God knows, the English papers are crap at the best of times - unfortunately an international break that lasts around 8 million years is not the best of times.  Fabregas opens his mouth after a meaningless friendly (England are now the best team in the world – yippee! Or perhaps not.) and all of a sudden van Persie’s on his way out on the advice of his best mate.

Whatever Cesc's doing, RVP's enjoying it...

It’s hard to really argue with what Cesc has been quoted as saying, as it’s not much more earth shattering than ‘the sky is blue’ or ‘Carles Puyol is a greasy haired cockgoblin’:

“I don’t know if they will keep him. It is his decision. At his age, if he wants to move it will be his last chance and if he wants to stay he will stay and retire at Arsenal.”

Hmm, thanks Captain Obvious. Anyway, while it’s vaguely disconcerting that Robin’s agent is the odious Dein jr, there’s no guarantee that Robin will leave, in the same way that there is none he will stay – the only thing I have to disagree over with the man who failed to lead Arsenal to any success, is this statement:

“He is the role model of Arsenal, the star player and they cannot afford to lose him.”

Yes we can, because one man doesn’t make a team (as we’ve been saying all season) and if any player really wants to go then I don’t think we can afford to keep him, as his lack of interest would affect his performance on the pitch and of the team. Eh Cesc?

If all Robin wants is an enormous pay packet, then he will go to the Manchester Camel Worriers. If he fancies the large contract in the sun, then he’ll go to Barca, though I can’t see them taking a player of his age (bear in mind he’ll nearly be 30 when this contract is up). I would hope that Robin is not wholly money orientated, though who knows, but I would imagine that he is aware of time passing, the missed months due to injury and the lack of trophies won.

I think Robin genuinely loves the club and I have been surprised and impressed by the standard of his captaincy – and you certainly can’t say that leading a ‘team in freefall’ has negatively affected his form (unlike others, eh Cesc?), but I would have no problem with Robin holding the club to ransom over his new contract, so long as the ransom note contains the following bullet points:

• Biggest pay packet at the club (fair enough).
• Signing of 1-2 experienced players in January (Don’t have to be superstars, think Arteta or Gervinho).
• A commitment to sign further players of a similar standard in the summer, to complement the young players coming through.