Pay cuts, will this season ever end, will the transfer window begin let alone end and will next season start on time. Questions which won’t go away. Answers which never seem to arrive. How can they when normal everyday movement is restricted. Rightly so of course and I feel the need to say that just in case anyone believes I think otherwise.
I sometimes find myself wondering about the level of intelligence our media folk possess when around 5-20pm each day they question the government and medical representatives about when the lockdown restrictions will be lifted, minutes after it’s been made clear that it won’t be any time soon. I reckon these guys and gals are so focused on what they have to say, they’ve forgotten to listen to what’s gone beforehand. Then when the answer comes, they interrupt the person speaking. Piers Morgan is one of the worst for doing that. What a plonker he made himself look a couple of days ago when Matt Hancock was a guest on the breakfast show which Morgan hosts. Me me me, it’s all about me (Morgan) sprung to mind as he interrupted the Health Secretary for the umpteenth time..
It must be quite refreshing for football managers to speak freely away from the television cameras and microphones. To be sat in a nice quiet room with just a few friendly faces around knowing that no one will interrupt them mid flow, or for that matter, ask a stupid question just because that person thought of it a few hours previously or a day or two beforehand. Same for the players too and we see a lot of interviews with Arsenal players on the official website which I guess is their way of keeping in touch with the fans. We get to find out a thing or two which perhaps we didn’t know before.
Like Kim Kallstrom. Yes I know this particular signing was an odd one but how the transfer came about is really funny in my opinion. Kind of special too. His agent called him and this is how things went….
“Do you want to go on loan to the Premier League?”
“No, not really,” I said. “It would be fun to play in the Premier League, but I’m not so interested in the loan.”
I have a family and at the time, everyone was settled in Moscow. We were very happy there and loved living in Russia.
“Are you sure?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I’m going to stay until the summer and then we’ll see what happens.”
Then, about 10 minutes later, he calls me again.
“Kim, are you sure you don’t want to go? They’re really eager to sign you on loan.”
“Nah, tell them I don’t want to go. I want to stay here.”
Then, one hour later he phones back again – and I was starting to get a bit annoyed!
“You sure you don’t want to go?”
“Please, stop calling me. I don’t want to go.”
“It’s Arsenal.”
“OK, I can go!”
To this day I think a fit Kim Kallstrom would have made a bigger impact during his time at the club. It wasn’t his fault Arsenal went ahead with the deal knowing full well he’d just suffered a back injury. As he said in his interview, he thought the deal would be called off because of his injury but with so little time left in the transfer window, it was him or no one.
I see the fans who joke on the internet about my time here, but I think it’s quite fun. There are a lot of players who have done a lot more for Arsenal than me but then at the same time there are a lot of players who have done a lot less, in a lot more time!
Here, I walked in, hit the penalty, we won a trophy and then I walked out again.
Who’d have thought it, the guy with the broken back?
It’s quite a good story I think and one which I’m sure many Arsenal fans will never forget.
Neither by the sounds of it will Kim Kallstrom. Especially that penalty in 2014.
Stay safe and stay healthy.
Morning Rico and all. Anything with the creepy Morgan involved, I quickly pass by. I really wish he wasn’t an Arsenal supporter. I see him as an ideal Chelsea man who could forever ass-lick Abramovich, hoping for a few crumbs to drop from his table. The press have been very disappointing during this testing time. I watch the evening news once a day and then swerve the rest.
Take good care everyone.
Morning Adam. Same here. 5pm and that’s enough for me…
Good morning Rico.
Kim Kallstrom was a disastrous signing, injured before he could put pen to paper and hardly put a foot on a pitch before departing.
Despite that example, Arsenal have repeated the exercise on several occasions since. Tierney, Denis Suarez, Ceballos, Cedric Soares and to an extent, Nicolas Pepe who arrived physically fit but otherwise not fit for purpose.
Our Executive team need to get a bit smarter before diving into the transfer market.
Sorry if this is outside the scope of Rico’s excellent post.
One of the worrying things about the Covid-19 situation in this country is the lack of beds in our general hospitals for patients suffering from “normal” illnesses.
Attendance at A&E departments is down by about 40%, Cancer treatment for existing patients has been suspended in many cases. It is feared that stroke and heart attack victims are too afraid of the virus to attend hospitals in case they catch it.
Much publicity has been given to the opening of the Nightingale hospitals yet from what I have been able to learn, of the 4,000 beds in the London one only nineteen have been occupied so far.
As there is no recognised treatment for Coronavirus, other than oxygen therapy, it would make sense to direct all new cases of infection to the Nightingale hospitals and transfer as many sufferers as possible from the General hospitals to them as well. Doing so would free up beds and medical staff to treat the normal range of illnesses and injuries without the fear of those patients contracting Covid-19.
It seems that we need to reinvent the old idea of Isolation Hospitals in order to cope with this modern day pandemic.
