Is it only me who wanders around contemplating the important questions about life, the big issues, the meaningful stuff like — why has Almunia been allowed to stay with us for as long as he has? Considering the amount of blunders he has made over a prolonged period of time, aren’t you surprised why he is still with us at all?

The only justification I can come up with in an attempt to make sense of this mystery is that it must surely all be connected to Fabrégas. My guess is that Big Al has taken on the role of the older brother to the most important, most valuable asset currently at the club.

Imagine the situation: the squad have to travel miles and miles on a bus making boring journeys to and from grounds all over the country. It seems to me that if Fabrégas had to sit for hours on end speaking only in English, regardless of how good he is, it would take next to no time before we would have another Reyes on our hands.

Enter Big Brother Al: what could make those journeys more bearable than a bit of friendly banter in your native tongue; well almost, I doubt that Almunia speaks Catalan but Fabrégas will speak Castilian with almost the same ease as he does his mother tongue.

Wenger has a history of trying to keep his most talented stars happy. In the case of Bergkamp I am convinced that he prioritised the purchase of Overmars for that very purpose. As good as Bergkamp was at speaking English it would still have been a chore after a while and he would have understandably yearned for the ease of his mother tongue.

Henry is another example; in his case, Wenger bought most of the French National team to keep him happy, I jest, of course — but not by much.

This suggestion as to why Almunia has been with us for as long as he has is all well and good but probably the more important question is will Fabrégas stay. As tedious as this question has become the one thing that every muck raking journalist fails to mention is why he left his beloved Barcelona in the first place? The answer, as far as I can see, was his desire to play regular football, something that he was very unlikely achieve at the time with their youth policy being what it was.

In fact, I wouldn’t’ be surprised if the loss of Fabrégas, Merida and Pique, to mention just three, there were probably others, was Barcelona’s wake up call to take their own “Project Youth” more seriously.

Fabrégas left his beloved Barça because we offered him the chance to play; we still do and it is for that very same reason that he will be with us at the start of next season.

Hill-Wood may have all the diplomacy skills as Prince Philip, exemplified by his crass comment suggesting that he wouldn’t get in the Barça team — but he is right. Fabrégas would never have the same playing opportunities as he does with us, Christ we even let him play with a broken leg, it was broken before the Barça game — you know it was.

So we arrive at the purpose of this post: Fabrégas stays but if Almunia goes expect Wenger to sign another Spaniard to keep our Captain company……….David Villa?