The transfer window has well and truly been opened with a lot of big money signings moving to Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Liverpool, Monaco, Juventus and several other big European clubs. Unfortunately, things aren’t going so well at Arsenal.

To date, we’ve confirmed the exciting signing of an out-of-contract young Frenchman by the name of Yaya Sanogo. The 20 year old used to play for Auxerre, until his contract ran out on the 30th June, and that’s when we snapped him up.

He joins an illustrious list of inspired Arsene signings from the French league, including Marouane Chamakh, Gervinho, Park Chu-Young and Olivier Giroud.

So a signing worth getting excited over.

I jest, but hopefully (that should be in capitals really) that may just be the start of some big summer signings.

Unfortunately, we have had a bid publicly turned down for Lars Bender. We reportedly bid somewhere in the region of £18.5 million but that was rejected. Are we going in with another bid? Who knows. But missing out on him wouldn’t be a surprise.

Despite Higuain’s dog declaring he was coming to Arsenal, all talk of the Argentine striker joining us has stalled.

The ridiculous Wayne Rooney rumours have also died down, giving way to some other equally preposterous links. We’ve now been linked with Manchester City’s Gareth Barry, although it’s “reported” we wouldn’t pay him the £100,000 a week he’s on at the Etihad. So not really a story then is it?

Also, Nicklas Bendtner looks like he is following Djourou and moving to Germany. So that’s nice I suppose.

Are we destined for a long and agonising summer where we are just constantly being linked to a host of “world class” players we don’t have a chance in hell of signing?

Who knows…

There have been a multitude of excuses to why Arsenal have yet to make a purchase this summer. I was going to say “significant purchase” but considering we haven’t even made an insignificant purchase yet then there seems little point.

Excuses include that the transfer window wasn’t officially open yet, Real Madrid were yet to appoint a manager, that players were on holiday… the list of why Arsenal are incapable of buying anyone is endless.

So I thought it would be interesting to see how the other Premier League clubs have fared. After all, they will surely have the same problems as us in the transfer market and therefore they won’t have made any purchases yet will they?

Arsenal
Total Purchases = 0

Aston Villa
Aleksander Tonev, Jores Okore, Leandro Bacuna, Nicklas Helenius, Antonio Luna, Jed Steer.
Total Purchases = 6

Cardiff City
Andreas Cornelius.
Total Purchases = 1

Chelsea
Andre Schurrle.
Total Purchases = 1

Crystal Palace
Total Transfers = 0

Everton
Total Transfers = 0

Fulham
Sascha Riether, Fernando Amorebieta, Derek Boateng, Maarten Stekelenburg.
Total Purchases = 4

Hull City
George Boyd, Maynor Figueroa.
Total Purchases = 2

Liverpool
Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas, Simon Mignolet, Kolo Toure.
Total Purchases = 4

Manchester City
Fernandinho, Jesus Navas.
Total Purchases = 2

Manchester United
Guillermo Varela.
Total Purchases = 1

Newcastle United
Total Purchases = 0

Norwich City
Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Javier Garrido.
Total Purchases = 2

Southampton
Dejan Lovren.
Total Purchases = 1

Stoke City
Erik Pieters.
Total Purchases = 1

Sunderland
Duncan Watmore, Modibo Diakite, Valentin Roberge, Cabral, David Moberg Karlsson, El-Hadji Ba.
Total Purchases = 6

Swansea City
Jose Canas, Jordi Amat.
Total Purchases = 2

Tottenham Hotspur
Total Purchases = 0

West Bromich Albion
Total Purchases = 0

West Ham United
Razvan Rat, Adrian, Andy Carroll, Danny Whitehead.
Total Purchases = 4

So (if my maths hasn’t failed me, and it may have, then) in total there have been 37 official signings made by Premier League clubs. Only 6 teams have yet to make any signings, and of those 6, one is undergoing a managerial change (Everton) and another has Joe Kinnear involved.

So what’s going on with Arsenal? Are they ready to surprise everyone with massive signings this week now the “window” is open?

Or is this going to be a long, tedious and agonising summer for Arsenal fans?

If we believed everything the press published, we could end up starting next season with a strike force of Wayne Rooney, Gonzalo Higuain and Fernando Torres.

Here I give cast my eye over how likely these deals are:

Gonzalo Higuain: 8/10

This is a deal that I feel is realistic. We’ve heard from Higuain’s brother, father, grandmother and even his dog that he could be moving to Arsenal. For me, this deal is very much on the table but the big question is do Arsenal have the balls to follow it through and seal the deal.

Fernando Torres: 1/10

Unless Arsene has had a stroke, then this deal is how it sounds. Completely ridiculous. Fernando Torres is finished. Ever since moving to Chelsea he has been extremely poor and obviously Jose Mourinho doesn’t see him being the man that can fire Chelsea to the major honours so they want to offload him. The obvious place to link him to is Arsenal with their “war chest” and every striker that looks like moving on is linked to us. It’s no different here but the whole concept is crazy. He only scores against rubbish teams, has lost his pace, lost his touch and well, is crap.

Wayne Rooney: 1/10

Another ridiculous transfer rumour. He’s on a reported £250,000 a week which is more than double the highest paid player, Theo Walcott, is on at Arsenal. Added to the issue of wages, he is a disruptive influence in the dressing room, wouldn’t take orders from Arsene Wenger, is a liability on the pitch, doesn’t fit in to Arsenal’s style of play, would go off the rails in London… do I really need to go on?

Anyway, he’s apparently “happy” at Manchester United now and it was blatantly just yet another ploy to improve his contract at Old Trafford.

In a world exclusive, we can officially reveal that Higuain’s dog Fito (Fido in Spanish, probably) has officially confirmed his owner will be moving to London for Arsenal FC.

In a statement, he said:

“Woof woof.”

And while I’m no dog expert, obviously, it translates as:

“I was running around the house as usual when I saw a school teacher (Arsene Wenger) and his personal assistant (Ivan Gazidis) and they talked about moving to Arsenal.

“At that point, I went outside and licked my balls.”

So there you have it. If you were unsure about whether this deal was actually going to happen then wonder no more.