Any Gooner would love to play for the Arsenal

Today, agent Darren Dein have taken steps to try and shed his image as the man tearing down the Arsenal squad. His vehicle is the Daily Telegraph, where respected journalist Paul Kelso defends him.

Dein's part in the Clichy deal was 'helping Wenger' after the left-back had declined to sign a new deal.

'... Claims he has any connection to the unsettled Samir Nasri are entirely untrue,' Kelso writes, and it's also underlined that Dein's third client at Arsenal, Robin van Persie, is committed to staying. But Cesc Fábregas, then?

'Fábregas is considered a special case as Barcelona is his hometown club,' Kelso trumpets as Darren Dein's herald.

A special case, indeed.

The ins and outs, dos and don'ts, of Cesc and Arsenal have taken epic proportions in the English media. Last time I counted, there were about 250 individual articles since 1 May linking him away from the club. There are bound to be more now, just look here. The speculations have hardly ever been more fierce.

The point I've been making through these last Silly seasons, on this blog and - earlier - elsewhere, is that they are but speculations. Cesc is still at Arsenal, still captain, and still under contract until 2015.

Any Gooner would love to play for the Arsenal. Noone can expect the Barcelona fan Cesc to feel anything different. But throughout, Cesc has handled this professionally, as he has this summer. The quotes twisted, the meanings put in his words, the inventions of his intentions in the papers mustn't muddy the picture of the captain behaving properly.

That's why I don't believe for a moment that Cesc will be 'forcing' Arsenal into anything, not by going on strike, refusing to play or not going on the pre-season tour because of some made up injury. His hamstrings are well known for keeping him on the treatment tables at London Colney, after all.

What kind of agenda his agent has I wouldn't know. But it's interesting that a vilified figure among many Gooners, son of the former vice-chairman at Arsenal, should pick this time to try and clear his name, so to speak, in a national newspaper.

If you ask me for my personal view, even if it's no more qualified than any other hack reading other hacks' stories on the web, I think Cesc may well be sold. But only if Arsenal get the fee they want, and mostly because of his hamstrings, not his boyhood dream.