TribalFootball suggest that latest reports say Vieira was just there for a visit. If so, we suspect the hand of Marc Roger: picking Vieira's excursions so as to stir things up again. But we've no basis for that. Sadly, we suspect that TribalFootball have no basis for what they're saying today either (they don't usually seem to require evidence for their stories). But it's nice to see another site that's not swallowing every Roger-created story hook line and sinker.

Most other places today are going with "Arsenal fury over Real approach". Which at least suggests that the Spanish press's reports that Arsenal had given Real permission to talk to Vieira were wide of the mark.

Other sources are now echoing TribalFootball's line. Vieira's Spanish representative Santos Marquez (said by earlier reports to have been seen with him in Madrid) is quoted by PA as saying,

"I know Real Madrid are interested in the signing and there has been contact, but I am certain Real Madrid, being a gentlemanly club, would call Arsenal and agree a deal before negotiating with the player."

"Marc [Roger, Vieira's agent] was in Madrid to sort out some things with Real Madrid midfielder Claude Makelele but nothing else.... if he [Vieira] was [in Madrid] then it must have been for personal motives and nothing related to football; people can do what they want on their day off, can't they?"

However Marquez does seem to be affected by the Spanish tendency to view Real Madrid as above the law...

"If Florentino Perez wants him [Vieira], I have no doubt he will get him. Last season he wanted Zidane and he got him and before that he got Figo when nobody thought it was possible."

Marquez seems to have forgotten that Perez wanted Vieira last summer.

Curiously, Marquez' comments are being reported in some places under headlines like "Agent says Vieira not in Madrid" which seems quite clearly not to be what Marquez said.

...and now Arsene Wenger has spoken to allay fears, saying that the talk is all fantasy. In this interview, the point is also made that we will have to get used to this kind of nonsense, if we are to have players of Vieira's classand desirability in the squad.