Ashley Cole, Jose Antonio Reyes, and Gel Clichy have all extended their contracts with Arsenal. Ashely Cole has signed a one year extension which allegedly doubles his wages, and keeps him with the club till 2008. Reyes and Clichy have signed longer extnesions, which should seem them stay with Arsenal till 2011 and 2010 respectively. There’s still no sign of Pires or Ljungberg extending their contracts, with Patrick Vieira allegedly trying to persuade Pires to follow him to Juventus.

The official press releases can be found on Arsenal.com here and here.

Thierry Henry has been chosen to be Arsenal’s new captain, following the departure of Patrick Vieira to Juventus. According to Wenger:

“Dennis maybe now will not play in all the games and I want someone who will be there. It is a good chance for Henry to develop.”

Interestingly there was no mention of Sol Campbell for the position, which tallies with rumours that he is looking for a move away from the club. Full details here at Arsenal.com.

Patrick Vieira has been sold to Juventus for €20 million. You can read the press release here on Arsenal.com.

I’m sad to see him go, thought not as gutted as I expected. He’s given a great nine years to the club, and I feel we may have seen the best of him already. I would rather have the money for him instead of having a player that doesn’t want to be at the club.

Of course, speculation will now ensue over who will replace him. There’s been talk of Jermaine Jenas, among others. Wenger’s comments seem to indicate that he’s happy with Fabregas, Flamini and Gilberto. If Pires and Ljungberg sign contract extensions, then there’ll be six midfielders including new signing Hleb. I’m not sure whether Cesc Fabregas can fill the shoes of Patrick Vieira, but perhaps this is a sign of a change in style for Arsenal, with a bit more flexibility coming into the tactics. Only Arsène really knows, and we’ll have to wait a couple of weeks till the start of the season to get an idea how the new Arsenal will shape up without PV4.

Arsenal kicked off their pre-season set of friendlies with a 4 – 1 win over Barnet. New signing Hleb opened the scoring after 2 minutes, and this was followed by a Henry penalty, a typical Bergkamp strike, and a fourth by Hoyte. Barnet pulled one back in the second half. A full match report can be found here on Arsenal.com.

Arsenal.com reports that Alexander Hleb has signed for Arsenal in a deal that could rise to €15 million. The Belarussian midfielder arrives from VfB Stuttgart. The move is dependant on Hleb passing a medical and obtaining a work permit.

It is not clear where Arsène will play Hleb. He may continue his role on the right of midfield, possibly replacing Freddie if he decides to go. However, he may play more in the Bergkamp position, and could be seen as his replacement. I look forward to seeing Hleb in action, and the pre-season matches may give us a clue as to what Arsène will do with him.

Arsenal.com have details of the draft fixture list for next season. It hardly seems like the last season is over, and already we’re talking about the next one!

The season kicks off with a home game against Newcastle, and finishes with a home game against newly-promoted Wigan. The Gunners cross London for their second match, which is away to Chelsea, and Manchester United visit Highbury on January 2nd.

In transfer news, Stuttgart are not preventing Hleb from talking to Arsenal, so it looks like this transfer may happen if the price is right. However, both Pires and Ljungberg have not agreed new contracts yet, and it’s looking more likely that Pires at least may be joining Edu at Valencia.

Arsenal’s new redcurrant commemorative home kit was officially launched this week, and you can buy it online at the Arsenal.com shop. I’m still not sure about the colour, but the idea of going back to the same colour as the first season at Highbury is a nice one. When I see it in the flesh, I’m sure it will look great

Finally, happy birthday to Patrick Vieira, who turned 29 yesterday. Thankfully this summer seems to be a quieter one for him, with the Real Madrid saga seemingly finally at an end.

Robin van Persie faces a further two weeks in custody with the Dutch police as they investigate rape allegations against the Arsenal player. He was arrested last weekend and detained while the investigation progresses. So far Arsenal have refused to make any official comment.

