Are we going to kill Szczesny?

Wenger's going to have to decide whether to kill Wojciech Szczesny.

In the past few weeks, we've been linked with Gianluigi Buffon, Igor Akinfeev, Joe Hart, Pepe Reina, Diego Lopez, etc,. If any of these rumours are true, we're going to invest a lot of money on a 'keeper who's going to be charge for quite a few years. If we get one of the young 'keepers, like Hart or Akinfeev, we might have one for the next decade. Young Wojciech might only be 19, but depending on who we buy, he may find that the door's slammed shut on his chances by the end of the summer.

If we manage to get a 'keeper of the calibre of Lloris or Akinfeev, I'd personally lead Wojciech out behind the shed and shoot him myself. We need a great 'keeper at the Arsenal, and I don't see the point in spending £20-£30m on a 3-4 year 'keeper like Buffon when we could get someone who could play for the next decade. There's no such thing as spending too much on a young 'keeper - they're like property, you know the good ones will appreciate with time.

Of course, we're likely to prevaricate, and wait for Wojciech to grow up. Another three, four years, and he'll probably be at the same stage as an Akinfeev, Lloris or Hart. Still, that means three or four more years of watching Almunia flap at corners and Fabianksi suffering emotional breakdowns on the pitch.

It's not going to be a pretty 3-4 years.

In other news, it looks like William Gallas is on his way out of the club. He was demanding a two-year, £80,000 a week contract, and Peter Hill-Wood told him (quite possibly literally) to fuck off. Gallas is likely to sign with Paris-SG, who can't pay as much as we can, but who can offer the attraction of not having to play in front of Almunia.

Peter Hill-Wood said:

“His demands are quite extravagant and I don’t think we are prepared to go along with it. We would very much like him to stay, but I think for one year, and not on the money he wants. He is a good player, but you have got to draw the line somewhere.

“If he can get the money somewhere else, good luck to him. We still hope he will sign, but if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. It is not that we are being bloody-minded for the hell of it. We have got to look forward and the cost of players isn’t just in transfers, it is in the salaries as well. And we analyse these quite carefully, because we don’t want to go bankrupt.”

It makes me wonder if Peter Hill-Wood is involved in transfer negotiations personally. It would explain why we failed to resign Cole, Flamini and Pires in the past, and apparently have now failed to resign Gallas. Someone should take Hill-Wood aside and quietly explain that the "take it or fuck off" gambit doesn't quite work when the player has better offers from rival clubs.

So on the 345th last day of my 20s, I skipped my run because it's been raining. I listened to The Cure and Jeff Buckley. I wrote a resignation letter, and I'm quite proud of it. Now I just have to decide when it's expedient to hand it in.

Had dinner with an old uni friend whom I haven't seen in months. Had a chat. He hasn't changed since uni. I suppose he's found his niche in life and he's just chilling. Then again, I suppose I haven't changed much, either.

I would never have thought it while still at uni, but I kind of miss it. At uni, you take the people you hang out with for granted, you think they're always going to be there. When you graduate, and go off on your separate paths, it's that much harder to keep in touch. And as Mary Schmich once said, you need to "work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young."

I didn't understand it when I first heard the song, but I'm starting to understand it now.