In Portugal at the moment, so yesterday was spent travelling to a place of sunnier climes than my normal London base. Wrote this yesterday and am only now getting the chance to post today, but I still think a lot of what I said is relevant, hence re-posting now. Catch y’all tomorrow with another round of random musings…

So here I am, sat on a plane, on a Thursday, with only my thoughts to keep me company. The Management is fast asleep next to me and inevitably, my thoughts turn to The Arsenal. Specifically, yesterday’s transfer deadline day.

I’ve got to say, I’m a little surprised with the number of Gooners who, for some reason unbeknownst to me thought there would be some kind of action at the club. I know we’ve had a deadline day tale or two to tell over the years, but surely deep down, everybody knew our business was done – right?

I mean, Perez and Mustafa on 30th wasn’t exactly a small chunk of change and, whilst I’d have loved to see some kind of ‘madness’ take place like a Drzler or something like that, don’t we all think that it was a little too much to ask? Arsene had spunked £47million the day before, he was probably sitting at home in a bathtub full of ice!!

The window is now shut, our business is done for this summer and I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that we can finally just focus 100% on the football. Well, you’d think that, but what with it being an international week, it’s all about to slow right down.

Mesut played and scored yesterday and after Mustafa had been announced on 30th August, he had some nice things to say about his new team mate. A team mate who by all accounts played in the game yesterday too and, as is the fate of any Arsenal player, had the obligatory ‘go down in pain on international duty’. Apparently he’s ok though so at least that’s something. Quickly, somebody chunk him in a padded room surrounded by cotton wool and clouds and teddy bears with no sharp bits. We can do without another central defender being injured!

I guess it doesn’t matter too much though, because he’s going to have to win his place back from the excellent Rob Holding, who will get a bit more time to get to know his non-international teammates over the next week. He’ll certainly get to know Debuchy, because he ain’t on no international leave, that’s for sure. I had a little flick on to Sky Sports News yesterday just before the window shut and the guy at the Emirates reporting, had just a few sentences on the Frenchman, which included the phrase “wants to fight for his place”. Naturally I switched straight off after that. Debuchy, a guy who couldn’t possibly stay at the club and act as support for Bellerin in January, is suddenly having a desire to become a fight? Na, not buying it, I’m afraid. He’ll have stuck around because no club can afford his big wages and he doesn’t just want to go somewhere to play football. Forget the fact he’s a millionaire already, you can, apparently, never have enough reddies.

If you read my stuff regularly, you’ll know I had some sympathy for Debuchy, but now that the window has shut and he’s staying put, I’m of a mind to think that it seems a similar case to Arshavin or Bendtner. Bendtner simply refused to move because of the money he was on, so was happy to stick around at Arsenal to keep the cash rolling in. If Debuchy wanted to play, he’d have probably have halved his wage demands – just to the odd £40k-per-week – to ensure he could get regular game time, but he didn’t fancy it and so now stays as back up to Bellerin.

I guess from our side it makes sense to have an experienced deputy, so in right back we’re pretty well stocked now. I do wonder what happens when Jenkinson comes back. Something to ponder as we go deep in to the season.

What I didn’t see yesterday, was the Wilshere loan move to Bournemouth, which just seems bizarre to me. I get that he wants game time and I get that Bournemouth will have guaranteed that, but as I said on Wednesday’s blog, Arsene loves him and I think if he’d have stayed he’ll have forced his way in. Arsene had already used him as a sub in two of the three games.

But it’s done now, and I guess it at least gives us some incentive to give Bournemouth a cheer throughout the season. Good luck to Jack and hopefully he gets 30 to 40 games under his belt and comes back a better player.

Right, that’s it from me, I’m off to enjoy me hols in the sunny Algarve. Have a good’un.