Kim Kallstrom says he’s enjoyed his short spell at Arsenal and hopes he can go out on a high by helping the club win the FA Cup before he returns to Spartak Moscow in the summer.
The 31-year-old Swedish international has only made four appearances (three from the subs bench) since moving to the Emirates on transfer deadline day at the end of January but remains grateful for the opportunity to taste life in the Premier League.
“It’s been great,” Kallstrom told Arsenal Player. “Arsenal are an amazing club and there are a lot of nice people working here.
“The players are really skilful, the manager is really, really good and people really care about the club. There are a lot of fans too, and it has been a really nice adventure.
“I have just tried to do my best and get the most out of it as possible.”
Sidelined for six weeks after his arrival in London, the midfielder can at least lay claim to helping the Gunners into their first FA Cup final since 2005. A scorer in the semi-final penalty shootout against Wigan, he’s well placed to talk about the importance of a cool head under pressure.
“I think a cool head [is vital], not to feel too much pressure,” he said ahead of Saturday’s trip to Wembley.
“You need to trust in your abilities and in the qualities of the team and stay cool no matter what happens, especially at the beginning of the game.
“We’re favourites so we just have to be patient, like we were against Wigan. Even though we were struggling we were patient and continued with our way of playing – in the end it paid off.
“When you play a final it’s all about getting the trophy. You and all your team-mates can go up into the stands and lift the trophy – that is an amazing feeling and one of the reasons why we all play football. It’s because we love to win trophies.”
Sign him up! Sign him up!
Would be so cool if the guy wins the FA Cup with us. There must be some kind of record in regards to time played at Arsenal and trophies won during that time. He’ll have an excellent ratio.
Kim has probably won more trophies in his career than most of our Squad put together. So he would know exactly what it takes. 🙂 granted he did not win them on this Level, but Ligue 1 is still a big league, and the mindset needed to win trophies is the same anywhere.
He was cold as ice taking that penalty, and that he volounteered to take a penalty at all in such an important game when he is on loan at the biggest club he has ever played for show just what a cool cat he is.
Good Man.
He’ll always be Super Kim to me
Long live the Kim!
Personally I prefer ‘Kim Killstorm’. Nice and intimidating.
Seems like a great bloke and a decent footballer, good luck with the rest of his career
Would be so cool if we jumped ahead to a 2-0 lead in the first half. Unfortunately, we seem to be funding a world wide gooner cardiology center so it probably won’t happen.
Nothing against him but he wasnt the signing that we needed to prevent our annual self destruct
Super Kim to score in the 88th minute with a long range free kick to seal a 3-1 win! COYG
He’ll score alright,
his due penalty after 120 odd nailbiting minutes 😉
no down 2-0… Diaby hattrick comeback.
No, up 2-0, Diaby hattrick for 5-0.
Thanks Kim. Hoped to see a lot more of you.
Top man!
I think you should add “- … and money” to the final quote of the article 🙂
He is rather aggressive and can put in a good long shot.i say why not buy him?i mean,he plays like a carbon copy mash up of flamini + ramsey.maybe becus arteta place will be threaten if kallstrom stays?thats why wenger is getting rid of kim completely?i dk abt u guys but theres this passing technic abt him that speaks so much abt arsenal.it would be a pity if we dont resign.
In that penalty shootout he was the only player I had 100% confidence in scoring. Never in doubt…
I didn’t hide behind the sofa for Arteta. He knows how to take a penalty!
Ive enjoyed his little cameo’s, His penalty against Wigan means he’ll be forever remembered hopefully he’ll leave with a medal.
In regards to player signings, in recent years Arsene has re-signed ex players, Sol, Lehman, Henry, Flamini, what are the odds on a former player returning? and who will it be this time?
Vela!
Apparently Vela, if the press is to be believed (yeah, I know…).
I’d still have Eduardo back.
Broke my little heart when he left and he’s no doubt still as good as he always was.
Would love El Capitan back.
I hear Squillaci is available on a free.
