Cole/Baptista Swap Gathering Pace?

I don’t know how many of you have heard my Baptista/Cole swap theory, well, I didn’t come up with it but something I heard which all the evidence now seems to point towards.

Whether Baptista would be a player we need, or even want, is a different matter entirely, but I can’t help thinking there’s something in this.

Lets look at the evidence.

Ashley Cole appeared to be on his way out of Arsenal last summer after initially agreeing to commit to the Gunners only to have his wages dropped at the last minute which then led him to ‘those talks’ with Chelsea, we all thought he was gone. Then out of the blue he signs a solitary one year extension with his wages 10 grand higher than his original contract. Strange, no?

Then there was the whole Baptista saga. Wenger wanted the player, he wanted Arsenal, claiming it would be his dream move but the only thing stopping him was the fact that he wanted to gain dual nationality and only had to remain in Spain for one more year to gain this, then out of the blue, in come Real Madrid and snap him up for 15 million (round about the same amount that Cole has for his buy out clause in his contract)

There was also the fact that Real Madrid wanted to sign Ashley Cole after the story of his meetings with Chelsea broke and it became apparent that Cole was going to leave.

When the whole ugly series of events had seemingly been squared away, Arsene Wenger said to Arsenal fans that there would be a new signing on the way but we would all have to wait until summer 2006 to see who this player was because there was complications.

All that happened last year, and most people had forgotten about it…..until now.

Ashley Cole stated yesterday that a ‘secret deal’ was keeping him at Arsenal, could this be the secret deal? Then in this mornings papers we read that Baptista has issued a statement claiming that Arsenal still want him. All very very strange.

Of course this could all be coincidental, because these things do happen, but I suppose We’ll just have to wait for Ashley Cole’s book to be released, which strangely enough, comes out just as the transfer window closes