Shinji Kagawa will become the 6th Japanese to sign for a Premier League: Junichi Inamoto (Arsenal, Fulham), Kazuyuki Toda (Tottenham Hotspur), Hidetoshi Nakata (Bolton Wanderers), Ryo Miyaichi (Bolton Wanderers) and …. the other is Akinori Nishizawa who played for Bolton, also, but never made a Premier League appearance – scoring once in three outings in the League Cup. It should be noted, stats fans, that while Ryo Miyaichi does “belong” to Arsenal (again, for now) he has not made a Premier League appearance for them – just a couple of League Cup matches so far for The Gunners.

(And, you know, we COULD throw in Lee Tadanari too, but I think I’ll wait until the new season kicks off!)

Here’s a “touched-up” picture currently doing the rounds! Shinji’s arms are a lot hairier (and longer) than I remember them!!