The manager speaks

“For me, the best thing is not to talk too much about it. The more you speak about things, the less chance you have to achieve them."

When the manager finally speaks, it's worth a listen. If only to try and relax. Gooners these last few days have been high strung. My Twitter feed has thrown up quite a few desperate one-liners, and quite a few trolls, even.

I hope this blog can be an antidote of some kind. Transfer rumours in Silly Season are almost always bullsh-t!

But some of the worst kind of manure comes from our very own. When Ian Wright warbles away in the Sun about signing Michael Essien, Joe Hart and Vincent Kompany 'to make the rest of English football sit up and take notice for once' it has nothing to do with reality. They are already on inflated salaries, and Arsenal haven't the finances to inflate them more.

'Real fans don't give a hoot about debts,' Wright states. Well, ask the fans of Plymouth, Leeds or Rushden & Diamonds, and go back to your game shows! No wonder you never went into coaching or managing yourself.

'We are at the top level and therefore need exceptional quality to strengthen our side.'

There won't be many signings. There never were. The manager has confirmed Gervinho, to be unveiled next week when all the bureaucracy has been conquered. One or two more is what Wenger wants, 'of top quality'.

'My responsibility is first of all not to lose players and then to add and make us stronger. '

This is the crux of Arsène Wenger's project. To gel a team together over several seasons is the opposite of the wheeler-dealer gamesmanship made famous by our rivals' manager.

When Gooners look with envy at Liverpool's transfer activity, remember that they're a club just rescued from the brink by a billionaire, now shelling out on their ninth or tenth international midfielder. Each on tens and thousands of pounds per week. You wouldn't run your own business like that.

The Arsenal goalkeeper syndrome...?

After watching the World Cup group stages, I got a feeling that international goalkeepers only need to get linked with Arsenal before playing badly.

Tonight's match saw Denmark's and Stoke City's Thomas Sørensen let in two Japanese free kicks, arguably because of bad positioning. Earlier, purported Arsenal targets like Robert Green, Hugo Lloris and Gianluigi Buffon have made high profile mistakes. Nigeria's Vincent Eneyama was linked after a great opening performance, but after the Arsenal link was made, he started to look shakier... Federico Marchetti didn't look too hot today, either.

Fulham's and Australia's Mark Schwarzer is reportedly close to signing for Arsenal (even though the deal has been reportedly near-concluded for a while now). During the World Cup, some of his errors have caught attention.

Not everything can be blamed on the ball. But not every "target" has looked stupid, either. World Cup keepers Sergio Romero, David James, Joe Hart, Maarten Stekelenburg, Manuel Neuer and Julio Cesar have yet to make mistakes like the ones highlighted above.

I guess the fact that they are ALL linked to Arsenal this summer tells us that no "Arsenal goalkeeper syndrome" is at work. Instead, with every goalie on the planet seemingly on his way to the Emirates, no wonder that a percentage of them make errors in the World Cup.

Poor performances = media rumour frenzy

Nothing's like a real all-star stinker of a game to get the rumour mill of Silly Season really going. And in the last month, Arsenal's stinkers are piling up. Yesterday's defeat at Blackburn had a particular nasty smell to it.

Quality English papers like to be prepared. The spectacle at Ewood Park was the perfect excuse for the Daily Telegraph to roll out a pre-prepared story on the series of gaffes made by Arsenal's three goalkeepers this season. It shows that it wasn't just Sam Allardyce who knew what lay in store for the Gunners.

While Arsène Wenger looks more and more like an Iraqi propaganda minister, defending Fabianski and bigging him up at every opportunity, the pressure is mounting. This is exactly when the manager usually does the exact opposite of what fans and media are expecting...

So despite being linked with Joe Hart, Hugo Lloris and Gianluigi Buffon in just one Guardian article today, the jury is still out on whether Arsenal actually intend to sign any of them or their colleagues.

A typical Silly report

The Daily Mirror website has published an item which really typifies the kind of "news" posing as news we get used to during Silly Season. In a piece not attributed to any journalist, only the staff credit "Football Spy", Arsenal are being linked with the following:

- Scott Parker, this week named as the only West Ham player not for sale,
- Joe Hart, an England goalkeeper on the astronomical wages of Man City,
- James Milner, valued at umpteen million pounds by Aston Villa.

The story regurgigates the rumours of Cahill, Hangeland and Chamakh as well, perhaps to lend it some touch with a tabloid reality.

But there are no sources to these rumours, no approximate transfer fees are mentioned and signing established stars like that is very unlike Arsenal's transfer policy.

And Wenger's quote at the end... where does that come from?

"We have plenty of young players, now we need ready-made ­players.” Can anyone help me with a source for that comment? When on Earth did Wenger use those words?!

Don't believe the hype, people.