The heading maybe ironic but it does hold truth honestly, here’s a little story about our French-born, Moroccan striker Chamakh..
It’s quite refreshing really to read about a top striker who doesn’t touch a drop of alcohol especially when yet again the weekend papers were full of news about a few of the England players were out partying and glugging back the alcohol until the very early hours just a couple of days before they were due to report for international duty. Shay Given must be fuming, he’s been left on the bench for City while the player who has notched him off of top spot for his club, Joe Hart has been out on the pop. Hey ho though, I don’t care about them!!
Marouane Chamakh seems to have settled in really well with his new team-mates and I still wonder what could have happened last season had Wenger got him in the January instead of waiting until the summer. We’ll never know I guess!
Anyway, back to Chamakh, he’s a Moroccan muslim , an unorthodox teetotal footballer who loves politics, history, maths and drinking a good old cup of Rosy Lee. Not just any old tea though, Moroccan Mint tea is his thing and he misses it! Chamakh’s younger brother has a tea room back in Bordeaux and served up the perfect cuppa for him and no matter what, he can’t find the same quality here in London.
What amazed me though was to hear that our centre forward worked at his brothers tea room, the Yassin’s salon twice a week right up to the day he moved to Arsenal.
I like to give my little brother a hand and I served the cold drinks,the tea I left to him because I don’t know how to make it well. We served specialist Moroccan teas and the mint tea is VERY good.
No doubt a lot better than the Arsenal tea bags sold in the club shops for £2.00
Yassin did not pay me, I did it for love, but it was a shock for some customers to see an international footballer serving drinks there and some would ask for my autograph. However, it was not a surprise for people who really knew me. It helped keep my feet on the ground and if I was to become a bit big-headed my friends would take the mickey out of me.
Clever clogs Char-makh is also a bit of a whizz with numbers as he holds an A-level equivalent in accountancy.
Born in France you would think he would choose to play for his country of birth but his parents mean the world to him, so much so that he holds a fascination to that era and the reason he decided to represent the country in which his parents were born rather than his own country of birth. He is also a big fan of politics. He joined the Democratic Movement Party of France and put his name forward as a candidate in a regional election. Party leader Jean Lassalle had to say about Chamakh – “Marouane has not just been made to score goals – he has things to say as well . . . He is a bloody clever guy.”
Chamakh didn’t stand in the end but was still very vocal in his backing of the party’s Bordeaux candidate.
“I am really interested in politics,” he says. “I supported the Bordeaux candidate because he was someone I knew and because his manifesto was based around sport, how money raised by taxes would be spent on sport. I place myself on the left-wing in political views.”
“Religion is very important to me,” he says. “I am used to fasting, I have done it for so long, it does not have any impact on my training and it does not make me weaker for games. My body is used to it.”
He also likes to “sleep a lot, surf the internet and play PlayStation games”
As for his hair??? “It only takes me five minutes.” he says. I say – it looks like it too! 🙂
About the same time as it takes to brew a really good cuppa.
On to Nasri, reports are that he’s naffed off with the boss for keep playing him out wide. He insists he is more comfortable and affective when playing in a central role. Samir was part of the winning French team on friday night and suggestion is that has asked the boss to play him in his favoured position.
He said: “That’s where I play best, that’s how I was formed. In every age group at youth level, I often played through the middle. “I’ve been playing out wide for two years with Arsenal but feel more at ease in the centre of the pitch.”
Nasri is just one of a few players who Arsene Wenger plays out of position and I doubt if Nasri will get his way, especially when Fabregas returns.
Nasri has a point though, he has been playing his best football to date this season, is it just a coincidence that has been whilst playing in the middle??
Have a good day all….
Tea all round then it seems………..
Morning all….
Char Char Char 🙂
Morning WATH, Nasri another square peg in a round hole?? He’s been great this season…
Prob is Rico we got 3/4 players all of whom wanna play in the middle and prob only one real place for them…! they all good enough to run the show but also need to be realistic that they need to all swap and change positions through the game. When Aaron back thats another who will wanna play in the middle.
So the question is then WATH, why does Wenger by so many for one position when we seriously lack in other areas??
Doesn’t make sense to me….
nasri or jack? that is the qiestion..
Typical female question…………. I’m not AW so how the Fcuk do i know 😛
Hi idiotwenger, nasri or jack?
Thought you men knew everything WATH 😉
I don’t even know if Wenger knows the answer to that one 😉
It’s why AW lays 4-3-3 as far as I’m concerned and it’s purely to play all the flair players that we have…! Song in the middle as the defensive cover and then any 2 from 4 either side behind the front three two of whom are really just attacking midfielders apart from when Theo plays of course…!
