Kolo Toure Has Malaria

Just what we needed. The man I've been wanting to captain this team for the new season contracted malaria over the summer in the Ivory Coast. He was feeling a little weakness during the training camp in Austria and was taken to the hospital for a check up, and they discovered...wait for it...that he has contracted the deadly disease. He stayed in the hotel during the match yesterday, which finished 1-1.

He's said to be "in good spirits" and "not too concerned" about the illness, which by the way can kill you. A couple of other African players have gotten Malaria in the past few years, and Yakubu and Lomana LuaLua are still living so that is a good sign.

It does look though that he'll miss the beginning of the Premier League season, which means we are even more in dire straights than we were before all of this. Arsene really is going to have to look into bringing in a defender now. Depending on how long Toure is out, we'll only have three central defenders going into the season, Gallas, Senderos, and Djourou. So now is the time to spend some money and go find a defender.

The other main news of the day is that Arsene wants to buy a midfielder. It's not really surprising since Flamini is gone but he hadn't confirmed that this was his intent until now.

“We will need one more body in there,” said Wenger when asked about his midfield. “At the moment we do not have Alex Song who is going to the Olympic games, Abou Diaby was not here tonight and nor was Fabregas.

“If we find a reasonable target then we will do it. But there is no special name on the list.

“We have some time. We have until August 31. We left 11 players back in Austria for this game. They will play in Stuttgart [on July 30].”

I think the comment about it being "no special name" may be a hint that it isn't going to be Xabi Alonso or Gareth Barry. It could be though, who knows with Arsene?

Sorry it's so short. Had work early today but I'll get something together tomorrow. Cheers!