It’s one thing when the media speculate about who may or may not be leaving Arsenal (that’s their job after all) but when our foremost players pour petrol on the flames I for one get a bit cheesed off. Arsenal supporters shell out far too much of our hard earned cash to be treated like this by the Club.

In the last few days I have read some terrible comments by Henry and Fabregas – certainly not the sort of things that they should be talking to press hacks about. Fabregas has stated that he wishes he had not signed an eight year deal with Arsenal and that he will once again play for Barcelona one day. Henry has said “I’m an Arsenal player for now…

Both of these two seem to forget that they are under contract to, and are very highly paid by Arsenal. I understand fully that they are young, ferociously ambitious and frustrated by Arsenal’s continued lack of investment in top class players but they should be setting an example to the other players and the tens of thousands of Arsenal fans who worship them both.

Football is not a normal business. Loyalties (for fans at least) are for life - if Tesco had continuously under-performed and p*ssed me off throughout last year I would have had no hesitation in saying “Sod you, I’ll give my money to Lord Sainsbury instead”. Football fans however don’t do that (except for the recently arrived Chelsea fans) so we keep on turning up to watch the lads win, draw or lose 1 -0 to a mid-table team who should have been buried by half-time. I think we are entitled to a little less disregard in return.

As much as I admire Thierry Henry I’m starting to wonder if we would be better off selling him?? His contribution last season was poor even allowing for his injury. I think he may have burned his bridges with Arsène Wenger during November 2006 when Arsène rested him but Thierry came over all petulant and started sulking in public saying that he was fit when he quite obviously wasn’t. His antics during the Spurs match when running out to celebrate with Adebayor showed that he needs to be the centre of attention maybe a little too much for M Wenger.

Roy Keane was arguably Man Utd’s most influential player during their years at the top but the moment Old Red Nose deemed that Keane was disrupting the team ethic, he was moved on. Wenger is equally as ruthless as Fergie (as Vieira, Keown, Parlour and others will testify) so I wouldn’t be surprised if Henry is allowed to leave this summer. If so, part of me will be annoyed, part of me will be sad and part of me will think “Good – no player should ever think he’s bigger than the Club”.

On the other hand, maybe Henry and Fabregas are cuter than I think – maybe they are using their considerable bargaining power to say to the board “Unless you invest in top class players, we’re off and there’ll be no shortage of clubs who want our signatures”. If that is their motive then well done lads but don’t do it in public.

If Arsenal are to get back to Championship winning form, we need players like Henry, Fabregas AND at least two or three top class new signings, all performing to the best of their ability. Nothing would give me more pleasure but I have a horrible feeling that too many unsettling things have gone on behind the scenes :-

* Vieira’s sudden departure
* Cole’s acrimonious departure
* David Dein’s sudden departure
* Kroenke’s unsettling influence
* No major investment in new players
* Henry’s sulking

After these events Arsenal are a very long way from the harmony and winning ways of 2004. This could turn out to be a long and arduous summer followed by a repeat of last season. Unless Arsenal make some major signings soon, we are in danger of becoming to Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan etc. exactly what Southampton and West Brom are to Premier League clubs – unable to hang on to our talented players when the really big clubs come calling. After all Arsène’s excellent work since 1996, that would be a bloody tragedy!!