We’re to busy 2nd guessing you ladies 😉
Sagna is out for three weeks …. and it’s all my fault WATH for yesterdays comment about no injuries… I’m sorry…! 😉
I told you that you’d put the mockers on it 😛 😀
Nothing against muslims. Just noticed that arsenal has quite abit of them over the last couple of years. Toure, Traore, Nasri and is RVP one? I know he married an arab lady. Wonder if im missing anymore.
WATH
Damnit, not sure about RVP i think he is but def his Mrs is….! Plus obviously Chamakh, am sure there is another one…!
Hi Damnit, i think it matters not what religion the players follow, chamakh doesn’t fast on matchdays, not sure about the others…
I think you are right re RvP though…
I knew u’d appreciate Rico 😉
As long as their first religion is Arsenal I really don’t care about the other bit…!
I did thanks WATH 😉
Quiet old morning again, bloomin internationals!!!
Such a pain and can’t wait 4 the proper footie again on saturday. All these internationals are a joke, fifa just jumping on the back of successful club football. Sure they get paid far to much but these blokes also need a rest and the ones that suffer as usual are the clubs and us the fans who pay to watch our teams…!
Morning all.chamakh has been impressive.if he can learn to be more selfish infront of goal his game would move to another level.
agree – we always seem to suffer after international games too, have’t seen any update about chamakhs head injury have you??
Cesc is back for the Brum game i think WATH at least he has had a good rest, i suspect he was fit two weeks ago but wenger has been sensible, same with theo…
i don’t think it will be long before we get a winter break introduced in the UK, think its needed too…
morning KT, he seems to have slotted into the ‘wenger’ way quickly of looking to pass instead of firing a shot at goal…
Hi Wath.during this international break i have racked up hours playing my fifa 11 and pro evo 11.in my pro evo i played as inter.i lost to Arsenal in the CL final but on the upside i beat the tiny totts 5 nil at the San siro.
The reason why nasri will always be behind cesc,jack and maybe mozart in that role is that he rarely plays the killer pass.we see him play it safe most of the time.
😆 KT re fifa 11, whatever that is 😉
Well least we won the CL somewhere KT 😉
I think Nasri has the killer pass just think he maybe ers on the side of caution a little to much but again was/is that down to responsibility and comfidence..?
i think wenger is hoping for him to be a ‘hleb’ kind of player KT…
Rico those are playstation games.Arsenal are very good unlike in previous games.wilshere will be the new hleb but with more end product.
It doesn’t help though WATH when he looks up and sees the forwards have all drifted wide…
i don’t know how they work KT, how can a computer game bare any relevance on the real game?
It doesnt Rico hence we win the CL……! 🙂
😆 WATH
It’s beach time for me, sun is shining brightly so best make the most of it, back in a couple of hours….
Boo howdy guys KT playing with the big boys 🙂
U be careful you don’t strain urself Rico….! 😛
Have fun. . . . .
Erick. . . . . Why you not working ,studying, working studying…??? 😉
Didnt Nasri play a central role in preseason where he was outstanding ?
this is how our midfield should look like:
Nasri-Cesc
Wilshere
Prob then jon is who is the holding midfielder….?
morning all. rvp converted to islam when he married.
Morning Oliver. . . . . that’s what I thought just wasn’t 100% sure.
Rico,
I don’t think AW believes in such a creature as a “holding midfielder”.
I would be inclined to agree with him. To say a player was an attacking midfielder or another was a holding midfielder would imply they were each incapable of doing anything except play one role.
Midfielders should be just that. Midfielders! Little Jack both in stature and inclination is a skilful “attacking” midfielder, but he is also a very determined and fiesty “defensive” or holding midfielder too.
Seemples! 🙂
morning ra. good win in houston yesterday.
Hi Oliver,
Absolutely brilliant! I am gobsmacked we did it with three straight wins. 🙂 I never expected that.
I did not see the game live, as TV over here was showing the Rays, who have now gone 2:2, and I think their decider is being shown live tomorrow.
