A few years back an ad on TV showed an agent and a beleaguered chairman negotiating a transfer deal. The agent said his player demanded a car for every day of the week, a huge salary net of tax, a street named after him and a memorial of him outside the ground. The chairman on the verge of a nervous breakdown uttered the words “seems reasonable to me” and gently wept. Now that kind of deal seems a bit far fetched but not as far fetched as some of the pathetic nonsense spoken by players during this close season. An example is Helb saying he couldn’t hack London because it is too noisy: why did he just not say ‘I am going because I can earn more money at Barcelona’?

The madness of the past few weeks is in part because of the compression of the transfer window into a specific period coupled with the total lack of any ethics by the agents and the abject nonsense spoken by the majority of players seeking and engineering a move.

Enter then the guy in charge of world football who is known for his outrageous statements and keeping a straight face he utters that players are “modern day slaves”. This means, in short, the head of FIFA is now supporting contract breaking, how can any club operate with such bizarre parameters?

The point I am struggling to make is that money is not helping Man Utd or Chelsea hold on to their players so those who see a huge bank balance as our salvation are wrong. Players wake up in the morning and decide that they don’t like the view any more and are off for whatever excuse they can manufacture.

Our editor’s article of 8th July makes very clear how much is so right with our club. I am very relaxed about our future and I believe we will still surprise a few people before the season starts.

In this transfer window of utter bullsh*t and obscene payroll demands, our club are trying to set a policy for now and the future. It may mean that we lose Adebayor, but even if he did stay do you want a season of him staring at younger players who did not give the pass just as he wanted or the rolling of eyes when a colleague misses a chance? Or him having a fight with one of his team-mates because he feels he is having a poor game? That is not for me to answer here, but we have been there before.

Chelsea cannot keep Lampard happy on an offer of a four year contract worth over £20 million. The deal he wants is a five year contract that will see him on over £5 million a year at 35 years of age and even Chelsea have said no to that one. We are talking about Lampard here and not Messi or Kaka. This nonsense can’t last and although our manager is at last buying players he is more importantly selling on the unhappy ones for a profit and is still challenging for the top honours, not like a certain manager a few miles away who has made his name on winning minor trophies.

That same manager now has to hawk round the market a complete team that he knows are not good enough and sell at a loss players who have been bought at the top end of their price – all so that he can finance purchases of another group of players who will not be much better than the ones he is forced to sell just to freshen up his squad.

Arsenal cannot join in this nonsense because it does not make business sense, and with their financial commitments they cannot afford any mistakes. What they can do though is very cleverly use this madness to increase the value of their erstwhile players. For me the Adebayor scenario is good business, Arsenal are saying ok you think you are worth £85,000 a week, we won’t pay you that but if you think that is what you are worth then you will command a transfer fee that befits a player on that kind of salary. Hence the £36 million price tag, a good piece of business manoeuvering.

To criticise the Arsenal board or Wenger for not doing this or buying that in this ‘no rules’ climate is ridiculous, it is like buying a house in a war zone. You don’t know when it is your turn to be hit next and let’s face it if Blatter, the guy running the show, thinks players should play for whoever they want, when they want, what chance has any club got of building a team for the future?

Thankfully Arsenal as a club and business have come to their collective senses before most other clubs. The next few years will see the wisdom of this policy when reality starts to finally find its way into the insular world that is professional football.