Sunday round-up: BFG, friends reunited, Kiwior

Sunday. Day of rest.

Unless you have a blog or you’re a priest. It’s a bit ironic really. The lord said on the seventh day ‘Chill out folks’, but his messengers on earth have to put their gowns on and perform on stage. I do not have to wear a gown to do a blog. I can if I want, but it’s not mandatory.

Today, shorts and a t-shirt. Tomorrow, who knows? Probably the same, to be honest. I’m not trying to attract the attention of that Menswear guy on social media. I’ll leave that in the much more stylish hands of Andrew Allen who, next time he does the blog, can post a picture of his 3/4 length drawstring pantaloons and tan espadrilles.

As you can gather, there’s not much going on from an Arsenal perspective. There’s a nice piece with Per Mertesacker on the official site, talking about his work with the Academy. He says:

The environment that we want to create is challenging and caring on the football field but we believe that well-rounded human beings can make the best possible impact, whether it’s on the pitch or off the pitch. That’s our aim, that’s what we’re here to do and this is how I see strong young individuals growing. We develop Strong Young Gunners here who excel on and off the pitch.

I don’t want to suggest there’s anything untoward going on, but clearly the diet and training regime is spot on when it comes to the ‘strong’ part. Everyone talks about how talented Max Dowman is, and for obvious reasons, but the fact he doesn’t look physically out of place at 15 years of age is quite something. Anyway, with a stream of players having made the jump from Academy to first team over the last number of years, we’re clearly doing something right, and while he’d be the first to say it’s a collective effort, the BFG has been the man at the top for seven years now so he deserves some credit.

Elsewhere, a couple of former Arsenal players are on the move, and will become arch-rivals for next season at least. Aaron Ramsdale has joined Newcastle on loan, while Granit Xhaka has joined Sunderland on a permanent basis from Bayer Leverkusen. I do like Aaron, but I do not care for Newcastle, while I’m very curious to see how our former midfielder gets on now that he’s back in the Premier League.

Long-time readers will remember we often referenced ITWGX (If that was Granit Xhaka) as a way of measuring refereeing decisions and bad tackles. The implication being that if it were him, the sanction would have been more severe. So, will that still be a thing or will we have to modify it by making it ITWGXWHWPFA (If that was Granit Xhaka when he was playing for Arsenal)? Perhaps a bone crunching challenge by him on Ramsdale in the Tyne-Wear derby will provide us with the answer.

Beyond that, not much happening. There’s a sort-of nothing update from Johnny Here-We-Go about Jakub Kiwior and his Arsenal future. To be honest, while I’ve always thought from the player’s perspective a move this summer to get regular first team football would make sense, I’d be quite all right with keeping him. With Gabriel still on the way back from his hamstring surgery, and Riccardo Calafiori yet to convince us that he can stay fit for a prolonged period, keeping Kiwior is probably sensible. Not to mention he can, at a push, fill in at left-back too which might facilitate the departure of Oleksandr Zinchenko if there’s someone willing to put down some cash for him.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there for this morning. It’s a bank holiday weekend here in Ireland, which means we all put our gowns on and go gallivanting around town. It’s quite the sight. Back tomorrow with more here and an Arsecast Extra.

Have a good one.