Well, any expectation of a quiet weekend were thankfully dashed with Fiorentina’s official statement that Arsenal were the only club which had made an official bid for Felipe Melo. The statement was an interesting exercise. The first aspect is that it was issued in response to speculation in the Italian media that the player had agreed terms with Juventus. Given that it is not unusual by any stretch of the imagination for that scenario to arise, what did Fiorentina hope to gain from their utterances?

I guess the best is that they get a bidding war between Arsenal and Juventus, going above the €25m release clause. That seems unlikely for knowing that the value of a bid has to reach that level, there is no incentive for either club to exceed it. Acknowledging that Arsenal has offered ‘close’ to that value puts the ball firmly into Juve’s court; put up or shut up essentially speaking.

Presumably Arsenal has passed on the counter-offer that Fiorentina made to Emmanuel Eboue. The question that Arsene has to answer now is whether the gain of signing Melo offsets the loss that arises with Eboue’s departure. There are many who would still not be sorry to lose Eboue. That misses his contribution to the squad, on and off the pitch. He is by all accounts very popular with the rest of squad, fulfilling the role of ‘class clown’. That should not be a reason on its own for keeping him at the club yet that can have an impact on the squad. Fabregas has acknowledged that the loss of Flamini and Hleb affected him as they were friends. Judging by media reports from around the time immediately after the disgraceful incidents at the Wigan game, players such as Toure, Adebayor and Song would feel a similar loss.

Were a deal to go through involving Eboue, I guess that the crucial issue would be who is the long-term back up for the right back position if anything, God forbid, happened to Sagna? Gavin Hoyte had a torrid time last season at Eastlands in the Premier League and would be an obvious weakness in the Arsenal team. Given the predeliction for a section of the support to give any player who underperforms, a hard time, it is not beyond the realms of belief that Hoyte would be told in no uncertain terms that he is not good enough.

So who is left. Essentially, Toure or Djourou. Gibbs or Traore would be played out of position, which is bad enough when a right footed player is on the left but reverse that to the right and for some reason, the lefties make a bigger hash of it than the their opposites. Both the centre backs can cover in the short term but long term, you would be looking at the Ivorian for anything more than four games.

Arsene has to judge whether the signing of Melo will improve the squad. Certainly, he appears to have the tenacity that people, including Arsene to an extent, desire. A record of 17 yellow cards and 3 of their red cousins is nothing to sneezed at and to be honest, it is a record I am both impressed and disturbed by. The impressed part is that in a season interrupted by suspensions, it means that he was getting booked essentially every game and a half. Not bad going. Even in his indisciplined pomp, Patrick Vieira could not touch this. Hammer time.

The last aspect is whether or not Melo would get a Work Permit. Key to this is his international status. From memory, the criteria is that a player must have participated in more than 75% of his country’s internationals in the previous two years. Melo has not. There are other avenues to appeal and looking at those who have received permits in the past, he should qualify. Even so, his exceptional talent might be that he sees football in kaleidoscopic terms. Nobody quite sees the colours yellow and red swirling round like Melo.

Elsewhere, Emmanuel Adebayor’s Mr20% has sort of confirmed that the player has decided to stay. A less than ringing affirmation of the players future came when Stephane Courbis – for it is he – was pressed by The Observer on the subject of his client’s plans:

It’s the same situation as last week

So it is all down to Arsene who believes the player wants to stay. Not a bad idea either.

’til Tomorrow.