Yes please to Ribery; no thanks to Hansen.

The only really significant piece of news I've read in the last few days regarding us, is that we've been given 'first option' on Franck Ribery. I think this may just be speculation stemming from agents, but I'd really like Franck to join the club. He's feisty, a goal-scorer, and a real winger; a long-term replacement for Freddie in my eyes. Whether he'll come or not, and whether we should ascribe any significance to this rumour is still anyone's guess however.

Speaking of Ribery, its Internationals day, and lots of Gooners are in action around Europe. However, I've just watched the Wales Slovakia game where there were none of our boys present. The 5-1 scoreline was a bit harsh on Wales, and largely seemed to stem from Paul Jones inability to catch anything that floated above his head. Gareth Bale played well at lb for Wales and scored a cracking free-kick: it's not hard to see why the 17 year old has been linked with us. I know we have Traore for the long term, but he'd definitely be worth monitoring.

I'm tempted to watch the Scotland France game as England Macedonia is going to be absolute rubbish. Especially due to the BBC's commentary team. Wait for Shearer to say: 'well, Rooney, he's er a good player', or some other wonderfully enlightened piece of commentary such as 'well, England did well to score so many goals.' Expect Wrighty to say, 'no disrespect to Macedonica, or whatever they're called, but we should be beating these teams easy coz we're England'. Please, please Ian, end you're media career before all my fond memories of you are gone. Expect Hansen to say 'well, the Macedonian defending was atrocious' about 49 times. Finally, expect them all to say, 'well, without getting carried away, the fact that England have beaten a series of teams who would be regularly beaten in the Championship, let alone the Premiership, means we all feel England are back on track under McClaren and can win Euro 2008'. A win today proves nothing and England will not win Euro 2008. But the BBC needs to hype the team to keep us watching. Moreover, I'm surprised the England team can all fit on the pitch given the size of their massive egos.

People wonder why England haven't won anything for forty years, and the answer is simple: we have not been good enough to win anything. We've had a couple of good players in the last twenty years - Beckham, Owen, Gascoigne, Rooney - but the first three burnt out after good starts and I have worries about Wayne 'I never dive' Rooney. It finally hit home to me when I watched France in the world cup. They had Henry up front, Zidane floating in the hole, Makelele and Vieira marshalling the midfield, Ribery roaming up the wings, Gallas and Thuram at the back. England don't have that quality, and we shouldn't pretend we do. Stuart Downing and Peter Crouch are starting today. Nuff said. [and if anyone says Crouch has an excellent international record....]

Speaking of Hansen he advised Scotland to 'give Henry a whack' if they wanted to contain him. Now, normally I'm a fan of Hansen; if perhaps only in a slightly ironic way. His continual ranting against all forms of defending - he probably considered this years Italian team 'sloppy' - is a constant source of amusement to me. But this is a disgraceful comment. He tried to dilute its potency by claiming that the 'whack' should be legitimate - but no commentator, especially one who was an ex-pro, should incite violence on another player. Grow up Alan.

Thats all for now. Time to settle down for the game of the century. Or sleep. Or, indeed, both.