The Standard and others report that the riot act was read to the African Nations Cup winner when he returned to Arsenal on Sunday. Lauren was supposed to come straight back after the win last weekend.

It's even been suggested that Wenger wanted to punish Lauren by not playing him in tomorrow's Champs League match. But the squad problems in defence mean that that's unlikely to happen (and we doubt if it's true anyway).

Other sources are now saying that it was the country's fault. Apparently Cameroon took the players passports and wouldn;t give them back till the victorious team had been to meet the president. Arsenal are said to be lodging an official complaint with FIFA. See eg FootballNews.co.uk. So maybe Lauren's off the hook.

Whether this will stop the "Lauren going back to Spain" rumours is another matter.