Sorry, Oliver,
I have to go out again, try to catch you later! 🙂
hi ra. rays were dead and buried, losing two at home. garza gave them a great effort on saturday to prolong the seemingly inevitable. they won again yesterday, and now it’s back to tampa tomorrow for a chance to play the yanks in the alcs. great pitching matchup of staff aces: rays send david price to the hill, while texas goes with cliff lee. lets see if price can rise to the occasion – he was not particularly good in game one. we already know lee can pitch well in these sort of games, as he did previously for cleveland and (last year) philadelphia.
giants dominated yesterday, great to see. at the risk of being over-critical, however…two more picks for eli – bad judgment and forced passes in both instances. he threw 42 passes yesterday, which continues to be way too many for him – his is not peyton, and gilbride should trying to make him into peyton. run the ball to set up the pass, not vice versa. too many penalties again, as well – i think they had nine for eighty-something yards. as coughlin always says, penalties and turnovers lose games. they need to cut these kinds of mistakes out if they want to accomplish something this year.
they also have to get back to business – next weekend, the awful detroit lions come to jersey. that is a classic “trap” game, if there ever was one. a bad team the giants should handle easily. detroit, however, beat kroenke’s team 44-6 yesterday, their first win of this season. so a giant win is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. they cannot overlook detroit. the giants have a huge game the following week – at dallas. they have to focus on detroit now and worry about dallas after this upcoming game is finished. if they take the attitude “show up and win” for sunday and start thinking dallas now, they will set themselves up to lose to detroit. they have finally built a little momentum, and simply cannot afford that.
This will so confuse the masses discussing funny sports in the states lol 😀
with arsenal not playing this past weekend, we have to make do with something, i guess…
Afternoon all 🙂
hi rico…
Are u now looking like a shrivelled up prune Rico 😛
Hi oliver, how’s you?
WATH, it’s not that warm here, more like sand blasted than shrivelled… 😉
Ah ok, hmmmmmmm it’s lovely here lol 😛 no wind and must be a good 80′
ok here. it is bank holiday monday (columbus day), but i do not qualify for the day off, so i am at work. at least it is quieter than normal.
Hola! Catching up…
hi agag…not much to catch up with, it seems.
Hope ur on triple time Oliver. . . . . .
and there was me trying to make you feel better WATH, it’s hot, sunny, no wind and the sand was golden and warm on my toes 🙂
To late Rico I kno ur telling porkies ur just jealous of the scorching hot London weather lol
naahh…nothing xtra for today, unfortunately.
Ha ha, if only i was wath, thankfully though…. 😉
I hope your on a go slow then Oliver, thats terrible no extra pay for working a bank holiday…! Outrageous in fact…!
WATH,
Fancy you implying that it is not hot enough where she is for Rico to become a wrinkly prune. I’m sure it is! 🙂
By the way, the smoke from your BBQ covered SE England in a blanket of smog yesterday. Just as well Rico was not here, she would have been a kippered, wrinkled prune! 🙂
Hi, rico, WATH. 🙂 rico, you sound like you’re having a good time.
oliver, haha. I know. Sloooow news day. I like Chamakh. I like Sami. That’s about it. 🙂 Don’t work too hard. Go on hols. 🙂 Baguio is one of my absolutee favorite places. 🙂
Oliver,
it’s a bit frustrating that I cannot get to see the important games at the moment. Either bad timing or not scheduled.
Anyway, after an unsteady start the Giants are starting to roll, but you are right to say they need to be cautious and not start thinking of Dallas ahead of time.
Your only saving grace RA is you didn’t call her an old kippered wrinkled prune…..
I was smokeless RA so am not 2 blame, u sure you didn’t light a bonfire..?
Hi RA and agag, how’s things 😉
Funny comment RA, made me chuckle 🙂
agag, i am thanks, just nice not to be doing chores at home all day 🙂
AGAG, u always wanna be on hols……….!
Steady you two, I am still here you know 😉
wath, it is what it is…at least it is slow here…and i am compensated rather well, so…
agag, no holidays upcoming right now. perhaps next spring. i want to take my wife to dubai for a week, but will probably have to do something a little less ambitious.
ra, minnesota were a big disappointment. being they had homefield this year, and felt hard done by some of the umpires calls at yankee stadium in last year’s playoffs, i thought they would give it more. but losing the first two at home took all the fight out of them, and game three was a formality. there has been some speculation if justin morneau – who always hits the yanks well – had not been injured, it might have been different. i think the twins would have played better with morneau, but the pitching wasn’t good enough. they needed better than they got from liriano and pavano during the first two games.
on the plus for the giants, both run defense and pass rush were outstanding! that is where it all starts for them: sturdy defense and a power running game. they are showing signs of getting back to it with these back to back wins. really should be three wins on the trot, but they threw away a game they completely dominated (tennessee) with turnovers and penalties. they still need to eliminate those two aspects, they will not go too far if they keep getting flags and giving the ball away.
