Morning all.

Transfer gossip:

And according to reports in Serbia free agent striker Nikola Zigic has emerged as a shock contender to join us. The paper, Zurnal, suggest that the 33-year-old former Birmingham striker is scheduled for a medical as early as today.

What a load of poppycock… Isn’t it?

Danny Wellbeck is another name in the papers, some of which suggest we have made contact with Utd already about him and the Edison Cavani stories rumble on…..

There has been a lot of discussion on here lately about how many players Arsene Wenger could sign, if he really wanted to show a bit of ambition. Should we beat Besiktas tonight and progress to the group stage of the Champions League, we will have to submit to UEFA a list of players for the competition on the 2nd September. That is list A.

List A

No club may have more than 25 players on this list and two of them must be goalkeepers, and these players must be over 21.

The number of foreign players permitted is 17 and the remaining 8 places are reserved for club trained players or home produced players.

Where a club is unable to produce 8 C/T or H/P players the squad size is reduced . I E. If a club has only 4 C/T or H/P players the the Squad is reduced to 21 they cannot make up the shortfall by increasing the number of foreign players.

List B

Each club is entitled to register an unlimited number of players during the season on this list and it must be submitted no later than 24 hours before the match in question.

Player Eligibility – Players who are 21 or over on 1st Jan 2014 must be included and registered in the 25 man squad for the 2014-2015 season.

Players under the age of 21 on the 1st Jan 2014 do not have to be registered for the 25 man squad and can play in the C/L for the 2014-2015 season as a list B player.

Sanogo was 21 on 27th January 2014 and Oxlade-Chamberlain was 21 on 15th August but as they were under 21 on 1st Jan they do not take up a place in the 25 squad.

We have 24 players over 21 on our books and of these only 21 can expect to be in our squad after 2nd sept.

There are 6 C/T H/P players namely Szczesny, Martinez, Gibbs,  Wilshere, Ramsey and Walcott.

There are 15 foreign players, namely Ospinia, Debuchy, Monreal, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Rosicky, Cazorla, Arteta, Flamini, Diaby, Ozil, Podolski, Giroud, Campbell and Sanchez.

The future of Ryo, Coquelin and Miquel is still unclear and should all three depart over the next few days as expected that will leave further places in the squad to be filled.

Arsene is in the position to bring in 2 foreign players and 2 home produced players if he can find them.

Will he do it? Foreign players I still think he will, the home produced, no, I don’t think he will.

That was from Rick.

Of course, we have to qualify for the group stage first and that can be done tonight if we can find a way to beat Besiktas. If we don’t, it’s Thursday/Sunday night football for us and we really really don’t want or need that!

We have no Ramsey, Giroud (no ‘d’ Carragher!) Arteta and Walcott. Not good but we do have exciting, gifted and world class players amongst the rest. We have Ozil, Alexis, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Debuchy, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla and Chambers to name a few who could win this match for us tonight.

There’s plenty of pace there and add Joel Campbell into the mix, we have players who are prepared to get back and fight for the cause if we need to. We have Sanogo too……

As much as a couple of key players are missing, we have enough as long as Arsene Wenger picks the right players for the task ahead. Hit them with pace and hit them hard, none of this hogging the ball but doing nothing with it because Besiktas will be up for this game, they’ll want our scalp and they’ll fight tooth and nail to get it.

It’s up to Arsene Wenger and the players now and if they want to progress, they all need to step up their game and make it happen…

Arsene Wenger has said he won’t panic buy after injuries have hit us early this season. My answer to that is it’s not panic buying, it’s about addressing the needs of the squad, it’s about being ambitious and showing some intent this summer.

It’s about wanting to win the league and having a squad capable of doing so…..

COYRRG’s, get the job done tonight!

That’s it for today, have a good one….