Liverpool and Manchester City target Javi Martinez says he is aware of interest from the Premier League and is waiting to see if either club makes a move.
The Athletic Bilbao midfielder has been attracting rave reviews and Rafael Benitez reportedly sees him as a long-term replacement for Xabi Alonso, while mega-rich City are also keen.

Any concerns that we may be entering next season with our talismanic captain, as a result of a suspension from the spitting row with Hull, have finally been ended with confirmation that there was no evidence in the first place. That it has taken the FA a little over two months to determine that, when we all knew within hours, is baffling yet somehow exceptionally unsurprising.

Rafa Benitez has made peace with Sir Alex Ferguson in a private letter.
The pair have been at loggerheads all year, but the Liverpool boss wrote to Fergie after the Manchester United manager's grandson was badly injured in a car crash.
Benitez, a father of two girls, wrote offering his help while 10-year-old Charlie Ferguson is at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.

Slow old summer, isn't it? Other than the Confederations Cup, the U21 finals, Wimbledon, the Lions tour and the Ashes, there's been almost no sport on the telly at all.

We're now just six days short of the pre-season curtain-raiser at Barnet though. That came round fast.

What kind of a state are Arsenal in?

Gary Mills has left Stevenage Borough this afternoon, joining Blue Square Premier rivals Mansfield Town on a two year contract. It's a move that I'm surprised has happened, but at the same time am not disappointed. The defensive midfielder was one of Graham Westley's first signings last summer when he rejected a new contract at Kettering to move to Broadhall Way.

After harassing our player via the media last summer, Ramon Calderon, who was then the Real Madrid president, made an attempt to 'make friends' with United. He claimed he never meant to do anything to 'disturb' a 'nice and friendly club' like United. Do me a fucking favour.

Calderon's replacement, Florentino Perez, who has shown that being a twat is part of the job description as Real president, has tried the same approach today.

Florentino Perez has returned to Madrid as President and has immediately set about making up with United and Alex Ferguson.

Known for publicly courting Cristiano Ronaldo amongst others, Perez insists he does not want to make enemies with United. Perez told The Times;

"If I had to choose between the friendship with United and Ronaldo I would choose the friendship.

Good morning all, and I suppose I should start with the only real Arsenal news there is around, and that is our draw against Celtic in the Champions League final qualifier. Given the amount of people on Twitter claiming we would get Celtic (or Celtic fans saying they'd get Arsenal) prior to the draw I'm gonna say that the whole thing is a fix.

Andreas Ullmann, head of market intelligence at Sport+Markt, reckons that shirt sponsorship for Premier League clubs will increase slightly this year thanks to new deals emanating from the betting industry.
"Without them many clubs would have serious problems," he says.
ScudamoreWorld clubs dependent on betting sector cash to survive?

Stevenage are up against Peterborough tonight at Broadhall Way. Updates from the game will be live here.

LIVE SCORE: Boro 0-1 Peterborough

BORO: Bayes, Wilson, Laird, Roberts, Ashton, Cole, Bridges, Bostwick, Long, Yemi, Boylan

POSH: Lewis, Lee, Zakuani, Pearce, Williams, Boyd, Coutts, McLean, Batt, Whelpdale, Diagouraga

1 min: Boyd cross shot easily dealt with by Bayes
4 mins: Snap shot by Long saved by Joe Lewis in the Posh goal
12 mins: GOAL!

I expect to receive a bit of stick for writing this but I don't mind!
There are rumours that Emmanuel Eboué is to follow his African buddies Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor out of the Emirates door and I'm sure that there will be many Gooners who won't be losing any sleep over this.
I'm not one of those Gooners.

"'If one day there is a chance of Ronaldo playing for Real Madrid, that would be an honour for us.
'But if I had to choose between the friendship with Manchester United and the signing of Ronaldo, I would choose the friendship.
'Plus, I have never said that Cristiano will arrive in June. That is an arrogant and false statement.

I won't deny the fact that Adebayor has pissed me off over the last 12 months, even more than when I heard that a Spud had 'apparently' buried a Spurs shirt under the pitch during the construction of the Emirates.
He has pissed a lot of Gooners off and the worst thing is it seems he doesn't really care.

It was really nice, I thought, to see Tomas Rosicky score at the weekend. He's been out of action for roughly 1000 years, and he came back and showed he's still got the magic, by banging one in (in vein) against Manchester City. Luckily, Rosicky hasn't joined the list of players who had to retire [.

Beyond the criticism for what appears to be a callous and poor way of dealing with now departed Alejandro Moreno, the Crew and Robert Warzycha are taking a lot of heat in some corners for leaving Moreno and Frankie Hejduk unprotected in the expansion draft. Michael Arace in the Dispatch:

Obviously, coach Robert Warzycha wants to go in a different direction.

Working as I do in a career where teamwork is crucial, I've attended more than my fair share of team-building exercises. I've gathered in intense circles of earnest contemplation, gazed at my navel, had days out in the country and built models of bridges (oh the significance) from cardboard, paper and string.