Rico,
You are already delectable, but as a chuckling, kippered, wrinkly prune (an American treat, ask Oliver), that makes you sound so ineluctably delicious, I could eat you. 🙂
Hi all.
See he sayed away from the “old” Rico lol
Oliver,
It helps to have your insights. Thanks for that.
I rely on the internet too much when I don’t get to see the games and, there is almost zero coverage in the sports pages here.
Doesn’t everyone, WATH? 😉 I long to be on my next hols while I’m taking my hols. Hopeless. Sun and sand and sky and sea = Purr.
oliver, ah, the nth honeymoon. I like!
rico, the best thing about beaches is that you don’t have to comb your hair. It can be as messy as you like. 🙂
Hi, RA.
ra, did you catch any of the baseball games? there has been some controversy in the al series. two managers (madden, tampa bay) and gardenhire (minnesota) have been ejected from games. both for arguing balls and strikes (an automatic no-no). to be fair to the twins, gardenhire had a legitimate beef – the ump clearly missed a third strike by pavano in game two, and pavano allowed a run-scoring single on his next pitch. but credit to carl pavano himself, who said he had to forget about that missed call and focus on the next pitch, which he did not do.
Oliver,
Yes, I saw a couple of back to back Rays games and chuckled at the blue veined fury, which reminded me of old Fergie Blue Nose! 🙂
It’s just that I haven’t seen the Yankees for a while. 🙁
Hi, Agag.
we think we have things bad with referees like atwell, atkinson, et al. major league baseball has a serious problem with the umpiring. this past june 2nd, detroit’s armando galarraga was one out away from a perfect game against cleveland, when first base umpire jim joyce mistakenly called cleveland’s jason donald safe on a ground ball – the throw had clearly arrived ahead of the runner for the 27th out, but joyce badly blew the call. galarraga got the next out for a one-hit 3-0 win, but his bid for perfection had already been ruined. since then, the umpires have been in seige mentality. joyce himself was inconsolable, but other umpires shamefully criticized him for holding his hands up and admitting his mistake. those attitudes and a powerful umpires union are making this a bigger problem than it should be.
joe madden (tampa bay) also had a legitimate gripe. gardenhire, however, has a history with the umpire (hunter wendelstedt) and the latter’s strike zone in game 2 was all over the place. after phil cuzzi’s blown call during last year’s series with the yanks, gardenhire had probably had enough as well.
Who is old 😉
RA, i’m too boney, would not make a good wrinkly meal me 😉
agag, spot on re the hair, i come off the beach looking like Limal :P:
The hair i mean 😉
Limal……………?? I’m seriously getting worried about you..!
rico 😆
you know what i mean WATH, hair all over the place 🙂
good job agag is on the ball 😉
AGAG on what ball… here u2 go again…………..!!
😆 WATH…. Any news on Chamakh??
Fuuuudge. Kindly delete, rico. 😳
Delete which comment agag?? 😉
Rico,
If I can’t have you, Agag’s fudge will do nicely. 🙂
Best you settle for the fudge RA, talking of which, there seems to be rather a lot here in Cornwall 🙂
Limal, Rico? Is that one of your typo’s?
Your hair looks like a lemon? Need a new wig perhaps? 🙂
No worries agag – both gone 🙂
RA, you are as bad as WATH, it was just a figure of speech about the breeze blowing my hair about 😆
Can’t beat that home made cornish fudge………. hmmmmm…! after a nice pasty of course
We agree on that WATH, can’t beat a good old fudge! 🙂
Dunno about old RA I like my fudge fresh 😉
Thanks, rico. 🙂 But the things some people get up to, I swear… 😉
RA, I like the clotted cream variant.
Yawn. I’m off. Good night kids.
How come Rico says I am as bad as you, WATH. Everyone knows, I’m a lot badder! 🙂
G’night Agag, at least I agree with you on that, variant is important! 🙂
Night AGAG, hmmmmmmmmmm clotted cream. . . now you talking with fresh scones and fresh strawberry jam.. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 😀
What was that RA, u got a weak bladder..?
Night, WATH. All this sweets talk is giving my tummy the rumbles… 🙁 rico, enjoy your dinner.
Sorry WATH, I misheard “better”. It sounded like bedder. It seems I’m better than you. Ah well, there you go!
And don’t bring Blatter into it. You know I can’t stand him! 🙂
Off now, Tatty bye.
Cheers RA……………
night night agag 🙂
and you RA, have a good one, both of you….
WATH, i am sick of scones, jam and CC 😉
Guys and Gals, i’m off for the day,
see you all tomorrow, nighty night and stay safe…
🙂
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