n. (sqaw`doosh): Italian-American slang used to describe something that is missing, absent, or forgotten; usually refers to a concrete or abstract object or idea.

With only one exception, Arsenal dot com, if the headline mentions Arsenal this morning, it must mention reported target Seabastien “Kick his ass Seabass” Squillaci. I keep my ear to the French press musings on Arsenal players, just like everyone else in the blogosphere and it seems the newspaperosphere, but I tend to wait until I read it on L’Equipe before I jump to any conclusions. And sure enough this morning there’s a nice little writeup in L’Equipe of the whole Squillaci saga.

Unlike previous stories, like the Spahic link that as usual turned out to be so much hot air, this one seems to have legs. The kind of legs where Sevilla are publicly claiming that Arsenal have made an offer and that they left him off the Champions League qualifier in order to retain the player’s value — or perhaps at the player’s behest.

So it sounds a lot like we’ve bid on this 30 year old but as you all know, Arsenal bidding on a player doesn’t mean that he will sign for us. We publicly admitted a bid for Mark Schwarzer back in May and still haven’t signed a keeper for fuçk’s sake.

As for the player himself, well, I don’t know much except the last game I saw him play in was France’s 2-1 defeat to South Africa in the World Cup. That’s not much to go by, though, since that team was terrible all around though he wasn’t too bad. One of the many questions people have is what foot does he favor and as far as I can tell in a 1/2 hour’s worth of research is that the player plays on the right for France and Sevilla. So, I think he’s a right footed player — please feel free to rip me for “not doing my research” if he’s left footed.

All told it’s a strange move by Arsene, the player is 30 years old and basically sat out the end of the season at Sevilla with an ankle injury picked up during  a nightmare game against Athletico. Though he’s been capped many times by France and been part of many winning teams, everything about this player makes me nervous and I’m left wondering if he can he make the transition from Spain to England?

Of course, I was one of the people who called for Arsene to just sign anyone and now here I am complaining. Typical Gooner, eh?

As for Traore it looks like he’s on his way out. I picked that thread up at the bottom of this ESPN Soccernet article about Squillaci. According to his agent, Arsenal are flogging him to Benfica and frankly, I don’t think Traore will be a huge loss. He’s never impressed me either in going forward or defending and with Gibbs back in the lineup has to be third choice left back. Good luck, young man. Oh and how did that Muslim convert tattoo surgery go this Summer?

That’s about it for today, hopefully Arsene will put pen to paper on Givens or Schwarzer today and then show off our entirely new defense for the season. Then I can rest easy and have a look at that strange new “fanshare” scheme and the Arsenal Supporter’s Trust self-survey.

Oh, and look for an interview with a wonderful chap who follows me on twitter who is both a Blackpool and an Arsenal fan. He gives us a bit of perspective on this weekend’s opponents and if everything falls into place that might come out later today.

Right, off to work!