My goodness it’s been cold in Brisbane today. It’s normally the type of weather I enjoy given the ridiculous amount of sunshine and heat we usually get, but today has been a struggle. Just thought you should know. I’ll move on now to more important matters then, shall I? 

I’ll start things off with want-away midfielder Alex Hleb. There has been a very predictable backwards shuffle in the media today with regards to the comments made by Hleb that I included in yesterday’s post. Indeed, the man himself found time to update his personal website with the following message relating to his apparent slating of both Arsene Wenger and Cesc Fabregas:

“The statements in the papers are definitely not my statements. I would never ever say something disrespectful about [Wenger or Fabregas]. And there is a simple reason for this: Cesc is a very good friend of mine and Arsene is one of the persons I respect most.”

I’m happy to see that, as I requested, readers of this blog did take it pretty easy on Hleb yesterday because this was ALWAYS going to happen. Case closed, no more to be said. Except that the English media are a pack of idiots - but I’m sure you knew that already.

In other news, according to AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani (how much more are we going to hear from this chap over the break?) Arsenal changed their stance on selling Emmanuel Adebayor and are now open to offers for the Togolese striker. Galliano had this to say on Italian show Antenna 3:

‘I will reveal to you a scoop. I have received a letter from Arsenal that says, ‘Following our communication of June 13, in which we informed you we were not willing to deal over Adebayor, now we are writing to tell you that we will consider a deal if it still interests you. If Adebayor decides to leave Arsenal, we are certainly interested.”

Although it would appear like an official change of stance from Arsenal and Wenger in particular, it’s really nothing we didn’t already know. We found out last week that the club value Adebayor at around £30million and if any club - be it Barcelona, Milan or West Bromwich Albion - want to pay that price then Arsenal would be open to negotiations.

Thoughts on Adebayor

As it is, we also already know that AC Milan do not have that amount of money, so Galliano’s comments are something of a moot point unless they up their offer. I personally doubt they will do so, which means that the ball is very much in Barcelona’s court. Should they fail to match Arsenal’s asking price then Adebayor will likely remain at the club.

Although I was as outraged as everyone with his head-in-the-clouds comments a week or so ago I have to admit that if I had a preference, I would like to see Adebayor stay. But only on one condition; that he absolutely wants to. And unfortunately, at this stage, it’s quite clear that he has no idea what he wants. Apart from more money, of course.

I think Adebayor has the potential to achieve a long and successful career at Arsenal - but he needs to get his head sorted out quickly if he wants to keep the respect of the fans. Otherwise, I would be happy for Arsenal to sell off Adebayor for the price they are quoting. After all, few could argue that it’s very, very good money given he was purchased for only a tenth of that price two years ago.

The final news of the day is the rather tenuous suggestion from Sky Sports that - because no-one has made a bid for Sporting Lisbon’s Miguel Veloso - Arsenal are ready to launch a bit for the player. The link is made even more fragile by the fact that Sporting apparently value the player at around £23.8million, almost double what was paid for Sylvain Wiltord, Arsenal’s record signing, all those years ago.

If they seriously think Wenger and Arsenal are going to splash that sort of money on an unproven youngster from Sporting Lisbon then they are gravely mistaken. After all, when’s the last time a young player from Portugal ever made an impact in the Premiership?

Oh… right. Bother. Did I mention it’s cold today? Bah. Good riddance.

What do you think?

Have your say on Hleb, Adebayor and Veloso by leaving a comment.