It’s Friday, the Euro’s start this evening and I must confess, I’m a little excited about it. Perhaps it’s because it adds some what of a carnival festival to the summer, or perhaps it’s simply that there is some sort of football to talk about, but I think I’m actually going to enjoy international football for a bit.

Tonight there’s an Arsenal representation in the form of Giroud and Koscielny and I for one hole Giroud gets off to a flyer. If he does, it’s ‘win-win’ for everybody. Except the Romanians, of course. A goal or two tonight will be a massive boost for his confidence and I think a good tournament for him would be brilliant for Arsenal. Look, we know that Arsène is in the market for a striker, but having one already at the club who is on form can only be a good thing, no? It creates more competition and means whoever comes in doesn’t become first choice by virtue of being the ‘least sh*t’. It means they have to work for the jersey and to me that’s perfect.

Koscielny will also be playing tonight, but I don’t really need to wish him a good game, because we all know he’s 99% sure to have one. He’s a great centre half who Arsène described yesterday as one of the best interceptors of the ball in the world. It’s hard to argue with that, but mainly in the literal sense, because I don’t have much of a frame of reference outside of the Premier League. But I do know that Lolo has been one of our most consistent performers of the last three to four seasons and we all feel a little bit more safer when he’s in the team.

I’m also looking forward to seeing Switzerland tomorrow, to see how Xhaka gets on, which is one of the best things about international tournaments. New signings get to be over-analysed before you’ve even seen them run around in an Arsenal shirt. The same can be said about Vardy, who I am fully putting two and two together on with the news that Leicester are after Troy Deeney with – funnily enough – a bid of around £20million. Aside from the fact that Watford have rejected a bonkers offer, it shows that Leicester are doing exactly what we did before That Dutch Bloke left us. The club knew they had to offload him and yet kept it quiet, waiting until they could get the Giroud deal over the line, knowing that they needed a replacement bedded in before letting the Dutch Skunk go. 

I remember in that summer there were plenty of us who thought that there was an outside chance that Giroud was signed to compliment Him, but deep down we all knew that he was off, so at least the Giroud signing softened the blow. It was a downgrade, but better a downgrade than nothing at all.

It’s the same with Deeney. He would be a downgrade, but Leicester are at least looking to act quickly to temper fan sadness, despite what the club might say. Leicester might argue that the Deeney transfer has no bearing on what happens with Vardy, but you don’t spend £20million on a squad player, not if you are a club the size of Leicester. So whilst the last week has all been about the probability that Vardy wants to stay at Leicester, this move by his employers suggests that they know the score, and as such are taking appropriate action. I actually think the Deeney deal won’t happen now. Not if Watford are rejecting £20million. Leicester would be crazy to go back in for him. Let Watford keep him, then let Leicester look for other options which if the world finds out about, it becomes more likely that Vardy has already told Arsenal and Leicester what he wants.

Who knows – if they secure a deal for a player within the next week or two, we might get an answer sooner than the expect England quarter final inevitable exit! Roy has told the England players that there can be no agents distracting players during the competition, nor flights somewhere to complete any transfers, but Vardy doesn’t need to go anywhere to complete a medical so I don’t think that would be an issue. 

Only time will tell but in classic football fan style, I’m impatient and just want closure on this now, so I’m hoping that we get some better indications as to what’s going on within the next week or two. In the mean time, at least we have plenty of football to sink our teeth in to, so that should at least keep us all occupied. 

And on that note I’ll say cheery-bye to you all. 

Laters.