Swedish soccer star Kim Kallstrom is the talk of the UK as he prepares to play on loan with England’s Arsenal Football Club.
Kallstrom, who has played for Spartak Moscow since July 2012 and for Olympique Lyonnais for the six years before that, will cover injured midfielder Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey was injured in training – the aggravation of a thigh injury sustained against West Ham on January 26 – and won’t be back in play for four to six weeks.
Another Arsenal midfielder, Jack Wilshere, is sitting out at least one more game with an ankle injury. He won’t play in Arsenal’s Sunday match-up with Crystal Palace but team manager Arsene Wenger says he hopes Wilshere will be back in play the following weekend.
“We have good news. For Sunday he will be short but he has a chance to be available for the week after at Liverpool.”
Wenger: "@aaronramsey will be out for 4-6 weeks. I count six weeks" #AFCvCPFC http://t.co/m6MX2b8ITd
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) January 31, 2014
Adding to Arsenal’s troubles is the fact that Mathieu Flamini is currently serving out a four game suspension after receiving a red card in Arsenal’s match against Southampton earlier this week.
Of Flamini’s two-footed challenge on Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin and the associated red card, Wenger said: “To me it looked harsh … He got the ball. At some stage we all have all the feet off the ground. If you say every time a guy makes two-footed tackle its red, he deserved a red. If you say it was a violent tackle, I would say no.”
Wenger: "We are still trying to bring one body in because of Ramsey's setback and Flamini's suspension" #AFCvCPFC http://t.co/m6MX2b8ITd
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) January 31, 2014
Regardless of Wenger’s feelings about the red card and resulting suspension, he’s been forced into the transfer market and it looks like Kallstrom will be playing on loan until the end of the season.
“Kim Kallstrom is a hugely-experienced player. He is a midfielder with proven quality at both club and international level. We welcome Kim to Arsenal,” Wenger said.
Kallstrom shared his thoughts on the move: “Arsenal is an amazing club with a lot of great players and a coach who has done really well here for a long time. I am so pleased to come here to learn as much as possible. I’m here to do my best for Arsenal and to help out the team, so we can achieve good results for the last part of the season.”
In a press conference on Friday, Wenger addressed speculation that Arsenal was seeking a transfer of Julian Draxler from Germany’s FC Schalke:
“Draxler deal is not active. Anti-climax? I don’t know what a climax is. There is always hope. It is superficial and artificial. [The] Draxler situation has been created by the newspapers, not by me. Nothing is happening on that front. He will stay at Schalke.”
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