Don’t mix your alcohol, kids. It will end badly for you. Spoken from a man with plenty of experience and exposure to this scenario.

And I’m supposed to be going to a Bruce Springsteen concert later in Hyde Park.

Bleugh.

Still, on the up side, Arsenal confirmed the contract extension of Big Bill Saliba and that my friends is good news. I did a lot of my talking on it yesterday so I won’t go over old ground, but it’s nice to listen to the chatter on the official site, see the player talking about how he is happy and all that jazz. He’s a funny chap though; super monotone and you’d never know he was happy given the way he speaks. But I suspect that’s just his personality. He’s probably just a bit awkward in front of the cameras. But we’ve got him, it is another tick in the summer ‘to do’ list for Edu and Arteta and now all we need to worry about is getting those signings of Rice and Timber sorted before the team toddle off to Germany to begin those pre season preparations.

Of which in less than a month we’ll be heading to Wembley and thanks to my old mate Dave I’ve got my ticket sorted for then. Yes it’s a glorified friendly, yes it doesn’t mean anything and, yes, we’ll probably lose to City as is our standard operating procedure against Financially Doped Nation State FC, but for me it’s a nice day out and a curtain raiser to be with all my football mates who I don’t see much of over the summer.

Plus we haven’t been to Wembley for a few years so that’s always nice.

I realised after I’d written yesterday’s post that I didn’t even mention the fact that Granit Xhaka left the club this week. To say he divided opinion is of course a massive understatement, but ultimately I think most Arsenal fans are pleased to have seen the season we saw from him last season, with the way he’s helped us to improve and been such a big part of it, plus we’re losing him for a fee that, let’s be honest, is pretty tidy all truths being told. We have all rightly questioned Edu’s record when it comes to selling players, but I think we can all agree that he’s done a pretty good job of getting good coin from Bayer Leverkusen in that deal. Perhaps that is a positive sign of things to come when it comes to sales this summer?

Or, is it just as simple as saying that selling players who are good and play well is a lot easier than selling duffers, eh?

So, what else is knocking around on the ol’ online discourse this morning then, eh? How about this doozy in which Dwight Yorke says that Mason Mount is a better deal for Man United than Rice is for Arsenal? I have to say folks, I just don’t get the Mount hype. Yes he’s a tidy enough player, but I haven’t watched him for Chelsea and England and though “holy moly, he’s good. We should sign him”. He’s a decent player but nothing more. And he’s just come off the back of an incredibly average season. Yet Rice has just come off the back of a season in which he’s carried West Ham at times. In the game against us at the London Stadium it was his high pressing that won the ball back off Partey, forcing the turnover and then eventually leading to their penalty. He’s an all-action guy who will transfer our team. If you shoved Mount in to this Arsenal team, how much different would we actually be given the players we already have that play in and around his positions?

I’d say few. So Dwightie my boy, you are more than welcome to your opinion, but your ‘take’ is certainly not a ‘hot’ one to me, I’m afraid.

There’s also some noises about Flo Balogun to Chelsea and that is one I find very interesting. I can see why Chelsea would be interested and for sure, there’s a weird history of the two clubs being happy to do business with each other, but unless Chelsea want to talk crazy money I’m not sure why we’d want to send him to that scummy side of London. Could you imagine if he actually ‘banged’ there. It’d be hand-wringing carnage. Nope, unless those Chavs are willing to take all of that Mason Mount cash and drop it on our laps (£60million if you didn’t know), then I think we chuckle at them and tell them to pull the other one, because it’s got bells on.

Think that’s probably all I can muster for today. I’ve just read that exercise after a hangover is – oddly – a ‘good’ thing for the body. Apparently it’s all about releasing those endorphins, or something like that, so I’m going to give that a go. It could all end badly but let’s give it a try.

Catch you all tomorrow.