His contract is up at the end of the season and the club are understandably desperate to keep him, and not let him go on a free like when he came to us from Tottenham. But Campbell has been quoted as saying that it's not a problem.

"Everything is agreed, I am going to be here for a long time. I am happy here. The club is going in the right direction and there are going to be exciting times. I have never thought about leaving Arsenal and I will be here next season."

Tottenham fans will no doubt point out that they thought they had reason to think he'd stay with them, too. But we can point out to them that there are good reasons for players to stay at Arsenal, and a lot of world-class players are committed to our club. And I'm not sure he ever did say anything this clear about wanting to stay with them. The idea that his heart was at Tottenham was always mainly in their over-optimistic imaginations. We have players like Vieira and Henry and Bergkamp pledging their future to the club year after year. Why shouldn't Sol want to stay with them too?

Campbell is expected to have to take a wage cut, since his curent deal was brokered on the back of a free transfer, but to compensate he will get a longer deal (reports say 5 years) than a 30-year old might normally expect. And he'll probably still be the top earner at the club.

However, it seems that Arsenal's efforts to keep Edu at the club might be proving insufficient. Wenger was quoted in the Sun as saying, "I want him to sign (a new deal) - but he says he wants to go." In January the Brazilian will be free to start talking to other clubs. It seems a bit ungrateful after all the club has done for him - sticking with him despite the initial dodgy-passport business and developing him to the point where he got into the national squad. But it was always likely to piss him off that he got so few chances after Gilberto arrived, and the emergence of Cesc (and perhaps also Flamini) must have left him feeling that his first team chances will be few and far between from now on. It's unfortunate that he's been injured at this crucial time. If fit, he'd have had a few more games than normal while Gilberto's out. We have to hope that if he leaves, he won't come back to bite us (Man Utd are among many English teams who'd surely be interested). But with Vieira, Gilberto, Cesc, and Flamini, we should be able to cope.

There also seems to be a chance that Dennis Bergkamp will stay another year. He told the Beeb, "If everything goes well this season I might even think about playing another season. You would be crazy to step away from this."

Wenger says he can't rule out another year for Dennis, but it's too ealry to say, "The case is quite simple. We always sit down together in April or May, and we have to consider his situation is a little bit special. It's down to how he feels and how I will feel. We will have a frank discussion at the end of the season. But I wouldn't rule it out."

On eof the reasons the situation is special is that if Dennis does stay, next season would be his testimonial. The would be very special for everyone, because if there's any event that started the current run of stylish trophy-winning football at Highbury, it was the signing of Dennis Bergkamp (in a very real as well as symbolic way). Dennis says, "In Holland we are not familiar with testimonials, so I will look into it before I decide what to do, but I am sure there will be something."