november 12th
08.44 – “Well tonight for the first time, just about half-past seven, for the first time in history, it’s gonna Rami Shaaban……Rami Shaaban, Hallelujah..”… and so on.
What a campdiscotacular start to the day. Basically, with old ‘safe hands injured we get to look at new at our new Swegyptian keeper for the first time. AW says “Rami is a very good goalkeeper, with a good leap and good hands”. If he puts in a good performance, his Premiership debut could come on Saturday against Sp*rs. There’s a baptism of fire if ever there was one.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Robert Pires are set to start tonight as well, as they both continue their comebacks from cruciate injuries. A word for our tiny Brazilian left-back Juan, who is out for at least 6 months having suffered the same injury last week. Get well soon little man. With Kanu injured, and Dennis Bergkamp still not 100% after his achilles injury, Francis Jeffers should start up front with Thierry Henry.
However, there’s no place in tonight’s squad for Jermaine Pennant, who instead will line up for the reserves this week. Given that the PSV game is not a must-win, I thought he’d at least make the bench, but it’s not to be. With Pires and Gio on the way back to full fitness, and with Arsenal out of the Worthington Cup, it gets increasingly difficult to see how Pennant will ever get a game. Maybe it’s the burden of expectation, a £2m price tag as a 15 year old and everyone dying to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe it’s the fact he’s making loads of money already, without being in the first team. Maybe he doesn’t have that extra drive or self-discipline needed to make the final step up. Maybe it’s a little from column A, a little from column B – but I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to try and get first team football elsewhere at the end of the season.
Oh well, you can’t miss what you never had, anyway.
And for larks today, why not email Saddam Hussein’s son, Uday. Apparently Yahoo and MSN are breaking US trade restrictions by providing the son of Dubya’s arch-nemesis with an email address. Expect a US invasion of Yahoo and Microsoft’s headquarters, where no doubt they’ll manage to accidentally blow up a Chinese embassy or something.
