The Lead

It wouldn’t be the summer if there wasn’t endless transfer speculation over a player once considered “integral” at Arsenal. Despite three bids in the last twenty-four hours for the Dutch forward, from Man City, Juventus and, incredibly enough, Manchester United, the boffins at the Emirates have wisely decided to wait for higher bids, in the £20 million range according to the Guardian.

Which means this story may not just have legs running up until the end of the summer transfer window on August 31st; it may have mechanical legs from the future, which operate on some sort of laser-powered system, I don’t know.

Needless to say, the 28-year-old van Persie will almost certainly NOT be joining the club on their pre-season tour in Asia. Perhaps he too will read the papers each morning, bemused along with the rest of us at whatever random bid has last been lodged. There, he might come across former manager George Graham squatting over his former club’s transfer predicament and taking a giant, verbal dump:

“You have to sell Van Persie and move on, and Arsenal need to tell everybody that they can’t compete on the financial aspect, that they can’t compete with Chelsea, Manchester City, even Manchester United.

“If the club have to sell their top player they also have to tell their fans it has to be done this way. Last year it dragged on with [Cesc] Fabregas and players were brought in late and Arsenal had a bad start, culminating with an eight-goal hammering at Old Trafford.

“With Van Persie it needs to be done and dusted, he has made his statement, he has said the club lack ambition so the club need to get the best offer they can and move on.”

Knowing how this system works, fat chance George. This thing with the laser legs could march on for weeks.

Canada

Canada will play an August warm-up friendly against pretty decent opposition in Trinidad & Tobago.

Duane Rollins defends playoff talk and Toronto FC. Armen Bedakian on some tinkering at the back.

Ben Massey looks at the growing fiasco at FC Edmonton.

England

Owner John Henry is not inclined to hold Brendan Rodgers to a top four finish with Liverpool.

Gareth Southgate parts ways with the Football Association after only 18 months.

Emile Heskey watch.

Italy

Reserve keeper Marco Storari happy to press flowers at Juventus while Gigi Buffon does all the work, despite rumours of offers from other Serie A clubs.

Juve’s director general speaks out on a host of interesting topics, including the “player exodus” from Italy.

Spain

Hey look a Marca story on the Modric to Real Madrid saga. What a surprise.

Bits and bobs

Some photos of the new Yankee Stadium being defaced for a soccer game.

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifinakis are promoting some movie and shit, plus Chelsea.

Dave Whelan says something!

And that, give or take, is the story so far…