Hello there - good to speak to you again. Yesterday’s post about Arsenal’s interest in Gareth Barry got some lovely feedback from the readers and I’m pretty sure today’s news will get something of a similar response.

I’ll start a little bit out in left field today with the news that AC Milan have confirmed they will complete the signing Ronaldinho today (Wednesday). Now, it might not seem like big news to Arsenal fans but I can assure you it is, as it probably means Emmanuel Adebayor will be staying at the club.

Less than a week ago Milan’s vice-president Adriano Galliani made the statement that his club would be signing either Ronaldinho or Adebayor. That they’ve chosen the former means their previous interest in Adebayor has now become meaningless and leaves Barcelona as the only club who are seriously interested in signing the Arsenal man. But with Barca set to fork out upwards of £15million for Alex Hleb and their manager Pep Guardiola claiming that he ‘has the squad he needs’ already at his disposal for next season it seems even their interest may be dwindling.

In my opinion this means that Adebayor’s chances of remaining at Arsenal for next season are as high as they’ve been at any stage during the summer break. There will be people that don’t agree, but I see this as very good news. As I said in a previous post, an Arsenal side with Adebayor in the starting team is better than a side without him, regardless of the ridiculous comments he made a couple of weeks ago.

While Adebayor might be staying the rumours are growing stronger that Gilberto Silva will be leaving Arsenal shortly to join up with Greek club Panathinaikos. According to reports in Greece the Brazilian midfielder is set to sign a huge £6million contract which will make him the highest earner in Greek football.

In all honesty I’m not too concerned about Gilberto leaving. While there’s no denying he’s been a wonderful servant of Arsenal during his time at the club the unfortunate reality is that he is now past his best. There was a distinct lack of dynamism in the midfield whenever he played last season and it is clear to me that if Arsenal are to achieve success this time around they need to have players in that role who can promote the sort of urgency that Mathieu Flamini provided last time around.

Whether that is Abou Diaby, Alex Song, Denilson or a new signing I’m not quite sure yet, but it would’ve been a big step backwards to have Gilberto starting in the middle next season. Gilberto knows it, Arsene Wenger knows it, and that’s why the Brazilian had to go.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave you with the first in what will be an ongoing feature on the blog - the Wednesday Poll Question. Today’s focuses on an area that has been talked about quite a bit in the blogs if not by Arsene Wenger himself - the need for Arsenal to bring in a new centre-back in the Nemanja Vidic or Tony Adams mould.

So, do Arsenal need one or are things OK the way they are? Answer the poll question below to let me and everyone else know what you think.

I look forward to discussing the results in tomorrow’s post. Adios!

Have your say on Ronaldinho, Adebayor or Gilberto by leaving a comment.