And the merry-go-round begins

Barcelona have completed the signing of David Villa from Valencia for around 40 million Euros. Villa should really have been signed last summer but decided he wanted to stay on with Valencia for another season to help them reach the Champions League, now, mission accomplished, he's moving to the Nou Camp.

The big question now is how long before Cesc joins him and will the departure of the Arsenal captain lead to Arsene Wenger falling on his sword and leaving the club as some are predicting. Listening to one of the football 'experts' last night it appears that the captain was not impressed with the list of potential new team mates that was presented to him at a meeting last week and instructed the club to contact Barcelona and name their price.

It's an astute move by Barcelona because Cesc will become the heir apparent to Xavi with the possibility of both playing in midfield with Busquets dropping out and Iniesta moving up front alongside Messi and Villa.

And whilst we are in a football frame of mind, well down to Gary Lineker. Whilst not a big fan of the crisp munching, jug eared, former England centre forward's television appeareances I have to say I'm mightily impressed by his decision to quit writing his newspaper column over the Triesman 'sting'. As most people suspected at the time, this had more to do with selling newspapers than exposing anything of any worth, unfortunately another private conversation has become public property.