Barcelona's having a laugh

Barcelona are having a laugh. They wanted £30m from Man City for Yaya Toure, but City said no. Now, they want to swap Cesc for Yaya and £10m. Let's forget that Yaya's already rejected a move to Arsenal, and we're still talking about a transfer bid for Cesc that tallies way below the £80m the board have set. Now, if they threw Messi and Alves into the mix, that might make the board think twice....

Joan Laporta is also having a laugh:

"We have made an offer and they rejected it. We are still interested, but we respect their position and will try to change their mind. Everyone is aware of the difficulties of any negotiation in which, despite the fact that the player wants to come, the club defend their position.

"If a player like this, who also has the privilege of being captain of Arsenal, tells the club that his time is over and he wants to continue his career at Barca... I always want players at my club who want to be there show commitment.

"If a player legitimately demonstrates that he does not want to be at Barca, I would immediately open the doors and defend the interests of the club, while attempting to reconcile them with those of the player and the buying team."

I wonder how Joan Laporta managed to say all that and keep a straight-face? "We will respect their opinion and try to change their mind" is one I'll have to use one day. Hilarious. Although, with Barcelona whizz-kid Gai Assulin set to leave their club (for us?), I suppose Laporta's open-door philosophy is soon to be tested.

In other news, Wenger's not scared to spend if needed.

"The basic improvements that have to be made is defensive and with spending the right money. The right money is not necessarily quantity because you never know how much people want for the players you want. But what I mean by the right money is that we will not be scared to spend if needed."

Judging from some of our recent transfers, it's a fear he's only recently overcome.

So on the 319th last day of my 20s, I went to work, came home, typed on the blog. My nephew George has a cold, so progress on the crawling has stalled. Instead, he's been working on stuffing everything he can into his mouth. Good to see he's keeping busy while he's sick.