Welcome back. I've missed you so.

Hmm. Where to begin?

With the thrashing the USA endured at the hands of Mexico? No, please.

With Contador basically saying that Lance Armstrong is a dick? Not if I can avoid it.

With KP being unfit for The Ashes? How could I miss him if he won't go away? Well, now he's gone. Hello, Ian Bell. Bell has struggled. Bell has shown impatience. Bell, if I may offer, sounds quite a bit like KP.

Then that leaves me with the Arsenal Football Club selling two players (one in attack, one in defence) for what appears to be around 40 million quid. Oh dear.

What would Arsene Wenger want to do with that much money? Right now, I have one thing to suggest: Even if you must overpay, get Hangeland from Fulham. Get him. It's imperative. Donkey Silvestre is not CB cover. NOT AT ALL. Never do that again, mmmkay? Get Hangeland. From what I hear, Tommy V. got hurt today. Of course. You sell Toure, and V. gets knocked out of the game. That's the Arsenal way.

I hated to see Kolo go, in one sense, because he's an Arsenal man and Gallas is not. But Gallas is better as of now, and this is an unsentimental business.

Wenger turned a massive profit on this transfer. I don't think that's enough. Just saying that it happened doesn't change the fact that the squad still needs some quality players in it. It's tempting to look at this moment as the barometer of just where the club sees itself. If some of this money is invested in two more quality players, it sees itself as a championship contender. If none of it is, at least in the summer, then it sees itself as scrambling for fourth and settling for that. It's really that simple. 40 million pounds is a lot of brass.