The papers are reporting that Rodrigo Palacio is winging his merry way to Arsenal for a fee of £15m. And the comments I’ve read seem strangely subdued about it, the press are all rather excited though and given that it distracts them from Fabregas and Wenger departure stories, I guess it should be welcomed. There is a fair amount of cynicism about the veracity of the story with fingers being pointed at the Boca Juniors Blog which started it all off; little bits to embellish it are appearing here and there but given those sources are not reliable either. The thing that strikes me is that the majority are completely underwhelmed by it all, probably because few actually know anything of the player other than his stats. Tomorrow will be an interesting day, press-wise; the signing either goes ahead or they go quiet, media admission of being tucked up like a kipper by a rumour. We shall see. The final thing that does not make sense is that he is another striker. We already have four at the Club with Walcott as a notional fifth forward so that would mean we were top heavy unless Wenger genuinely has no intention to use Walcott as a front man.

The Barnet game is still getting attention although events on the pitch are being outshone by Le Boss’s comments that the forwards will have to step up to take responsibility for replacing Henry’s goals. Interestingly he is not singling one out to make up the deficit, rather arguing that they all share that burden which hints heavily at a rotation policy up front, perhaps even more regularly than we would ordinarily expect. Judging by the Copa America, he must be wondering whether or not it is worth giving The Beast another chance; three in three although some of the defending by their opponents was woeful. To be fair to the player though, the opener in last night’s final was a cracker, one of the reasons why Arsene chased him in the first place. I think it was Pat who questioned in yesterday’s comments about why Baptista could not have been scoring like that for us last season; I would have been happy with another dozen that went in off his shin as they did the other night.

Back to the forwards. Yet again Adebayor is being criticised for his performance which I find odd. Well, no, I don’t find it odd as I think he is the sort of player who will be appreciated by most people but those who do not like, won’t change their minds irrespective of what he does. What I don’t understand though is why a performance in the first pre-season friendly is being taken seriously. The match is all about working towards match fitness not being at the peak of match fitness now. I don’t want a forward scoring twenty goals in the friendlies; I want that in the season. Generally speaking, the opposition are either weaker or in the same level of fitness training as yourselves. The important thing about these games are not the results; it is getting fit and getting them over and done with, free of injuries (or long term ones at least).

It may be that tomorrow, there will be some evidence of the transfer of Palacio or it will go completely quiet. Whichever, ’til then.