Thursday afternoon drinking seems like a good idea at the time, but when you wake up on the Friday to make the hour-long commute on public transportation, you realise that it’s probably not the best idea in the world.

Still, it is Friday, the weekend is upon us and although there is no Arsenal to speak of (even if we really should have had some given the quality of opponents we came up against in the cup) I guess there is still the FA Cup to be mildly interested in.

Suffice to say I want Palace to win. In a season of big club failure it only seems fitting. Although they probably won’t win. I don’t know if I’ll watch all of it to be honest with you. The last time I watched a final with United in that wasn’t against us, they drubbed Milwall 3-0 in the most one-sided competition one could imagine. I don’t think I want to sit through another repeat of that.

In the Arsenal world, more transfer pish-posh is rumbling on, with the standard “Player X’s friend has confirmed he’s close to joining the club”. It’s times like this that I’d love to be able to get access-all-areas on a transfer. Not because I like being first with news or to tell anybody, but just to witness the detail behind how it happens. Who talks to who first? For how long? Does it start with a third party from Arsenal talking to the player? Is it just a phone call to the players agent that says simply “Arsenal are interested. What do you think?”, followed by a response of interest? Are these quick five minute discussions that take place over the course of a few days? Or do they undertake weeks of keeping each other on hold? What about the talks with the clubs? Is it as simple as a phone call saying “we’re interested. We value him at ‘X'”, with the selling club saying “we think ‘Y'” followed by a few days of radio silence before they talk again? 

As simple observers on the outside, occasionally you and I hear stories, like how the Arteta deal was pushed through because the player wanted it, but you don’t really get any sense of how it is done, not in any great detail anyway. I remember reading about Monreal’s transfer. He had been told of interest from the club but had thought little of it because this sort of speculation was commonplace. But then as he travelled to work in Malaga on the final day of the January transfer window, he got a call to tell him to get to the airport because he had a medical scheduled in London, so he just made his way to a pre-booked flight and had his medical and the deal was done. A quick turnaround indeed, but how many other parts of the deal had to be done in order to get that over the line? How many conversations? That’s the intriguing bit that I’d like to find out about.

But instead all we get is the tittle-tattle. The sensationalist stuff. The speculation. I can’t really be bothered with it if I’m honest. Morata, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, blah, blah, blah. It’s all a silly game. We know three quarters of it is garbage. The press know three quarters is garbage, yet people continue to talk about these transfers like they’re ‘done deals’. Yawn. Wake me up when there’s something more concrete.

I guess that’s the problem with blogging daily though. You sort of set yourself up to be embroiled in the hearsay, because there’s nothing else to talk about. Well, nothing football related, at least. I do wonder if by the time the Euro’s come around, even i’ll be craving some international football, such is the need to talk about something football related. We’ll just have to wait and see I suppose.

Right, that’s yer lot, I’m off to find something to make my head less fuzzy.