I know that we always say that no transfer rumour can really be fully believed until Arsenal make an official announcement, I am stopping short of saying that the Gunners have completed the first signing in what we hope to be a busy summer transfer window, but Yaya Sanogo has said himself that he is coming to Arsenal, and he should know.
You may or may not be aware that Arsenal star and England International Jack Wilshere underwent surgery in an attempt to fix his persistent ankle injures which have blighted his career over the last two seasons. The operation last month was to replace some of the screws put into his ankle when he first injured it two years ago.
Most of us have been expecting some sort of change to the Arsenal goalkeeping situation this summer. There have been transfer rumours linking the club to a vast array of possible transfer targets, while the media have speculated about whether Wojciech Szczesny might leave if he feels that his first team place is being threatened.
The news that Abou Diaby is stepping up his recovery from injury should really make most Arsenal fans happy, but it has got to the point, with me anyway, that it just makes me even more worried. The Gunners were in exactly the same situation last summer, although the French international midfielder was closer to being fit then.
There have been understandable concerns from the Arsenal fans about the young Japanese international Ryo Miyaichi, but Arsene Wenger is confident that the 20-year old has got a bright future as a Gunner. Miyaichi has yet to make a Premier League appearance for Arsenal, but he is still very young. This season may well be the one in which the Arsenal fans get to see the promising talent break through.
This week it was revealed that Arsenal are in the process of negotiating with Bacary Sagna over a possible new contract. With just a year left on his current deal, the likelihood is that the French international will be sold if he does not agree to an extension on his current deal.
If Sagna does depart from the Emirates this summer, then Arsene Wenger will have to sign a new right back.
One of the main reasons that Bacary Sagna has been reluctant to sign an extension to his Arsenal contract is because of his concern over the club's additions. There is no doubt that the 30-year old would not be averse to a bumper pay day before his career comes to an end, but the lack of silverware on his mantelpiece is also a big factor.
Jack Wilshere: Arsenal's Gifted Curse part 1 By Shona
Jack Wilshere is undoubtedly one of the finest players Arsenal currently has, indeed the 21-year old midfielder is among the most promising young players in global football, rightfully mentioned in the same breath as Neymar, Isco, Gotze, Alcantara, Gündoğan and so forth.
It might be just as well that Arsenal are currently being linked with every footballer and his dog as the rumour mill really gets underway for this summer's transfer window dealings. Two of the reported long term transfer targets for the Gunners have given Arsene Wenger some bad news after suggesting that they may be staying where they are.
Ryo Miyaichi was a player that I think gave every Arsenal fan a tad of excitement. Maybe not the most skilful or amazing player that would change a game in an instant but his raw speed just gave us the feeling that something amazing could happen at any moment, much like the feel you got when you first saw Theo Walcott play for Arsenal, or Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, even Serge Gnabry.
Reports are gathering pace that Borussia Dortmund have joined the race to sign Lukas Podolski, with Atletico Madrid previously confirmed as being interested in acquiring the German. I haven't a clue whether the rumours are true, but I do know that selling Podolski makes no sense if we hope to improve on last year's campaign.
With all the talk of Arsenal needing a new defensive midfielder this season there have been many players linked with the club and many suggestions by football fans on who would be a good fit for the club. One name I have never heard mentioned is Liverpool's Lucas Leiva.
There is one huge reason why nobody would really mention him, his injury problems.
Theo Walcott ended the season as Arsenal's highest goal scorer with 21 goals, which is his most impressive return yet, however without being too critical it's not a high enough number for a team that wants to be ambitious in the challenges in front of them.
It was never really in doubt, but the official Arsenal website has announced that Santi Cazorla has been voted as the Player of the Season by the Arsenal fans, with a massive 55 percent of the votes. It is just reward for the Spaniard who more than makes up for in ability what he lacks in stature.
I am probably not alone among the Arsenal fans in thinking that Lukas Podolski would have been better off resting or getting medical treatment on his troublesome ankle as soon as the Premier League season came to an end. Instead, the 27-year old striker has flown to America to join up with his international team mates, including Per Mertesacker, for a couple of pointless friendly games.
Should Arsenal really be looking at another keeper? by AH
Arsenal's goalkeeping position seems to be a topic regularly spoken about and perhaps this is because, admittedly, none of us are too sure on how we feel about Wojciech Szczseny at the club. In my opinion I think he's a good goalkeeper that still has a lot of time to show his full potential and develop into one of the world's best for the next generation, however I'm not sure if I'm absolutely confident in him being Arsenal's number one goalkeeper at the moment.
Rumours over the last week would suggest that Arsenal's number one Right Back Bacary Sagna is set to leave the club this summer after 6 years with the Gunners. Sagna joined Arsenal back in the season of 2007/08 and has gone on to be named as the best right back in the Premier League over the last few years.
Arsenal are yet to officially announce the signing of Yaya Sanogo from Ligue 2 side Auxerre on a free transfer. However the striker himself has told the media that he will soon join up with the Gunners and has since reportedly signed a 5 year deal and passed a medical.
Defensive midfield has been a problem position at Arsenal ever since, well Patrick Vieira really. The Frenchman was such a great player, breaking up play brilliantly as well as driving forwards brilliantly and linking up with the attack. He could also get into the box and finish goals as well.
In a way, Vieira caused the problems that Arsenal have had in recent years with that position, as Arsene Wenger compares any other player in that area to his former captain.
It was great for Arsenal fans to see Super Jack Wilshere back playing in the first team again this season. The 21-year old was obviously as glad as we were to get over his injury after what seemed like an eternity on the sidelines. Jack has put in some great performances for the Gunners, but he knows he has not been at his brilliant best, although he is sure we will see that next season.
