Been away for about five months, had some personal reasons but that’s all in the past now … back to the world of Arsenal!

So what have I missed? Season ended like shit, from almost there to being happy with securing third place. Some positives, some negatives,  but thats football.

Since then, we have added -

• Ramsey - undisclosed from Cardiff, expected to be around 5mil … Our new number 16
• Nasri - undisclosed from Olympique Marseille, expected to be around 11mil … Our new number 8
• Vela - back from a 2 year loan spell with Salamanca then Osasuna after being granted a working permit … Our new number 12

We have lost -

• Flamini - Free to Milan (best summer transfer according to goal.com)
• Lehmann - Free to Stuttgart
• Gilbert - on loan to Leicester

As of the time of writing this, these are the only official deals. According to the press, Hleb to Barcelona is a done deal and should be announced today, while Gilberto is off to Panathinaikos or Everton. Adebayor to Milan or Barcelona has been on and off on an hourly basis for the past month. I think it would be safe to assume that all three will be off eventually.

Personally I think that all 3 plus Flamini will be missed. Adebayor would be the most important of the 4 only because of his physical abilities, but at the prices that have been quoted around in the press, I wouldn’t mind seeing him go at all. I would see him as a 10-15 mil player at most, if these 20-30 prices are accurate, then it would be good business. He is a one season wonder as far as we know, he scored 24 goals in 36 games. Put in mind that people like James Beattie and Keving Phillips scored 23 and 30 in their prime, WITHOUT the services of people like Fabregas (19 assists, leads the league) and Hleb etc.

Gilberto has been a great servant to the club, and deserves all the best in whatever he does. Flamini was just as greedy as Adebayor, and in my opinion is another above average player but nothing special. Its just a shame we didnt make money off of his exit. Hleb is my personal favourite from the 4 who left, and I would have loved to see him stay one more year. He never fulfilled his undoubted potential to the fullest, but he was never considered a bad player, he is definitely special!

Whether the new arrivals can replace those who left is yet to be seen, and who else will be added is also not clear. We have been linked to about 80% of all players on earth, so its just guesswork for now and is useless.

One pleasant surprise has been the lack of constant speculation on Cesc’s future at the club! I thought that this will be the main problem, especially after his excellent performances during Spain’s winning Euro campaign. I am hoping he is smart enough to realize how he can become a god (Bergkamplike) at Arsenal if he stays long enough.