CESC was on a hiding to nothing being picked from the start.

Barring a near perfect performance, he was always going to be the first man subbed.

And so, a little unfairly, it proved.

Anyway, the end of Euro 2008 did not just formally close the 200708 season. It also marked the half way point between our win at Sunderland and the visit of West Brom.

So what has happened? Flamini has left and not been replaced. The informed words of Stewart Robson and a couple of other snippets suggest Diaby will be moved infield. If it works, great. But it is undoubtedly a punt.

Ramsey has arrived and Vela too. Both were given high squad numbers (16 and 12). Then someone (whether it be someone at the club or even the man himself), noticed they had leaped ahead of Theo Walcott in the numerical pecking order. So he became 14.

After four years, Manuel Almunia finally becomes number 1. He is a good keeper who makes few mistakes. Jens is a world class keeper who makes more.

Gael Clichy signed his new contract with all the fuss of one of his performances. Ditto for Bacary Sagna.

The final touches to Alex Hleb’s move have been completed as swiftly as one of his one one ones. In the meantime, we met Arshavin: Hleb with balls.

All the while Samir Nasri has taken the meaning of the word limbo to new heights.

And then there is Adebayor, whose bluff we appear to be calling over his exorbitant wage demands.

Truth be told, wage negotiations are rarely pretty in any industry. We only need to look at our own experiences to know that. But whatever the rights and wrongs, Adebayor is reaching the point where his love affair with the Arsenal fans is becoming stretched.

That said, I suppose Vieira got away with it for years.

Anyway, the next little while should be interesting.

The players (minus the Euro lot) should return for training a week today. Then it is two weeks til Barnet, the first of NINE pre-season friendlies.

The countdown is on.

…that we ARE prepared to sell Adebayor if the money is good and that the interest in Roque Santa Cruz as a replacement IS real.

(Before the abuse gets going, regular readers will know I’ve been doing this blog for nearly four years and have better things to do with my time than invent stuff for a few cheap hits).

WE can hardly complain.

Firstly, there is no league fixture on the first Wednesday of the season, meaning our Champions League qualifier will not leave us a game behind, as has happened in previous years.

Secondly, we start at home.

Thirdly, we go nine games before we face one of Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea or United. Plenty of time to find our feet.

Fourthly, when the big games do arrive in October and November, they are all separated by at least one and usually two other games.

Fifthly, leaving Chelsea at home and United away til right at the end is great. For a start, it means in theory we have an easier first 35 games than we had, say, last season and therefore in theory more chance to rack up points.

And if we are still involved by then, at that stage of the season momentum tends to take over and the usual norms can fly out the window.

Loathe as I am to puncture the balloon I’ve spent the last ten minutes inflating, but it should be said that in the event that we’re well out the running by then and United and Chelsea are going toe to toe for the title, it could be a very painful end to the season.

-Oh and finally, we finish at home, which is always nice.

A few other things:

-Unlike previous years, there is no proper international break in November. England play a friendly between the Villa and Man City games.

-For the first time in at least yonks and possibly ever, no league fixtures are scheduled for the FA Cup Quarter Final weekend.

-If either we or Liverpool reach the last four, our league game at Anfield would clash with the semi. But it would unlikely be pushed back right towards the end of the season: the following Wednesday is free.

-The only extra fixture over Christmas is Boxing Day, with the Saturday fixture pushed to the Sunday (and possibly Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday nights once TV have had a peck).

-The season finishes very late. The FA Cup final is on May 30 and is AFTER the Champions League final, which is just three days after the final league game, which is already scheduled for a Sunday.

And a few more general things:

-I’ve not been blogging because there has been very little to say. Some of the puerile rubbish on Newsnow attests to that much. I don’t know what’s worse: the people who write it or the people who click their headlines and fuel the crap.

It’s tantamount to tossing your lose change into the hands of the local crack addict knowing every time you do it you’ll only make the problem worse.

What is termed a Newsnow Without the Crap site can be found here. Goodplaya is considered “reliable”, which presumably refers to something other than the frequency of my blogging in this close season.

-I’m loving Euro 2008. At work we have a slightly complicated but excellent predictions table that 78 people have each paid £5 to enter.

You pick eight teams, with a maximum of two from a list of four favourites and a minimum of two outsiders, also from a list of four.

You get points for goals, wins, qualification etc etc. But more than that, you rank your teams in order from 1 to 8. The team at 8 just gets the usual points, the team at 7 gets everything doubled, the team at 6 everything trebled etc etc all the way to the team at 1 having every point multiplied by 8.

My eight, in order, are: Spain, Portugal, France (why?), Holland, Czech Rep (oh dear), Russia, Croatia and Austria.

As of yesterday I was 9th out of 78.

-Wenger signed Ramsey by turning on the charm that lured Gael Clichy at the same age. Clichy was also 17 when Wenger lunched the Clichy family in a restaurant in his native Cannes, as Xavier Rivioire recalls in his biography of Arsene.

Seriously, how exciting would that be?

ADRIAN Chiles.

Work it out.

-I’ve had independent word that the Nasri contract is there, on the table and apparently not being held up by any dispute over wages, which will be roughly £60,000 a week.

-I’m also reliably informed Ronaldo loves United but, rather amusingly, can’t stomach Manchester. Hence his desire to leave.

And that, for now, is it.