Arsenal made to sweat on Da Silva

[Eduardo da Silva] has since made 12 appearances for Croatia, scoring seven times, including one against England in a Euro 2008 qualifier in October last year.

But Home Office regulations stipulate that a player has to have played in 75 per cent of their national team's games over the last two years to win a permit; Croatia have played 25 times in the past 24 months, meaning Da Silva does not even come close to meeting the criteria.

Arsenal will instead have to rely on proving the 24-year-old possesses "exceptional talent", much in the same way that Manchester United did to cut through the red tape and pave the way for the signing of Brazilian youngster Anderson earlier in the week.

I would assume that this will be just a formality. But still makes you hold your breath just a bit. Though maybe not as much as when Wenger says something like, "although he is predominantly a striker, he is a very adaptable player."I can't imagine that we're looking at anything but the new TH (boy is that unfair or what?) and not the new Reyes (who was himself an adaptable striker and the new Pires). I have +10 hopes for EdS.  And yes, he already gets coveted acronym status. For £16 he'd better be that good.