Jack back next month? + Team meeting sparks shock new concept

February 14, 2012

While the boys travel to Milan to prepare for tomorrow night, Per Mertesacker is on his way to Germany for a second scan on his ankle after the first one over here proved ‘inconclusive’.

The optimist in me wants to believe that they just couldn’t find anything on the scan because there was nothing to find. Bad bruising, that’s it. But the realist suspects that the fact he’s been sent back to his homeland can only be a bad thing. I’m not sure I really believe that there’s a need for a second scan in another country. Can the scanners they have in Germany really be that far superior to the scanners we have here in England? I worry that it’s more a question of if you’re going to be out for a long time, say the rest of the season, you might want to do that with your family and friends around you.

Still that’s just more speculation to throw onto the massive pile of speculation already doing the rounds. You’re welcome. All we really know at this stage is that his ankle looks really disgustingly gross following a picture that Per posted on his Facebook page. Pretty horrible stuff. But I can understand his desire to share it. If I’d collapsed to the floor with no one around me and let an opponent into score I’d be fairly keen to let everybody know that I wasn’t faking it too.

There may be at least some slightly more positive news on the injury horizon. The Daily Mirror is reporting that Jack Wilshere’s latest stress fracture is healing much quicker than expected and speculates he could be back in action in six weeks. That would see him back for the end of March and the last ten or so games of our run in depending on whether we’re still in the cups and would be a welcome boost indeed. But obviously we’ve been here before with the tales of Jack’s magical healing abilities and yet here we are mid-February not having had a sniff of him all season.

I won’t be popping the champagne corks just yet. Unless I’m forced to because it’s Valentine’s Day. Because as we all know there’s nothing more romantic than being told what day you have to do something romantic.

‘Look, I’m making a grand gesture to suggest how much I love you!’

‘Ahh. That’s nice of you. Was that spontaneous or are you just doing it because there’s been a month long media campaign aimed at forcing you to do it?’

‘Uhm…the first one?’

Arsenal are getting no love from former Spurs, current AC Milan midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng (Mmm. Nice segue, Marble) ahead of tomorrow’s CL encounter. He says we lack the experience to win big games and compete for the top prizes:

The problem with Arsenal is one day they play amazing football and then they play really badly,

In the end they don’t have balance. They either play unbelievable football or they don’t know what they’re doing.

He also goes on to say that we don’t sign big name players and without those big name players we struggle to compete. Which is true I suppose. But surely the last thing you want to be saying ahead of a big match against us. We should be pretty motivated to win this game to begin with but hearing an ex-Spud denigrate the club will hopefully make us all the more anxious to ram those words back down his throat.

Aaron Ramsey doesn’t think the team’s spirit or desire is a problem, putting last week’s comeback against Sunderland down to a team meeting in midweek:

We had a meeting last week about doing well for the rest of the season and one of the points that came to us was to never give up in the game. That was the case against Sunderland, and we showed it against Aston Villa too.

I’m glad to hear that the team have enough togetherness and desire to discuss their problems and try to find solutions. That’s a good sign. I’m a little surprised that it took a special meeting to come up with the idea of never giving up in a game. That’s some pretty revolutionary thinking right there.

‘You know all this giving up we’ve been doing? I don’t think that’s helping. What if we tried…I don’t know…not giving up? Just sort of trying to win the game right until the end.’

‘Yeah!/Cool!/Great Idea!!/Worth a try! Hahahahahaha!’

However it came about let’s hope it’s something we stick to. Kevin Prince Boateng better watch out.

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