These are strange and dangerous times, people, strange and dangerous times. In the wider world outside football there is much conflict, with countries declaring states of emergency, as well as the bigots using ‘Brexit’ as a means to peddle their own racist views with what seems like impunity.

Plus, Sam Allardyce is about to be named England manager, which perhaps signals the darkest situation of all. 

If you read my usual blog, you’ll know I’m not really any kind of major international fan, nor am I an England fan despite being English. But the arrival of ‘Big Sam’ in to that role should make the divide between club and international football even bigger for me. Imagine Sam has a friendly and he wants an only half-fit Welbeck in the squad. Do you think he’ll call up Arsène and talk to him about his condition? Will he heck. 

Still, when the vultures in the press start to see the first flesh wound of England defeat, it’ll at least be hilarious to see him lashing out, won’t it?

Dark times indeed my friends. But crazy times too. Imagine Arsène Wenger being the FA’s first choice, then Allardyce being second choice, eh? The paucity of options really do make you wonder where this country’s next generation of coaching talent are coming from. Especially when they’ll need to be visa processes managers will need to go through, due to the Brexit!

The papers too, are going a bit bonkers, I think. I had a flick through NewsNow over my morning Coco-Pops and I saw that Arsenal are now open to making a bid on Mahrez because City are signing Sane, an article about which Premier League grounds are the oldest, as well as who will have to travel the furthest to get to and from a Premier League ground next season.

Jeez, there really isn’t much going on, if that’s the extent of the major news. 

Of course, we all know that there is other stuff at other clubs bubbling along, like Pogba going to United for €120million. If that deal goes through, as is expected by just about every football-supporting human on the planet, it shows just how batshit-crazy the world has gone. Paul Pogba, who United let go four years ago, is going for a world record transfer fee, and even Mourinho is outspending his usual levels of cash. 

What’s depressing though, is that you just know that it will essentially add a minimum of at least £5million on every single other transfer in England, as clubs from across the world realise just how much cash is swilling around the Premier League. Which as an Arsenal fan, depresses the hell out of me, because I know that Wenger would rather walk away than pay anything over his valuation on a player. Irrespective of whether it is current market rate or not. So if Lacazette is £42million, Higuain is £60million and Icardi is £40million too, we can all forget about it. 

Arsène is looking for another Eduardo. He has to be. It’s the only reason we haven’t really found anything yet. He already knows those players that are on the market and will cost a fortune, and they’re probably all his ‘Plan B’, because all he has to do is green light the transfer and Arsenal would probably do it. So my betting is that he’s searching for another less well-known player and if he can find one for about £10-£20million up front, he’s going to do it. So to me, we’ve got at least another 10 days of him searching before he makes a decision to go in for a big name, because surely even he won’t let us go into that Liverpool game with only Walcott as the sole senior choice up top? Will he?

Who knows. Maybe I’m wrong. I have a habit of that to be fair. I’m about as In The Know as the stupid fly in my lounge who, despite repeated attempts to usher him out the window, still refused to complete the simple task of exiting the building, preferring instead to repeatedly smash against the window before flying to the other side of the room to do the same with the opposite window. 

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that there’s still bugger all happening, there probably won’t be anything happening this week, and we’re all getting a little bit bored of it. Well, those of us who aren’t having social media breakdowns, that is.

I think what I might take to doing is what Arsène recommends, focusing on those players currently in the squad and whether or not they have any hope of a good season, many of whom will I have no doubt. 

Take the Ox, for example, who I tipped to have a big one but promptly conspired to bin my prediction within a few weeks of the new season starting. I remain convinced of his talent, but he is at a ‘now or never’ stage with his Arsenal career, so perhaps next season can be a breakthrough. We’ve all heard the stories about how he has returned to training early, about how there appears to be a renewed focus and how he looks pretty mean at the moment. If he has had a word with himself, has decided he’s going to dispense with the ‘joker’ tag and have a proper go at establishing himself, then that’s a-ok with me. What I want to see from Arsenal players is them performing well and winning matches. It doesn’t matter who they are and where they are from, as long as they perform, so even if we were to go out and sign Mahrez, if the Ox keeps him out of the team because he’s in the form of his life, then great. 

It was the same with Nacho. I really like and rate Gibbs. He came from the youth set up and has been good when fit. But Nacho was the form player and as a result, his form has kept Gibbs out of the side, which means we’re getting an area of the defence that is performing at its peak. Let’s have that from the Ox please.

More on players tomorrow, I think.

Laters.