For international week there’s a fair bit of news going around so I may as well just get straight into it. The Cesc Fabregas to Barca stories have started up again. We all know that one day there is a strong possibility that one day Cesc will return home to his family, friends and club in Barcelona. It’s a day that all Gooners dread, Thierry Henry made the trip to Spain but to be honest, he is at the end of his career now. Fabregas hasn’t even reached his prime yet and he’s arguably already Arsenal’s most important player. His agent refuses to rule out a move to Barca and this week he’s said this:

“If we do hear of an offer from Barcelona, the club that taught him so much, then that would be a real compliment to Cesc.”

Last year he signed a long-term deal at Arsenal, I think it was something like 8 years. If he stayed to the end of that then left, then he would be leaving at a similar age, and time in his career, as Thierry. Which I suppose is acceptable. However I’m sure Barcelona wont want to wait 8 years for Fabregas and will one day make a bid for him. It would have to be something quite substantial to tempt Arsene to let him go.

Another player who is still growing at Arsenal, Emmanuel Adebayor has been talking this week. He’s had a great start to the season and is already two short on what he totalled up last season. He puts this new-found ‘hunger’ down to an injury in pre-season:

“I had an injury when I was [at the pre-season training camp] in Austria and this frustrated me a great deal. When I came back I was really angry and hungry. This is one of the reasons that explains why I have had such a good start to the season.”

When Ade first joined I was far off his biggest fan but he gradually started to warm to me. Now he’s up there with my favourites and I hope he can keep on growing.

This transfer market just gone saw the most high profile departure at the club for a long time. When Thierry Henry left to play for Barcelona it broke many Arsenal fans hearts. Titi felt it was time for him to move on and he wasn’t going to win much at Arsenal if he stayed. One thing missing from his trophy cabinet is a Champions League winners medal and he believed a move to Spain would fill this spot. However since Thierry departure the Arsenal youngsters have flourished and are on maximum points in the European group stages and are top of the Premiership with a game in hand. Along with the media, Thierry has been quick to jump on the bandwagon:

“I have been watching Arsenal and see that they are playing entertaining football and winning every game home and away. I know the young players there very well and they can definitely win the Premier League and Champions League this season. I watched how they beat Sevilla in the Champions League and I think they sent out a big message to the rest of Europe. Sevilla is not an easy team to play, but Arsenal played a great game.”

I hear that he’s having some good games in La Liga and I think he got a hat-trick the other week. However I’ve also been hearing about the man we used to know, the sulking, the temper and sometimes looking disinterested. I bet he sometimes thinks he should’ve stayed at Arsenal but I think he knows as much as anyone that his departure really has improved us.

Just quickly, Lehmann’s been talking about how he’ll be back in goal for Arsenal. This just as Germany Coach Joachim Low has said that Jens must be playing first team football if he wants to represent Germany in Euro 2008. There are rumours of Lehmann making a move to Man City in January just as David Seaman did, and I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if he followed in his footsteps.

I leave you with this, a headline you don’t see everyday.

Thanks for reading.