Henry?

Since one of the people commenting on Jeremy's last post asked, about the latest round of rumors surrounding Henry, I figured I'd put my two cents into the mix. My first comment is that I'm stunned at the ability of people to read things into every single comment that is made for the sake of spinning a headline grabbing story that might sell a few extra papers or generate a few extra clicks. As an example, once I read the comments related to David Dein's departure, I had a hard time figuring out where all the headlines came from. Who WOULDN'T be flattered if the current European Champions mentioned them as a target? To say anything else would be dishonest at best.

My second comment is that we seem to see these sorts of rumors every year around the top players in the Premier League. Lampard is going to Barca...Gerrard is going to Chelsea...Drogba wants to play in another country at some point if Chelsea don't "meet his ambition"....the list goes on and on. Mostly this is idle media speculation that tends to flare up when there aren't actual matches to report on - instead of proliferating rumors of this nature for the 18th time with a slightly different spin, maybe some of these reporters should try actually watching some of the U21 Euro Championship matches so that they can intelligently report on what the players that are featured can actually do (i.e., what positions they play, how they might fit when they reach the big time) - it continues to shock me that there is very little commentary of this nature when players are transferred.

Finally, am I dismissing the possibility that TH might leave the Emirates? Not at all, he might very well go and force Arsenal to really develop a new team capable of scoring on their own rather than doing everything else and then counting on Henry to bail them out on the scoresheet. I'm guessing he'll be back but I'm only about 60% confident of that outcome. If he isn't, the guess is that Arsenal are a UEFA Cup team but not a Champions League team unless they can find a high-profile replacement as well as a winger who can score about 10 goals.

In other developments, Villa seem to be the new Everton (from a couple years back) in that they are having a hard time getting anyone to take their money...No de Jong, no Sneidjer, no Barton, no Parker, and no Reo-Coker (yet). To answer Jeremy's query on Reading and Halford, I read that they have extended de la Cruz. Guess that made Halford surplus to requirements.

That's about it for today - hopefully, things will start happening soon. Once one or two dominos fall, there will likely be a flurry of activity.