It’s amazing what little actually goes on, football-wise, in the summer months and. Now that the number of games in the Euros is reduced to four to be played tonight, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. 

Yesterday was almost completely wiped out for me through illness, as I slept for most of the day, but it was telling how little there was going on in the world when I did manage to arise myself, only to see Sky Sports had dedicated their entire programming to every word Jose Mourinho has uttered in his first press conference as manager. 

The Arseblogger has already said it, but kudos goes to United for rekindling the pure hatred most people will have for their club, with Mourinho taking the time yesterday to take indirect pot shots at many people, Arsène included. It’s funny, for a man who accused Arsène of voyeurism a few years back, one can’t help but chuckle at his constant attempts to poke at the Arsenal manager. Jose has won titles, but he’s never really been around long enough to set up a proper legacy, which is probably why the very existence of Arsène frustrates him. The reason Mourinho has never set up a legacy is because of who he is. He is an odious character, fractious and constantly on the attack, which is more than you can say for his teams. He sees everyone in football as an enemy and his style and approach to the game is exactly the opposite of another person he cannot stand: Pep Guardiola. The new Man City manager looks to me – having only viewed from a distance – like the kind of guy who inspires players through good football. And he wins. But with Pep he puts so much in to his time at a club, that he burns out after three years. With Mourinho, he burns everyone else within three years, which is usually why he’s shunted out the door in one way or another.

I hope his time at United is an unmitigated disaster. It probably won’t be, but boy, wouldn’t it be funny?

Anyway, in terms of Arsenal-related news, well there isn’t really a lot to talk about. We’re still being linked with the same names up front, which means we’ll probably be continued to be linked until the last day of the transfer window. Come on, you and I both know how this works, don’t we? And we also know how this ends. Usually by staying up on 31st August desperately hoping to hear something. So I’m not even takin enough stock in the rumours so as to link to them in my blog today. What’s being said is rehashed versions of stories journo’s have already written more than once this summer. 

I suppose if you’re really at a loss for something to do, you could have a look at the players returning to training, and see if there’s anybody who looks overly happy or sad. That will enable you to put two and two together to make 900 about their future. I had a quick flick through, before realising that I’m not sure I care too much about players running drills, etc, so I quickly swiped off to see what’s happening with the weather this weekend. It’s looking touch-and-go for BBQs in Uxbridge, by the way, just thought you’d want to know.

It’ll be another couple of weeks before we see pictures of the full squad together, because most of the international players will be given two weeks off. I guess that must be for holidays, because with Jack and Hector, for example, they have hardly played any minutes at all. So it’s not like they’ll be fatigued. But I do get that they will not have had any holiday time, so who can begrudge someone like him a bit of R&R? As for Jack though, I do wonder if in his position, he might think about returning to training a little earlier than he’s supposed to. After all, he’s still in the process of rebuilding his body back up to full match fitness, so having two weeks off now might just set him back a little bit, especially as he’s been out for just under a year and I’m sure he’s had chances to take little breaks. To be fair to him, I’ve seen a picture of him doing some pull-ups, so perhaps he is undertaking a bit of a training regime. But we’ll just have to see how ready Arsène says he is when Le Boss gives his first presser of pre-season.

Righto, that’s me for another day, so I’ll catch you tomorrow. Have a good’un.