When we signed Andrey Arshavin one of the first things that had Arsenal fans in stitches was his high pitched voice and feeble grasp of the language, then came the comments about women drivers being given separate roads to drive on. The fans loved his bluntness, the fact it wasn’t an error in translation, he said it meaning what he had said. No excuses or apologies.

‘I would never give driving lessons to women. We need to build new roads for them. Why? Because you never know what to expect from a woman on the road. If you see a car behaving weirdly, swerving and doing strange things, before you see the driver you know it is a woman. It is always a woman.’

His bluntness has brought those moments, and caused the opposite too. On a few occasions he has got on fans nerves with his negativity about our transfer policy, lack of recruits and his views on us not winning anything were pretty strong too. We didn’t hear anything along the lines of ‘I believe Arsenal can win the title’ alongside those blunt and honest comments about women, or the tax laws in this country.

That is why now his latest comments have delighted me, it is clear that he has faith in this team and particularly as Cesc is staying; maybe now we will see a bit more effort from him at times, and to be fair against Blackpool he did cover a lot of ground. The fact he looks knackered after his first sprint is a sight we have all come accustomed to, as have we the strolling 5’7 mercurial star, ambling along as if he has not got a care in the world. He said:

“I think all the young players have become, not old, but they have experience now, Arsene works with them for a long time and that’s why he knows them better and he knows what to expect during the season from the players.

“It gives me belief that we can get something this year.”

You know when he says that he is not just paying lip service, towing the party line like so many players around these days. This guy is old school, and that is why Arsenal fans love him.

But with that love there is so much frustration, its almost like he just can’t be bothered sometimes, not in a disrespectful way like Adebayor, its just as if he knows he can do one magical thing a game so he doesn’t bust a gut for 89 minutes and 55 seconds because he doesn’t have to. Its a privileged position he is in, his talent is sublime, he is one of the most talented players on the planet, but he could be so much better!

We are going to need him on the top of his game this season, hes a match-winner, a player with experience of winning a European competition and the Russian Premier League, and in a squad where trophies have only been won by a few, that is vital. He is one of the senior players and when given the responsibility I think he thrives. The game away at Portsmouth sticks in my head, the way he communicated more with the other players when he was the captain – he oozed maturity and calmness, the performance matched.

And those signings he has called for in the past? Well it looks like we are going to get them this summer. Sebastian Squillaci is set to be unveiled as an Arsenal player today after completing a medical, just. It is said that a groin issue very nearly got in the way of him passing the medical but it has gone through without a hitch I’m told.

There are only seven days of the transfer window remaining thankfully and those seven days look like they may well start to get manic. It seems the market at the moment is just waiting for the one move to start the cascading of dominoes, nearly every single transfer this summer is linked with another, the money that is in short supply with some clubs is another reason why the domino effect is so eminent this summer.

Lets sit back and watch it though eh? At least you don’t have to put up with Sky Sports News coverage if you operate with Freeview, that has been taken away and is now not a free-to-air channel thanks to Rupert Murdoch and his team of brainiacs. Depending on the situation I might run updates on here, I’ll keep you informed of any plans.

Anyway, let the madness commence….