Leading into the Everton game, the thigh of Robin van Persie has struck back with the Dutchman being rested for the match. Given the injuries that he has suffered this season, the thought of him participating at Euro2008 beggars belief. For all of FIFA and UEFA’s protests, the health of the players is the least of their worries. All that they care about is having the ‘stars’ at their events and to hell with club football.

Yet international football is not the lifeblood of the game; it is the cherry on top of the cake. Whilst it is right that injuries are assessed prior to international fixtures, there is no ‘give’ the other way in that a player who has suffered a disrupted season, as van Persie and Rosicky both have, should not be allowed to take their place in an international squad unless their club have agreed to it. If they participate having missed over half of the season through injury, there is a high probability that one or both will suffer a recurrence of their woes, which is disruptive for their employers and disappointing for the fans.

UEFA and FIFA have just about settled their differences with clubs by agreeing a compensation package of sorts but they could take one-step further and implement such a rule. Instead of constant bickering and sniping, the governing bodies might just find that an olive branch offered on this subject gets something in reward for the rest of the international calendar. As it is, they use psychological pressure – ‘the tournament is the pinnacle of the player’s career’ – to induce the players into playing when rest would have more benefits in the long-term.

With a link so tenuous that even Terry Wogan would be scared to use it during a Children In Need appeal, I stumbled across some memorabilia last night, these files are my ticket and a matchday programme of sorts from the trip to Austria for the 1991 European Cup-tie at the Prater Stadium (now the Ernst Happel Stadium where the final of Euro2008 will take place).

The journey was a nightmare and the last time I have taken a coach to a football match. A cobbled together unofficial trip in the days when you did not have to buy a ticket beforehand, it was Arsenal’s first foray onto foreign fields following on from the ban on English clubs following the Heysel Stadium disaster. Suffice to say, we knew we were in trouble when the drivers pulled in to a service station just outside Dover and bought a map of Europe. It took thirty hours to get there, the drivers obsession with turning off the French motorway network became wearing very quickly; the residents of Lille looked totally bemused seeing a coach with Arsenal flags draped over the windows in their backstreets; being refused entry to Germany until we had paid the Border Guards with football badges; bribing our way in and out of Luxembourg with football badges (who knew they would be such a useful currency?) and drinking in Viennese brothels after the game because we could not get into any bars in the city centre. You know when it has been a bad trip when the drivers had a whip-round, bought several slabs of Stella on the ferry on the way back, and gave them to us for directing them back to good Old Blighty. We flew to Lisbon for the next round…

Back to the here and now. Mathieu Flamini is due to return to training today and Arsene has hinted that he might be on the bench on Sunday for the visit of Everton to The Emirates. Given that there is no public indication that he is going to stay at the club, I believe it is time that Arsene planned for next season and for him to exclude his compatriot from this match and the visit to The Stadium Of Light the following weekend. It is not personal but Arsene needs to plan for next season. Denilson should start as he did at Pride Park or if Bacary Sagna is fit, put Toure or Song there.

In this month’s issue of FourFourTwo, Nicolas Anelka answers readers questions. He is hard pushed to say which team was the better, 1998s Double Winners or the current squad whilst asserting that it was his decision to leave and nothing to do with his brothers as Arsene is supposed to have said at the time,

He knows very well that everything was down to me – it was what I wanted. I have no regrets because at that time, what I wanted was to leave…I wanted to go to Real Madrid, who wouldn’t. That said, when you look at what happened afterwards, you can always say, “Ah Well, he should have stayed”, but it is too easy to say that. There’s no point in living with regrets. I’ve always loved Arsenal; the club, the supporters and the players. I don’t have any problem with anyone there but once you’ve turned that page, you’ve turned that page

The magazine also has a double page spread on Dennis Bergkamp’s hat-trick at Filbert Street in 1997, still the only time the same player has had the 1-2-3 in Match of the Day’s Goal of the Month competition. Answering the question, ‘Was the Bergkamp goal to make it 3-2 one of the best you have seen?’, Leicester’s Steve Walsh replied,

One of them. I was only too pleased that he made a fool out of Matt [Elliott] not me! Seriously, there was not a lot any defender could have done. Fortunately, I was on the other side of the defence

Who says it is all for one and one for all in a football team? More like, there but for the grace of God…

And so to Edelman’s departure. Safe Hands Ken Friar returns but it is all of the media this morning that Arsene has won a ‘power struggle’ in the Boardroom and wants a footballing man in situ from now on. Edelman’s focus was right for the time he was at the club, growing the business but if he is not interested in becoming a ‘football man’ then it is right for him to move on. Anyway, you can read The Times, The Guardian, The Sun and The Mirror views and work out where they will fit the club in crisis routines in over the summer. Arseblogger has an interview with Tim Payton of the Arsenal Supporters Trust in this weeks Arsecast where it is discussed.

The upshot of it seems to be the reins being slackened and Martin Samuel makes a persuasive case for signing Michael Johnson or Gareth Barry but shhhh, don’t tell Arsene they are English.

’til Tomorrow.