The Warm-Up: Courtois prefers time with his kids to playing behind David Luiz
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Updated 07/08/2018 at 08:05 GMT
The absolute monster. Plus we have exciting shareholder news from Arsenal, and Zlatan's agent walks all over him...
Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois missed training on Monday.
Image credit: PA Sport
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Courtois goes AWOL…again
Just when you thought Chelsea’s preparation for the new season couldn’t get any more chaotic. Thibaut Courtois has essentially had half a foot out the Chelsea door for a while now. Understandably so, to a point: his family live in Madrid, and when you play for a club in London and also the Belgian national team, the opportunities to go see them are relatively limited.
The good news for Courtois is that the biggest club in the world also live in Madrid, and the even better news is that they want him. Now all he needs to do is force through a move to Real Madrid, which is easier said than done with only a couple of days of the transfer window remaining.
But he knows what he’s doing, he’s done this before. Courtois failed to report back for pre-season training on Monday, in order to persuade Chelsea that he really is serious about this Madrid thing. He did something similar when trying to get his move from Genk to Chelsea, not showing up for a friendly against Lyon back in the summer of 2011. Whether he’s left this one too late remains to be seen.
But still, at least Chelsea have a back-up plan: word on the street is that they have their sights on Jack Butland if Courtois leaves. After all, they need someone to provide some support for Rob Green, and who better than the bloke who conceded three goals to Leeds at the weekend?
SIlent Stan makes some noise
Good news, Arsenal fans: the in-fighting that has characterised the ownership of your club for years is finally over. Bad news, Arsenal fans: the in-fighting that has characterised the ownership of your club for years is finally over, and it’s been ended by Stan Kroenke purchasing the remaining shares he didn’t already own from Alisher Usmanov.
The deal values Arsenal's overall value at £1.8bn, which if you’re into that kind of thing might pump your tyres a bit, but it does now mean that Arsenal are entirely owned by an investor, a man whose purpose is quite literally to make money from sports teams.
This of course has been coming for a while, and in terms of the day-to-day nuts and bolts of Arsenal, their ownership being more or less entirely in the hands of Kroenke as opposed to Usmanov holding 30%, it might not make much difference.
But it’s the symbolism of the thing. Arsenal could at one time think themselves different to the others. They did things another way. Not now.
IN OTHER NEWS
It’s an unusual workout technique for sure, but whatever works…
HEROES AND ZEROS
Heroes: Newcastle players
Sure, it might not be the greatest industrial action of all time. And sure, it might ultimately be about bonuses, and nobody is going to have much sympathy with a Premier League player who downs tools over money. But at least someone is standing up to Mike Ashley.
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Newcastle are making moves in the transfer market
Image credit: PA Sport
Newcastle’s players have apparently decided to not co-operate with the media, which includes not filming those stupid ‘walk-up’ shots for Sky Sports when they announce the team news on TV, as a protest in an argument over bonuses with Ashley. And there is something admirable about it: this might not do much good in the end, but it’s good that someone is doing something.
ZERO: Mike Ashley
Well, obviously.
RETRO CORNER
Happy birthday to Kevin Muscat. We shouldn’t be glorifying this really, but here’s a clip entitled ‘top three horrible tackles by Kevin Muscat’.
HAT TIP
Ikeme’s career as a professional footballer is over because of the toll that chemotherapy has taken on his body, but the good news – the only news that matters, really – is that he is in “complete remission” and living at home again with the loved ones who inspired his recovery. “I was 31 when I was diagnosed – it’s young,” Ikeme says, puffing out his cheeks. “There’s a lot of life to live at that age. Obviously you want to be around to see your children grow up – and you don’t need any more motivation than that to pull through it.”
Carl Ikeme gives his first in-depth interview after being diagnosed with acute leukaemia last year. Stuart James from the Guardian went to meet him.
COMING UP
Now we’re cooking. These are now the days with regular proper football. There’s plenty on offer tonight, including a couple of Championship games to enjoy: Middlesbrough face Sheffield United, while West Brom contemplate a bleak post-Salomon Rondon world as they travel to Nottingham Forest. Hopefully they’ll bring their boiler mascot with them.
Tomorrow’s Warm-Up will be brought to you by Jack Lang, who once dressed up as a three-bar fire in a misunderstanding over a fancy dress party.
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