Clubcall have Arsenal linked with Mathieu Bodmer, the new "new Vieira". They claim that French sources were predicting a move for Lille's defensive midfielder by Wenger during the transfer window back in January. Bodmer himself is quoted as saying that he'd prefer to go to a big French club before contemplating a move abroad because he doesn't want to cut corners. "I see the number of players who leave straight away for abroad and who fail". Clichy, Flamini, Fabregas.... Maybe Bodmer doesn't think he's good enough. It's not as if he's straight out of school anyway (he's 22).

Southampton's young striker Theo Walcott is still being talked about (see previous transfer gossip). The 16 year-old has scored in his last 2 starts for the club. Harry Redknapp is desperate to deflect interest, saying that he'll get more and better experience getting all these starts for the Saints. He's probably right. We'd probably only put him in our youth or reserves teams for a couple of years before loaning Walcott out to a Championship side like Saints for a year to see how he got on. Still, at least he'd then be on our books and not theirs.

Torres is also still in the rumour mill, Fans FC pointing out that Atletico Madrid would rather sell him abroad than to their local rivals.

Another one from Clubcall is Marcell Jansen. But the 19 year old Germany left-back, currently at Borussia_Monchengladbach has signed a contract extension with them that takes him to 2009. He's another (like Vela) who shone at the FIFA World Youth Championships, since having progressed to the senior national side. Naturally, Real Madrid are also said to be interested. But all this talk was probably mostly to do with getting himn the best possible new deal from BM.

Michael Ballack has reportedly revealed that he wants another 4 to 6 weeks to decide whether to stay at Bayren Munich or not. If he doesn't, then there will be a huge list of top clubs interested in signing him. But, being 30, he might be a little too old for Wenger's tastes.

Man City are now said to be joining Arsenal in showing interest in 21 year old lanky Nurnberg striker Stefan Kiessling (see previous round-up). Schalke also. Nurnberg are still trying to get him to extend his contract.

Other clubs are also now being linked with Dmitri Berbatov (see same previous round-up). Chelsea and Man Utd in fact, well I never! The striker's agent claims that Berbatov would be interested in a move to England but "It would depend on a club agreeing a deal with Bayer Leverkusen."

Le Boss has said that he'll only buy in the transfer window if a player of "super quality" is available. But he always says that.

He also said recently that it's the mid to late twenties age range where Arsenal could do with augmenting our squad. Worth noting that of the players listed above, only Berbatov fits that bill. But of course, if Arsenal get the chance to poach an exceptionally promising youngster then they probably will.

Rupe adds...
I've just seen that we're now also being linked with a £16.5million move for Uruguay striker, and former Man Utd flop, Diego Forlan. Since moving from Old Trafford to Villareal, Forlan has found his scoring boots again, and he finished last season as top scorer in La Liga. He's got a long contract at Villareal but it's widely thought that they'll find it hard to resist if a bigger club comes in with a big offer. That'd be a hell of a gamble, surely? Seems to me that it's been proved that Forlan's happier in Spain. If he came to Highbury and flopped again well, it's hardly worth thinking about is it?

While I'm on the subject, a special mention for Talking Soccer's contined use of lies extravagance in their headlines. " Persie becoming unhappy at Arsenal" is the header for a story which says that Robin van Persie "could find himself increasingly unhappy at Arsenal" but offers no support whatsoever for the allegation that Robin actually is unhappy.