William Gallas is still rumbling through the blogosphere like a runaway train, so on the subject of perceived troublemakers, Emmanuel Adebayor has, depending on which news outlet you read, been kicked out or left the Togo squad, still rowing with them over bonus payments for last years World Cup. This is the squad that were not going to participate until FIFA intervened and supposedly resolved the issue, the same FIFA whose President believes that the rich clubs and players are the cause of all football’s ills. Not so, Herr Blatter , this is a prime example of an FA being the problem. Perhaps Blatter will impart his words of wisdom on this one? Anyway, back to Adebayor. As well as a dispute with his FA, he now has another anonymous admirer who apparently threatened the lives of himself and his family. Adebayor, currently renegotiating his contract at Arsenal, has now said that he is considering retiring from International Football. Personally, I would not be upset about this because assuming that the Togolese qualify, he will be missing next winter when the African Cup of Nations takes place. Alongside him could be Toure and Eboue, who apparently is also renegotiating his contract, so can I suggest that Arsene gets the medical staff to ensure that there is no repeat of this season’s injury woes because, if there is, we will be well and truly screwed whilst the ACN goes on.

A hunt through the official site shows that it appears that there were no new injuries to the players on International duty and in a rare display of commonsense, the DFB have released eight players from their squad as they are only participating in a friendly on Wednesday, Jens Lehmann being one of those who have already returned to their clubs. Surprisingly, this will give Arsene some players to train with Johann Djourou and Phillipe Senderos winging their way back to Dear Old Blighty.

Apparently all of those who want a new striker will be relieved to hear that we are linked with Miroslav Klose for the umpteenth season running and Javier Saviola. If there is any truth in either, I would prefer Klose but suspect Saviola is more of a ‘Wenger’ type of players, i.e. technically gifted but Klose would offer more in respect of a goals return. However, as both are ‘big‘ name players I seriously doubt either will arrive at The Emirates with the only signing of that ilk I would expect this summer will be in the Goalkeeping department. Although names do not come any bigger than Ferrari; unfortunately, the club are somewhat improbably being linked with Matteo Ferrari rather than Enzo, a journeyman defender who was on loan at Everton a couple of seasons ago. Surely our defensive woes are not that bad?

FIFA and UEFA have a more immediate problem to deal with though. It appears that the Portuguese Supreme Court has ridden roughshod over the new transfer regulations, a decision taken that appears to allow any player to buy themselves out of their contract at any point in its duration. Ze To apparently joined club side Lieria in the summer and wanted out, the Portuguese Court gave them £70k compensation as opposed to the £7m his contract stipulated. The upshot is that all of the Buy-out clauses that are inserted into contracts appear to be more worthless than we already suspected, Spanish clubs most notably use this system, and it may be that the ruling could impact on football in same manner that Bosman did. No comment thus far from either organisation which is somewhat of a first given that both Blatter and Platini seem keen to impart their wisdom on every footballing matter under the Sun. Perhaps it is because this is important and someone has whispered in their ears that they may get caught out when the implications of their words are considered.