Rangers are not keen to sell (looks like they're losing a few midfielders this summer already). But Ferguson has made noises in the past about wanting to play in England, and Arsenal have been (alleged to be) interested before. It's possible that the prospect of another trophyless season will make him want to move. He does have about 4 years left on his Ibrox contract though.

The official Rangers site carries a headline saying that chairman David Murray denies that Arsenal have made a bid for Ferguson, although at present the link to the story itself is broken.

The papers continue to be full of speculation about Patrick Vieira, and portray this and every other piece of Arsenal interest as a desperate attempt to persuade Vieira to stay. We don't think Arsenal are going to panic-buy, it's not Wenger's style, and nor is it Dein's.

But in so far as it is true that Paddy's waiting for signings before deciding on his future, Robert Pires has been adding to the pressure. He admits that an offer from Valencia is something you can't just ignore, and that if Arsenal were to lose Vieira he'd probably want to leave too.

"If you have an offer from Valencia, you have to take a look at it," he said. "But Patrick's future at Arsenal will be the key factor in my decision. Our game revolves round him, and at the moment Arsenal couldn't get by without him."

So Vieira says failign to sign some big names would show a lack of ambition. Pires says losing Vieira would show a lack of ambition. Presumably someone else would think losing Pires showed a lack of ambition.... Wouldn't the papers just love this fantasy of Arsenal's fragile house of cards to come true. Dream on. See Sportal football for Pires quotes.