I know it’s wrong but I really enjoyed reading this.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8231285/Chris-Sutton-recalls-day-one-Sportsmail-columnist-chased-Highbury-toilets.html
Morning Cicero. Ceballos wasn’t injured on arrival was he? Hadn’t Cedric been playing for Saints before joining us but then suffered a set back? I don’t recall Suarez being injured either until after joining us.
Pepe imo just struggled to adapt in a league where he’s kicked to pieces, a bit like Bobby and Reyes but I think he’ll be much better next season.
Tierney though was injured but hindsight is a wonderful thing as I expect the board didn’t foresee him being out for so long.
Rico. I remember that game. Sutton was unpleasant that day and this is a trait he has maintained throughout his lame career as a pundit. Never one to let the truth get in the of a controversy he has trolled his way along to become the Piers Morgan of football knobbery. He makes Paul Merson look like the head of MENSA.
Hi Rico and All what get me is the fans and media see for ex sample arsenal need a midfielder then come the transfer market the recruiters don’t even look for a midfielder and go out and buy a striker when the club don’t need one.
Morning all.
The only time I’ve enjoyed seeing Piers Morgan’s head on television was when he faced a Brett Lee over in the nets, and copped a caning
Lovely stuff.
I might be one of the few Gooners alive to actually see Kallstrom play for the club 🙂
6 years ago, when I was there.
He played well, too.
Can’t remember if it was v City or Swansea, but I do remember thinking he was a damn good footballer, especially when healthy lol
Adam. Morgan certainly comes across as being quite aggressive and antagonistic but then that’s what he gets paid to be I guess. I don’t like it at all.
Sutton is just one in a long list of weird pundits I think. Did you by chance read the article about Lauren in The Athletic? Very good.
Hi Geoff.
Scott, I’m with you re Kallstrom, when fit, a very good footballer and to be fair, just what we needed back then, however….
Chris Sutton , Billy big boots , all mouth and trousers .
I know a few people that used to be doorman at clubs in Great yarmouth . He was well known for giving it large as they say and had quite a local reputation
Still eventually he got his come uppance a little later when he left Norfolk although the fines were water off a duck’s back .
Chris Sutton’s £6m transfer to Celtic was yesterday overshadowed by a conviction for spitting in the face of a Manchester United fan.
The Chelsea striker was found guilty of two counts of common assault at London’s Horseferry Road magistrates court. He was ordered to pay a total of £700 made up of fines of £300, costs of £200 and £200 compensation to his victim, a 25-year-old trainee barrister Richard Partridge.
The incident happened outside a Soho restaurant in the early hours of a Sunday morning last October after Sutton, 27, had been celebrating his wife Samantha’s birthday.
Sutton’s conviction follows his trouble with the law six years ago when, on the occasion of his then record £5m transfer from Norwich City to Blackburn, he spent a night in the police cells following a row in a nightclub after which he damaged a car and was chased by two police cars. Last year his agent claimed Sutton had been the victim of a malicious internet campaign
What a ghastly bloke. Up there with Carragher.
Rico. I’ve never seen The Athletic but I saw something about Lauren having the hump with Henry.
That’s the story Adam but more too about back then, him and what he’s doing now.
Nice post, Rico! That was a great penalty from Kallstrom..
Chris Sutton -.listening to him commentating bores me to tears! And I’d forgotten about his spitting incident.. dirty sod.. like you say, as bad as Carragher! Can’t stand spitting, or the other things footballers do on the pitch, just imagine being tackled and falling face first right in it.. gross!! A Liverpool fan once spat at me, upon hearing I was a gooner…never liked them since!
Return of Le Coq 😜 How are you? And how are things in Cornwall?
Thanks Sue. I’m the same re spitting, doesn’t get any worse imo. Vieira once spat at Ruddock, I think it was and I lost a bit of respect for him after that.
Sunny as usual, Sue!
I`ve done a years gardening and landscaping in a few weeks, re-using stone and materials on site, divided plants, taken cuttings, used all the horses well rotted horses muck making veggie patches, too much to mention and spent about £100.
Plus I`ve become a domestic Goddess………………..One Week BC(Before Coronavirus) there was a mountain of dirty washing, now wife is in seperate isolation I have miraculously destroyed the mountain and like the hand of god was guiding me I have not lost a single sock!………..the washing machine does it all, it`s so simple!………………………….I shall see if the mountain returns when the monster…..sorry ………wife returns after about about One Week AD( After Divorce if she reads this ! hahaha)
Hi Le Coq……nice to see the wife and your good self are fine and dandy. Like you I have been away from HH for a while. Catching up on so many gardening jobs. I find it very therapeutic. Stay safe buddy and keep well.
Hi ya Vickers!……………………….hope you and your clan are all OK…………………
I spend all day outside, pop in the gym for about 2 hours , have food and then catch up on news etc later and then watch some catch up TV…….finally watching West World, now on series 3!……………….oh and been watching Grand Designs Australia and New Zealand!……………………….Arsenal for the first time I can remember have taken a seat somewhere at the back of lifes Bus!.
New post up now