Anyway, here's a round-up of some of the transfer nonsense that's been flying around in the last week or so. Remember, Arsene Wenger has said he won't be buying again this season. But it's not impossible that one or two connections will come to something in the summer. It's probable though that none of them will. Even if it's true that Arsenal are looking at particular players, one only has to think about the huge number of players that the club must run their eyes over in the course of a season without anything coming of it...

The most recent alleged target is Coventry City defender Calum Davenport. The Mirror, among others, has reported that M Wenger himself watched the highly rated centreback during a reserve game recently and was impressed enough to start sorting out a deal. It is worth noting that Wenger was probably there mainly to check on the progress of Tony Adams who was making one of his comeback attempts.

According to a few Arseweb readers who were at that game, 19 year-old Davenport was indeed extremely impressive. Quick, and good in the air.

Some sources got particularly worked up when Davenport was left out of both reserve and first team squads this week, saying it meant he was on his way out. But City have responded by denying that there have been any aporoaches, and pointing out that the player was kept out of those squads by a minor injury.

The other one that all the papers are getting (over)excited about it still Dutch midfielder Marc van Bommel. Arsenal are said to have had someone watching him in every game he's played this season, but one has to remember that Arsenal probably get some feedback from every big game in Europe, and that van Bommel is not PSV's only player. He is of course being touted as a replacement for Patrick Vieira (by those who "know" Paddy's leaving), and as a partner for him by those who aren't so sure.

Bayer Leverkusen's coach even got in on the action this week, claiming that a deal has been done. PSV reacted by saying that they have received no approaches. van Bommel is contracted to PSV till 2005, and other clubs are not allowed to talk to him without their permission. But van Bommell himself is clearly angling for move. See eg the Standard for quotes. Apparently Leeds are too small a club for him.

Arsenal were briefly and amusingly linked with a 50million move for David Trezeguet last week. Like the van Bommel story, this one has the smell of player's agent all over it.

Another one which has gone largely unreported, and which comes to us thanks to eagle-eared Ben Dart, is a rumour about David Beckham. Yes, we know, not very likely. But Alan Brazil on TalkSport has been saying that his source has it on good authority that Beckham is coming to Highbury. He claims it's the same source that told him about Sol Campbell, a source that's never been wrong. Make your own minds up, we present it here mainly for ammo to wind people up with.

On the departures front, Ray Parlour has once again been linked with Sunderland, West Ham, and Leeds. And once again he's said he'll be staying at Arsenal for as long as they want him.

The ever-reliable TribalFootball say that Juve are tracking our Swedish midfielder Henrik Ljungberg (sic), and that we want Zambrotti as part of the deal. Our confidence in TribalFootball is so low that even getting Freddie's name wrong could not make it lower. But it won't be surprising to hear Freddie's name (or his brother's!) cropping up more and more in these rumours, given his form this season.