It seems that the rumour about French keeper Guillaume Warmuz may not be nonsense after all. Unless they player is living in a fantasy world, that is.

Quotes on the Sky site suggest that a deal is close. "I'm having the medical tests in London at the moment. I should be able to close the deal this afternoon. It's just great."

Well, yes. But what we've heard about the player so far hasn't been that encouraging. Or, to look at it another way, it's been encouraging for Stuart Taylor.

But even if Warmuz has made mistakes on the scale of "Dudek and Enckelman" combined, I guess that could signal another top-notch cut-price Wenger signing. After all, Dudek may have gone through a bad patch but we all know he's basically a good keeper and would all surely be happy with cover for Seaman that was of Dudek's class.

Anyone else got anything to say about this Warmuz bloke?

Rupe adds...
Valentin Cazako is very much in the "Coup, not poo" camp...

"Warmuz is basically an excellent goalkeeper. He has spent most of his career with Lens, and was the main reason why they won the league a couple of years back, did well in Europe (champ's league, UEFA cup semi) and nearly won the league again last year. They lost on the last day after leading nearly all season, and many believe they would have won the league if half their team (Coly, Diouf, Cisse, Diop, ...) had not been at the African championhip for two months."

"In November last year he had family and personal problems. He requested some time off to sort them out, but the manager (stupidly) refused because he did not trust the understudy (good to know if you are the understudy)."

"In consequence, Warmuz made three or four basic mistakes in crucial games. The manager was unhappy about that but still tried to force him to play. As Warmuz had been with the club, for so long, most supporters blamed the manager who is new rather than the keeper."

"He should have let Warmuz sort his problems out before forcing him to play and then complain in interview. Unhappy by that shabby treatment, Warmuz went public and pretty much forced the club to let him have some time off to sort his problems out."

"The coach continued to make it a battles of egos, and Warmuz decided that it would be better for both for him to resign from the club."

"People were expecting him just to take time off until the end of the season, However I suspect that Arsenal was an opportunity too good to pass."

"The good thing from Warmuz is that London-Lille is a two hours Eurostar journey, which mean that he can go back to his family very easily if required."

"The same thing goes for Cygan, by the way, who spent all his career in club in the north of France (Valenciennes, Wasquehal, Lille), which is like an english footballer spending his entire career at Birmingham City, Wolves & Aston Villa."

Thanks a lot for that, Valentin. We will, of course, reserve judgement on Warmuz until we've seen him play (a couple of times).

It's worth adding that Lens have not fared much better since Warmuz quit.....

...but also that he won't be able to play for us in the Champs League because he played in it for Lens earlier in the season.