well the rain arrived this morning as predicted - presumably arranged by BAA to dampen the spirits of the Heathrow runway protestors. The football talk concerns the apparent mishandling by Wenger of the captaincy question. Gilberto only heard about Gallas getting the job when he read it on the club website. Now I find this a bit odd. Surely AW would have said something to him in person, at least by telephone? And do the Arsenal players actually visit the website? Gallas has a big ego, that much is clear and I wonder if AW is able to deal with that easily. Gilberto is a proper gentleman (in both senses of the word) and is perhaps better suited to the role of club captain where he can use his father figure persona to help the youngsters settle in - witness that wonderful UTube clip of him, Denilson and Baptista (who he?) grooving to latin sounds earlier in the year. Gallas needs to be captain and he is in the best position at centre-half, but he needs to lead by example (as Gilberto does) and not just by moaning and carping. I wonder, changing the subject slightly, whether potential new signings are waiting to see if we qualify for the CL? If they are then then they must be 'big' players - some second rater or the latest unknown Brazilian is hardly going to be worried about that are they?

Rat watch: Day 4 - not much movement today, a bit of excitement as grapes were introduced (easily their favourite food, closely followed by sweetcorn) and Albert seems particularly reluctant to being handled. Day by day as they say..