So Jose, who are the Highbury bad men?

Reyes is an extremely self-conscious young man, in fact the only loud thing about him is the gypsy jewellery he wears to training.

But an insider at Arsenal today denied that Reyes had any problems with his team-mates: "How would he know? Jose hardly speaks. He just goes about his work, comes in for training, never complains and just gets on with it. He has never been seen to have a row with anyone in the dressing room or out on the pitch. He doesn't moan - just goes about his business."

Arsenal's is certainly not a split dressing room. Captain Patrick Vieira and full-back Lauren had a well-documented exchange of words after a Champions League game in Norway against Rosenberg earlier this season, but there were no raised fists as was reported.

There are those who speak their mind, but the two main voices belong to Wenger and Vieira. All team talks are given in English by Wenger and if someone like Reyes has a problem understanding (he speaks little English), then fluent Spanish speaker Robert Pires will help out. Wenger also speaks Spanish.

Swedish midfield player Fredrik Ljungberg is never short of an opinion when he feels it is needed but everyone makes their own contributions when the time is pertinent. Thierry Henry can be emotional, especially after a game if he feels there has been an injustice. But Wenger is adamant that a successful team needs a good spirit and tends to weed out disruptive influences.

It would be unsurprising if a quiet, unacademic player such as Reyes - from a poor background where the roof on his home leaked if it rained - missed some of the sunny delights of Spain. But it will particularly rile Arsenal that he was duped into the comments about Real and that the Butragueno impersonator also conned Reyes's mother into criticising London.

Reyes today expressed his anger over the hoax, and Arsenal's chiefs insisted that he has four years left on his contract, is happy at the club and will not be released.

Reyes, though, has an unlucky knack of being drawn into headline-grabbing flashpoints.

Earlier this season, Reyes was at the centre of the racism storm concerning Luis Aragones when Arsenal team-mate Thierry Henry was labelled "that shitty black man" by Aragones in conversation with the striker during a training session before a World Cup qualifier against Belgium.

That sparked the furore which climaxed with the disgraceful chanting at the Bernabeu Stadium when England played Spain.

That row rumbles on even until today, when a judge investigating remarks made by Aragones recommended that he be fined £2,068.

The Spanish Football Federation opened a probe into Aragones's behaviour and the judge said that 66-year-old Aragones should be given the highest level of fine applicable in such cases.

Reyes was also caught up in an unsavoury incident when he was at Seville in 2001. The Spanish Football Association's disciplinary panel had to investigate the strange case of Seville midfielder Francisco Gallardo who was charged with infringing "sporting dignity and decorum" after he celebrated team-mate Reyes's goal in the 4-0 defeat of Valladolid by nibbling the then teenager's penis.

Gallardo was unrepentant: "It is sad that everyone is making so much of a fuss about this instead of my performances with Seville and the Spanish Under-21s. It was nothing at all."

Reyes said: "I felt a bit of a pinch but I didn't realise what Gallardo had done until I saw the video. The worst thing is the teasing from my teammates."

His Arsenal colleagues are likely to be sympathetic about today's hoo-ha and when he next scores all he is likely to get is a very un-Gallardo like shake of the hand.

The Prime suspects

Ashley Cole
Willing to make friends and give advice to new signings but never has much time as he sometimes seems to have to run off for meetings in central London

Pascal Cygan
It appears that something could have been lost in translation here as the French defender is not necessarily a bad man, simply a bad player

Robert Pires
A radio star with his own show in France, nice guy Pires should have given his team-mate some tips on how to handle himself on the airwaves

Thierry Henry
Definitely one to avoid - well that's according to Reyes's Spanish coach Luis Aragones, who racially abused the French striker during training last year