Play up pompey!

Well done to Portsmouth, I did enjoy watching the cup final yesterday because it was a decent game, and it was played in a pretty sportsmanlike manner without the gamesmanship and cheating that would have taken place if a Chelsea or a Man U had taken part. The Champions League final promises to be a cagey and bitter encounter, it's a great shame the best footballing side got done out of it by some dodgy refereeing and a Ryan Babel dive. It's going to be a hard final to watch, the optimists amongst us will be looking forward to enjoying one of our great rivals losing, while the pessimists will probably not be watching.

The silly season is upon us, meaning that we are being linked with hundreds of players and it isn't even yet the end of May. Frankly I can't be arsed to keep up with the details because the vast majority of them are completely baseless bull. It is worth keeping an eye on what the mighty Arsene has to say, as this is often more revealing than any rumours in the tabloids:

"I think a huge player is better than a huge name, you have huge names who produce very little at the moment. There is plenty of demand from players who want to join us and what we need next year is two or three maybe."

Arsene is quite right. We don't need time big time Charlies for the sake of appeasing some rather mindless fans, fans who are happy to slag off our own players because they believe the odd made up rumour in the Sun, mentioning no names of course Le Vacuum. One particular blog labels Flamini 'a tosser and a greedy narsissic delusional twat and tells Adebayor to f*ck off calling him 'last season's biggest joke'. Some people have more mouth than brains, they would certainly do better to think before letting fly, unfortunately they may be a little short of the grey cells to do the thinking, while the less said about their grammar the better.

We need two or three hungry young Sagna/Eduardo types, players who are not household names, but who are approaching their peak and who will be able to drive us onto some silverware next season. The big names are often not as hungry and keen to prove themselves, while one also has to pay over the odds in terms of transfer fees and wages.

Meanwhile Arsene has hinted that he sees Alexandre Song as a centre back for us, and his solid performances there for us at the end of this season certainly add weight to this argument. Personally I remain to be convinced that a partnership of Gallas and Song or Toure and Song would be big enough for a title winning run in the Premiership. Whoever else Arsene signs we certainly have some rather exciting prospects coming through already, Vela is to be part of the squad next year, while the likes of Gibbs, Randall and Merida will all be part of the squad.