Morning from Dublin, and a big thanks to Andrew A for filling in at short notice yesterday with some very entertaining pre-tournament memories.
I never died my hair blonde around a World Cup, but in my 20s – during my clubbing era – I certainly did. We lived in an apartment along the canal, and one evening Mrs Blogs (but not then my wife), got out the L’Oreal home dye kit and gave me the full peroxide. As part of it, you had to use a small plastic bag in the kit to keep the hair in place.
For reasons that I can’t remember at this point, given this was maybe 30 years ago now, we couldn’t use that one, so she wrapped my head in a supermarket plastic bag while the dye did its work. At some point during the process there was a commotion downstairs in the building, and we went down to check it out. There were a couple of fellas who lived on the ground floor who I didn’t care for, and they were involved in whatever it was. A few neighbours went downstairs, there was some kind of confab, and the two lads wandered off.
We stood there with the other people, and at one point I ventured the opinion that ‘Those two fellas are a bit weird!’.
I got some strange looks, and it was only later, after returning to our apartment, it was put to me that perhaps the man standing there with a load of purple goo fizzing out from underneath a Spar bag tied to the top of his head wasn’t in any position to call other people weird.
Fair point. The blonde period didn’t last long, but I quite liked it at the time.
My first World Cup memory actually pre-dates my first Arsenal memory. The 1979 FA Cup final is the first Gunners game I can remember, but I distinctly recall the 1978 World Cup final, and being distraught that the Netherlands were beaten 3-1 by Argentina. I watched in the sitting room of the flat we lived in above the hotel my dad managed, and I’m sure my big cousin Ciaran was there and the reason why I was up for Holland. Actually, now that I think about it, he was an Arsenal fan, and I’ve literally just made that connection now.
I’ve always just assumed as a young Irish lad in England I was drawn to Arsenal because of all our Irish players at the time, but Ciaran would come over from Dublin every summer to work in the hotel, so I guess he had a helping hand too. All these years and I’ve never thought of that. Mad.
Anyway, speaking of the Netherlands, news emerged yesterday that Jurrien Timber has had to withdraw from their squad after not recovering sufficiently from a groin injury that saw him miss most of the end of our domestic season. He left the field in the 38th minute against Everton on March 14th, only to return in Budapest to try and help the team against PSG, and I think we can now probably say he put his World Cup on the line in doing so.
Pre-game I had heard that any potential Timber participation would have come with a big risk, and I guess that has played out. It’s one he was obviously prepared to take, so fair play, but clearly this is an injury that’s quite complicated. He went 79 days without playing, and the minutes he got in the Champions League final have probably played a part in deciding the injury is still too problematic to play for his country in a World Cup.
I’ve written before about how I thought Arsenal’s plan around right-back, with Timber and Ben White, was very sound, but just really unlucky. They’ve each had injuries which meant far too big a burden has been placed on the other, so rather than enabling fitness and sharpness, they’ve both suffered. A kind of fitness vicious circle. Now it’s a summer where each of our right-backs faces questions about their fitness. For White, at 28, perhaps they’re more acute than for 24 year old Timber, but it does give Arsenal some thinking to do. I think they’re both brilliant players, but they have had injury issues during their time here that I think the club have to give some consideration to during the summer.
Since the start of the 2023-24 season, Timber has missed a total of 78 games (a large chunk of that obviously down to the ACL he sustained on the opening day of his debut season), while Ben White has missed 44 games in total – and you can see that the way those injuries have punctuated his campaigns has seen him struggle to find his very best form at times.
Maybe the fact they don’t have summer commitments will help, but we’ll have to wait and see whether or not Timber needs more than just rest to solve his groin issue. White has been linked with moves away but still has a couple of years remaining on his contract, so there’s no pressure in that sense as he makes his way back from the MCL injury that cruelly ended his season at the London Stadium in May. I’d love to see just one season where they’re both fit and available, and Mikel Arteta can share the minutes properly throughout the campaign so we can see the best of both, but let’s see what news the summer brings.
Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning, but there’s an Arsecast Extra for you below if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet. Enjoy!
