion without paying big fees; it’s a good move for Benik – looking to get the requisite experience to improve enough that next season he’ll be banging on the door of the managers office for a place in the first team; and it’s a good move for Arsenal – we will either get a better player back that can challenge for the first team, or a player with more experience and a higher resale value. Although a loan is no guarantee of success – just look at Big Game Bendtner – a precedent has been set with Bolton through Wilshire and Miyachi, who I personally think will also go on loan for one more season.

Unfortunately that’s all I’ve got when it comes to actual ‘fresh’ Arsenal news. The rest is all just about the two players we seem to have spent most summer talking about. Apparently Cazorla had his medical, met the players and is now waiting for Malaga to sign off on the deal, except nobody at Malaga has the authority to do it. If you take off your red and white gooner specs for a second it is really sad to see that a club has fallen foul to the new style of running a football club i.e. take all the money whilst it’s there and ignore the potential risks and alarm bells of billionaire ownership. The only people really losing out in this scenario are the Malaga fans who, after a season of seeing the side qualify for the Champions League, are now watching possibly one of the best teams they’ve ever had be dismantled and sent to different parts of the globe. And as we watched Barcelona and Manchester City try to take the guts from our team, Malaga must feel the same about Arsenal – particularly if the fees quoted of around the £14million mark are to be believed.

The second rumour that is circulating the various media types is that RvP might be actually staying at Arsenal after all. Personally I am still sceptical: we had this in small doses at times last year with Nasri, but it just took the right price for it to happen so I’m not holding out much hope at this stage. All we do know is that RvP set his stall out early, playing his ‘come and get me card’ and now we see that the card itself is a little manky looking and doesn’t seem to appeal to some of the clubs sniffing around who don’t want to pay upwards of £20million for an injury prone 29 year old. Fair enough I guess, but I still think we’ll get a bid come in, probably closer towards the start of the season.

What we also know is that Robin wanted to leave for trophies and success and he didn’t agree the direction the club is going in. I would suggest the ‘direction’ of the club was based on big name experienced signings. I would therefore suggest that this box is ‘ticked’ on the RvP requirements list. Unless Arsene has a crystal ball and could guarantee trophies this year, then that box can only be half ‘ticked’ – better players and a better squad will give us a better chance of getting hold of some silverware. There’s also a non public box in a shaded grey colour that is on his list: money, money, money. Again, Arsenal can only half ‘tick’ this box – he’ll be earning a fortune at Arsenal, but a bigger one at City, which is where I still think he’ll end up. They will pay what Arsenal want, the other clubs won’t, and we’ll have to endure watching him in the sky blue of Manchester next year I fear.

Anyway, must get up, the management requires chores to be completed. Laters alligators.