This is beyond a joke... "Kim Kallstrom suffered a back injury in his first training with Arsenal and is being assessed by the club's medical staff amid reports that he could be set for a lengthy spell out. "The 31-year-old Sweden midfielder joined Arsenal on transfer deadline day in a loan deal until the end of the season from Spartak Moscow. "Kallstrom - the Gunners' only January signing was recruited as cover for the injured Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere, and suspended Mathieu Flamini."
All the stories are comming from a random Swedish newspapaer and being reposted by other news sites. Telegraph are the only ones claiming to have heard from Arsenal on the matter and say it's not a long term injury but no quotes there either. So far nothing is particularly clear but i'd expect we will probably find out before the palace game.
In the summer window I remember being berated by the usual suspects here for declaring it to be a terrible transfer window if we don't get solid "numbers" in (squad players), and not just one or two quality signings (that was before I knew of Ozil even). And this window we scrapped for "numbers" trying to loan any 30+ year old player with the slightest chance to join. If that doesn't demonstrate what we needed I don't know what will. Basically we've now left it up to luck. Luck that Giroud won't get injured for a considerable time, luck that some of our midfielders heal quicker than forecast... in the most difficult period ahead.
The twittersphere is now suggesting he arrived at Arsenal with the injury. Which would suggest it isn't nearly as bad as people are saying as otherwise he wouldn't have joined us.
Other than the striker situation, which we tried to address in the summer. I still don't think we should have gone out and bought players just to make up numbers though. The situation in midfield at the moment is pretty unlucky, losing Walcott, Ramsey, Flamini, Rosicky and having a half fit wilshere all at the same time. I think Wenger has done the pragmatic thing, bring in a loan signing to cover. The alternative was bringing in more players on permanent contracts last summer, who probably wouldn't be any better than our first choice players and we'd have ended up with bench warmers eating up the salary bill. This was the exact reason why we shipped out so many bit part players in the last window.
The only January signing is some 30+ nobody loaner and he gets injured on his first training session. Priceless. Oh and Frimpong is gone.
It would seem far more likely he arrived with a small injury and this is all blow out of proportion by the media. Him being 30+ doesn't mean ****, plenty of midfield players older than him and performing well. Don't get what the issue is with it being a loan signing? We only need cover until our main guys are back... Overall no idea what your moaning about
I just said he was a loaned player that's all, but he was just another body to fill in the blanks. Not an inspired signing at all, and it won't make any impact on our season, whether he's injured or not. I'm just laughing at how **** this whole window went. We have a very real chance of winning the Prem or FA cup. Strengthening the team would have been the thing to do, as we are looking a little iffy in a few areas, but hey ho, we will have to make do with what we have. We enter a very difficult series of fixtures soon, so we will see what this squad is made of very soon.
Arsenal medical team gave Wenger the prognosis but it was decided Kallstrom would still sign & undergo rehabilitation with #afc -David Ornstein
Of course 6 weeks is a bloody long time, especially when he's been our best and most consistent player and we're about to enter a series of very difficult fixtures! Also 6 weeks is minimum!
We are yet to see him kick a ball in an Arsenal shirt and yet you've decided he will have no impact at all on how we do this season? Sometimes the squad signings are the ones that make all the difference. Look at the effect Henry, Benayoon, Campbell, Arteta etc.. have all made as 30+ players comming in either on loan or short term as squad players. Arteta slightly different as he wasn't brought in to just be back-up but he was 30+ and plays in midfield as well. Think it's totally ridiculous to write him off so quickly.