We don't know for sure that Arsenal are definitely looking to sign another keeper this summer, but it seems fairly likely, with the problems there have been with Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski over the last few years. I really hope that Arsene Wenger has got a clear idea of who he wants to bring in, even if it is between a few keepers, because according to the media he has about 39 different possibilities.
Juventus player Mauricio Isla has alerted a number of clubs in Europe including Arsenal after he stated that he may be leaving Turin this summer. Isla has had a horrible season at Juventus but the Chilean was a star player at Udinese where he was played in his favoured right wing back position instead of central midfield regularly.
What are we going to do with Nicklas Bendtner when he comes back to Arsenal? by SS
Simple, sell him. He has been on loan at Juventus this season after Arsene Wenger finally tried and failed to sell him last summer. He has not scored a single goal at Juventus this season and has failed to show the Arsenal management why he should stay at the club.
Most Arsenal fans seem to agree that the Gunners definitely need a top top top striker, a hard defensive midfielder and maybe a new goalkeeper to improve us for next season, but if Wenger finally actually manages to get rid of most of our deadwood this summer then we may need more than a few players to make up the numbers of squad players.
While the Arsenal players and fans can relax for a bit after another nail biting season, the agents, scouts and backroom staff will be a s busy as ever preparing for next season. Bacary Sagna and Arsenal have a big decision to make about the French defender's future, while Carl Jenkinson is desperate to get more games under his belt and become the first choice at right back.
Many of the readers on this site spend a lot of time reading the rumours about which players may be on their way to Arsenal. Great fun, and we all want to see the gunners linked with top players and see a few coming to us instead of the usual 'richer' clubs.
Arsene Wenger seems to have made his decision to include Jack Wilshere in the Arsenal starting line up today. Unless he is doing another of his old Jedi mind tricks, of course, and Mikel Arteta and his unmovable appear on the St. James' pitch this afternoon. Assuming the Spaniard has failed to recover from his calf problem, it will be Jack who plays alongside Ramsey.
Could Arsenal make a shock move for 33 year old Wigan defender Emerson Boyce? by SS
Arsene Wenger would hope to get Boyce cheap and use him as cover in a variety of defensive positions and to act as an experienced leader within the defence. Bacary Sagna looks set to leave the club this summer with Russian giants Anzhi and newly crowned French champions PSG interested.
It has been very impressive the way Arsenal have handled the pressure on them this season. From a morale sapping defeat to the hated spuds, Arsenal were left seven points adrift and it seemed like this would be the year Tottenham finally finished above us.
Maybe we should thank AVB, because the spuds' croaky voiced manager's gloating claims of a downward spiral for Arsenal had the opposite effect and we are now back in the driving seat.
Arsene Wenger has been talking about who will replace the injured Mikel Arteta in Arsenal's crucial match against Newcastle tomorrow, and although he says that Jack Wilshere is the obvious replacement, he will leave it up to the player himself to decide if he can handle the pain.
Wenger said: "That is one of the things I have to evaluate before Sunday and talk to him as well,"
"He will have the final say in that because you cannot force a player, they have to be comfortable.
It is a tough question because during his Arsenal career he has always been injury prone and missed large chunks of the season. Even when he has been fit and playing matches he has sometimes underperformed compared to the rest of the team but then again in some matches he has been the driving force for an important win.
It seems as if Arsenal Football Club is in danger of turning into the French national team, especially if these two midfielders get their wish and a transfer to the Emirates this summer. Etienne Capoue from Toulouse and Younes Belhanda from Montpellier are keen to come to the English Premier League, and it does not take a rocket scientist to guess which would be their team of choice.
Tomas Rosicky has got just a year left on his current Arsenal contract, which has led to rumours and speculation in the media that he might be on his way out of the Emirates this summer. The Czech international has made his feelings about the matter quite clear, however, and he will still be with us next year if it is up to him, while Arsene Wenger still seems to want him.
Benik Afobe. A player which both Arsenal fans and manager Arsene Wenger once had very high hopes for, but now he seems to be nothing more than the other Arsenal youth players that struggle. His continuous loan deals and struggles with fitness look set to make him the next in line for the failed youth players, which is now rising to an extraordinary amount.
Although some people may slate the club for letting the deadwood players go for stupidly small sums of money, a lot of people will correctly recognise that although it hasn't added much to our transfer chest, it does free up a lot of space elsewhere.
Arsenal are apparently closing in on the signing of young Manchester City midfielder Abdi Ibrahim who has been on loan for the last few seasons away from his parent club. This would seem like a strange move for Arsenal to make but the Norwegian has been on a host of Premier League club's radars for many years and it appears that City have resigned themselves to selling him because of a lack of room in his favoured defensive midfield role.
Surely Arsene Wenger will sign a defensive midfielder for Arsenal this summer, surely. I know that Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey have been doing a great job recently and that there is the versatile Francis Coquelin breaking through from the reserve ranks, but the need for a proper, no-nonsense midfield general has been stark at times this season.
There have been a number of Arsenal players away on international duty this past week, so I am going to take a look at how they have all done. The most important thing, for anyone concerned with the Gunners, is that none of the players picked up any injuries or had a total disaster. Other than that, though, there were good and bad things for our players.
Most of the Arsenal players have had a long, hard season with the club. It is not just the physical strain, either, but the mental fatigue that the pressure brings with it. It would, therefore, be great if they could all have a nice and relaxing summer before reporting for duty again.
In today's modern football world, however, that doesn't happen.
There is a belief in football that you should not change a winning team and that is what Arsenal have had for the last three games. Arsene Wenger had suggested that Olivier Giroud would return after his suspension and that Mikel Arteta would not be able to play due to his calf problem, but that seems to have been intended to keep the Newcastle manager Alan Pardew and his players guessing right to the last minute.
