Further to Jean-Francois' earlier story, Robert Pires is now making positive noise about coming to Highbury. Wenger has made it clear new players are coming in, and Pires now claims to be one of those: "Even if Overmars stays I should be leaving to join the London club who have qualified for the Champions' League."

This reference is to the possible overlap in positional play between the two. Arseweb notes however that they are in fact quite different players, with Pires perhaps slotting in as an attacking central midfielder a la Zidane, on those occasions when Manu or Patrick are suspended or crocked. That is, he'll start the full league campaign ;-).

And anyway, Marc's not leaving for Barca, as if Van Gaal leaves there'll be no point, and if Van Gaal stays the the addition of another Dutchman will get him fired after the white-hanky sentiment-producing performance of his countrymen in the EC semi-final v Valencia.

See story here.