The Fabregas/Nasri Conundrum

It's that time of year again. Football fans up and down the country are tinkering with their final 'Fantasy Football' line-ups, journalists and pundits are churning out prediction tables and broadcasters play endless season preview advertisments as we trudge ever nearer to the big kick-off.

If there is one thing that has disappointed me over the last few months, it is the distint lack of buzz around any serious transfer activity. With the rumour mills running on full power it seems as if the transfers of even players like Sergio Aguero to Manchester City seem to have passed by with the nonchalance of a harbour clerk ticking off bags of grain as they are unloaded from a ship.

The one transfer story that has dragged on like a poorly written soap is the imminent departure of Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas to his boyhood heroes and reigning European champions, Barcelona. The Catalan giants have flirted with Fabregas for a number of seasons now and I, for one, feel that his departure will help rather than hinder Arsene Wenger.

Talismanic, creative and inspirational club captain he may be, but it is sheer folly to keep Fabregas at a club where he no longer wishes to stay. With Samir Nasri due to depart north to join the blue half of Manchester, the speculatation over both players' futures will surely clear the air of frustration at the Emirates and allow Wenger to invest the money in areas where the Gunners are seriously lacking.