Thierry Henry seems to be doing the media rounds at the moment, this time being interviewed on ESPN and a lot more upbeat about the future, and present, than would have been portrayed in the English and Spanish media. Having spoken about DD’s departure, he turned his attention to the squad,

The potential is definitely there, the signs are definitely there. So now let’s hope we can put that all together and bring back some silverware. Man United didn’t win the league for three years and finally they did it – who would have said that 10 years ago? So things happen sometimes, you have to keep going and make sure you can be better and have a great season next season.

Which is more like the realism that has been unreported so far.

At the end of the day, everybody knows all of our resources went into building the new stadium. Therefore, you have to deal with what you have. So that’s why I would like to give credit to some of the youngsters. Maybe if we don’t have a new stadium, we would have done better and maybe have more players, I don’t know. Sometimes you can’t invent something that you don’t have or create something that you don’t have, so you have to deal with what you have. We’re still playing good football, ok, not winning anything at the moment but you know, you have to give us that at least.

It has been picked up by the red tops here and their interpretation is of the rest of the conversation, about how he is hurt by DD’s departure. The reality is that everyone wants to interview him in the hope he will say, “I’m off“. He is not naive and knows this but it is good to see him acknowledge the realism of our situation. I understand his frustration, he is after all a ‘winner’ and has done so in his career and it would be the easy option for him to take the short hop to Barcelona or Milan. As he acknowledges, it is flattering to your ego when the ‘best’ in the business want your services, an appreciation that you must be doing something ‘right’. For the first time though, that I have seen, he has done ‘right’ by Arsenal in recognising that the squad have maintained a standard, to a degree, given the Club a good base to build from. It would have been easy for them to slip to 8th or 10th place on the basis of inexperience. Yet, Wenger has maintained a good mix of experience and youth, keeping us in the top four. The gap of twenty points on the leaders is not easy to make up in one fell swoop however who knows how many points are going to be required to win the title this season. I suspect that it will be a similar level because even with the spending carried out lower down the division, those teams have a hell of a gap to make up to challenge the current top four. It will need consistency at home, turning wins to draws draws to wins (ta, Passenal); away from home, defeats to draws. Each team will drop points occasionally. We have done so regularly in matches we would not expect to. We need to get back to the ‘occasional’ to stay in contention longer. If you are in with a chance at Easter, anything is possible. God, I feel optimistic this morning. Don’t worry, the usual cynicism will resurface at some point!

Yaya Toure is being linked with the club but that is of no interest really. What drew my attention was this interview, given to Spanish Radio. I’ll quote verbatim from Sporting Life,

Dimitri Seluk, who claims to be one of the player’s advisors, told Spanish radio station Ona FM that Toure would be “happy to talk to Barca”.

So the scene is set for a Mr 15% spiel,

I am not exactly his representative. I am like a father for him. If I say to him that it makes a thing, it will do it. There are a lot of clubs interested in him. I have been asked about him by Inter Milan, Lyon, Roma, Everton and Arsenal. Everybody wants to speak to him. The price would be around 15million euros.

How great is that? I think the Americans call it chutzpah. Fantastic stuff. So let’s get this straight, the Guy isn’t even his Agent and he’s hawking Yaya around like a cheap handbag off a market stall. Brilliant. Please God, let FIFA haul him up in front of a committee, make the hearings public because this man could become the next comedy hit of the year. Moments like this are what help to make the close season bearable. Interesting though that the station is Ona FM. Does that make the journalists that work there onanists?

’til Tomorrow.