Dutch police can potentially hold him for a further three months once the two week period expires. It is expected that he will apply for bail, but in any case, he will not be allowed to leave the country. This means that he will not be able to join up with his Arsenal colleagues for pre-season training, which begins in early July. I hope that the allegations are unfounded, and that the situation is resolved speedily.

UEFA have relented and are allowing Liverpool to defend their Champions League title next season. Liverpool will have to go through all the qualifying rounds, and will not be restricted from potentially playing against other Premiership sides.

UEFA have also changed the Champions League rules so that in the event of a similar situation arising again where the winners of the Champions League have failed to qualify for the next season, then the fourth qualifying team will have to give up their place for the defending champions.

In their official statement Arsenal state that they believe the hearings were fair, that the punishment will act as a deterrent to other clubs approaching players illegally, and they reiterated their support for Ashley Cole.

David Dein had this to say about Ashley:

“We don’t want Ashley Cole to leave. We expect him to respect the two years remaining on his current contract, and look to extend his contract and hope that he stays longer. As a Club we did not want to see him punished. 

With regards to Ashley Cole’s position, it is not untenable, everyone makes mistakes.”

So, it looks like Arsenal are prepared to forgive Ashley Cole for his part in the affair, which would seem to imply that he did indeed have some hand in approaching Chelsea. Dein’s further comments take a swipe at the role that agents played in this case, and it would seem to imply that the whole thing may have been driven by one or both of the agents involved.

The fact that agents typically get some cut of the transfer fee paid for their clients naturally makes it in their own interests for players to change clubs as often as possible, and for as large a fee as possible. It is easy to understand why they would be tempted to contravene the rules, especially when the penalties involved are not likely to be serious enough to deter anyone at the top levels of football. In this case, Ashley Cole’s commitment to Arsenal has been weakened somewhat, and when the dust clears, there’s nothing to stop him going to Chelsea anyway at some point in the future, and thus the agents will get their cut sooner or later. Perhaps one outcome of this whole sorry affair will be a review of the role of agents in player transfers, and what measures can be put in place to prevent agents flouting the rules.

Of course, it must be said that the agents can only wield influence, and in the end it is the players and the clubs that also contravene the rules. In this particular case we cannot say definitively what actually happened, so perhaps the agents were not at fault. The findings of the commission seem to make no mention of the agents, and perhaps this means that it was indeed Ashley Cole and Chelsea who instigated the meeting. But I can hardly imagine their respective agents saying “No, this meeting won’t happen, it’s against the rules, and I don’t want to get a large slice of £20 million”. Can you?

The independent commission looking into the details of the alleged “tapping-up” of Ashley Cole by Chelsea has found that Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, and Ashley Cole guilty of contravening various Premier League rules. They are taking statements relating to mitigation before issuing details of any sanctions, and all parties have 14 days to appeal, so we don’t know what, if any, sanctions are to be applied.

This result is curious because Chelsea have been found guilty of approaching a player without their club’s permission, but Ashley Cole has also been found guilty of approaching another club without the consent of his own club. So who approached whom? Surely someone had to instigate the approach from one side or another, and the other party was simply responding to that approach. It is highly unlikely that both parties spontaneously approached each other, happening to bump into each other in a London Hotel!

In the end, this is a fudge by the English FA and their commission. With everyone being blamed, no-one can be singled out for particular blame. There’ll be fines all round, and that will be the end of it. The level of the fines is hardly likely to bother Roman Abramovitch, Jose Mourinho, or Ashley Cole. And there will have been no real result other than Ashley Cole being unsettled, and unknown consequences for his future at Arsenal.

I hope he will still remain at the club, since he is one of the best left-backs in the Premiership. Perhaps once the sanctions are announced and dealt with, Arsenal and Cole can put things behind them, sort out a new deal, and go into the new season having cleared the air.

The full text of the official statement can be read here.