You know that Football is coming home when pre-season training begins and very reassuring it was too that Rosicky and Eduardo were amongst those participating. The official site has the photos here but then you knew that anyway, didn’t you. It might help with a wider screen in some instances which begs the question as to which of our ’stars’ has been fiddling with their scales at home. Still the fines for returning overweight will no doubt be beneficial to whichever charity receives such largesse.

Away from the business end of football, the sweet smell of the countryside surrounds the latest transfer talk. At least the rich farmyard aromas anyway. The cries for a defensive midfielder have gone unheeded since Felipe Melo signed for Juventus which is nice for him. Fiorentina’s motives for announcing on their website that Arsenal were the only club to have bid for his services, are now apparent since they wanted to flush out the Juve offer.

Not entirely sure why anyone would ask Denis Lachter’s opinion since he is no longer Andrei Arshavin’s agent. Well he says he is, despite acknowledging receipt of the letter terminating his services and it seems he is not letting go of his little cash cow without a fight.  In the best pantomime traditions, an exchange between himself and the media ensued.  Spanish radio station COM Radio got the ball rolling with an apparent interview with Lachter in which he said:

Before anything else, Barcelona should make a formal offer. Then we can sit down and speak.

Playing once again on the 50% tax rate, Lachter it appears, is doing all that he can to agitate a move for his former client. But wait a moment, Denis donned his Widow Twanky gear and bleated, “Oh no I didn’t” when pushed on whether he had said anything. Personally, I am one of those in the audience shouting back, “Oh yes you did” since in his dealings with Eastern European Arsenal players, his track record is not good. Lachter, you may recall since I continually remind you, was one of those agents involved in agitating Alexander Hleb out of the club. It was probably his idea to come up with the lame excuse that London was too busy and noisy whilst Barcelona is a nice, quiet rural location. “Oh, no I didn’t“…

FIFA regulations specifically deal with situations such as this and were Arsenal to complain, Lachter may find himself permanently unemployed as a football agent. However, Arsenal has little history in making formal complaints to FIFA despite numerous instances of tapping up by other clubs in the past so action seems unlikely in this instance. Even when denying the story, Lachter was disingenuous, denying contact with Barcelona but not the radio station.

Elsewhere, Arseblog carries an interview with Ivan Gazidis that re-affirms the Board’s commitment with the self-sustaining business model. The transcript is here. Gazidis did not tread new ground but did a good job, I thought, of re-emphasising that there is not going to be a bank-busting deal this summer but also that potential needs to be turned to reward.

The usual spin surrounds Philippe Senderos is catching the eye of Bordeaux whilst Peter Crouch is poking Arsene in the eye with a sharp stick to remind him to look closer to home for a replacement for Emmanuel Adebayor if he goes. OK, so I made the last bit up but hey, everyone else does so why should I be left out?

’til Tomorrow.