Legend
In sweden
As someone said – he seems a decent bloke – a bit past his prime. Shouldn’t be criticised for not being ‘that striker’ everyone wanted (but nobody could name). Shame about his injury, huge fuss mad about that by media and AOB, but cost us nothing and he helped us get through without some injured players. Wish him luck for his future.
Are Hull ‘going in’ on the whole FA Cup thing like the Arsenal Website… there seems to be a lot of talk and Arsenal being Arsenal talk worries me because so often we have failed to back it up with action.
I’ve seen pictures of sings notifying an eventual parade around Islington after the final. I don’t know if this is common practice by all clubs/cities but it feels like the biggest jinx I’ve ever seen.. I’m trying to un-jix it by being even more pessimistic than my usual sorry self.
No. Thats very common practice. There were pictures of Liverpool hiring temporary staff for their premier league winning parade if it happens. I guess they just dont need the signs as Manchester is not as crowded as London. Also one more example there were pictures of Real Madrid Bus painted with champions copa del reay last year..
Ok thanks! I had no idea
http://www.hullcitytigers.com/news/article/201314-fa-cup-final-provisional-parade-plans-1552914.aspx
Hopefully all the jinxing gets counter-jinxed by this jinx and it all ends up non-jinxed
A bonkers signing.
When the history books are written about the 2013/14 season, everybody will be asking the same question: “Why did Arsenal sign an injured player on loan to cover injuries?”
He seems like a nice guy, but, let’s be honest, he had absolutely no effect on the team this season.
The real shame was that had Wenger bought a decent striker and a speedy winger in the January transfer window then we might have won the title which we had at our mercy. But the Nutty Professor just couldn’t see that.
What a shame.
“he had absolutely no effect on the team this season” how can you be so sure? where you at training everyday? He could have had the same sort of experienced influence that Sol and Jens had when they came back for a short stint on the young players. Here you have a very experienced international and european footballer that you can listen to and learn from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqpEwHjJsSc
Sometimes I agree with you, only sometimes. But as soon as you say “Nutty Professor” I find myself wanting to punch the nearest thing I can find. Please stop it, it’s pathetic.
Fat gooner at it again
and he was doing so well recently, he’d really found a grey area between criticism and praise for Wenger. Ah well, guess all good things come to an end
Fat Gooner raises a decent point. Had we managed to lure a decent striker to the Emirates in January we would almost certainly have been a lot closer to the top of the table. His frustration is understandable. The problem is that no such striker was really available. The real question is why was no striker signed in the summer window, when we had all the time in the world to make a signing but ended up bollocksing Higuain and making a last-ditch attempt to sign Demba Ba. Did Wenger have higher expectations of Theo and Podolski? We can only… Read more »
Yeah, Giroud is shit and the reason we did not win the league, he only scored 16 goals (0 penalties) in the Premier League with 9 assists. Whereas the world class Higuain scored 17 goals in Serie A (inc 5 penalties) with 7 assists.
But what if Giroud AND Higuain played for us last season? Those extra 17 goals could have won us the title. Instead, we had Yaya Sonogoals – he didn’t get even one.
Utter nonsense, they are similar players so you would play one or the other not both together.
To be fair, Higuain played alot less minutes. He was Subbed alot and He had 32 appearances vs Giroud 36 aswell. However i dont think Higuain was worth the kind of money they were asking. Giroud after all was only 12 mill. And considering his price tag i would say we got alot of bang for our buck. But i would like to se a more pacey, agile predatory striker next season, just so we have the option of speed up top, and not only big boys like Giroud, Sanogo and Bendtner in our toolbox. Walcott ofcourse can fill the… Read more »
Its not fatty’s frustration thats annoying its the same shit over and over again. As well as the fact he believes he knows more than wenger and that if arsenal adopted all of his ideas we’d be champions agggesss ago. “[Kallstrom] had no ABSOLUTELY no effect on arsenal this season” Is a totally ignorant statement that you cant justify as an opinion “so its okay” because its not an opinion its a damn right lie! Unless (like Dr Baptiste points out) you are at their training etc. and see him everyday what the fuck would he know? Totally excluding the… Read more »
Whether Wenger had higher expectations from Theo than he will be injured the fucking whole season? Personally, I think yes, he did, and I also think that it was a reasonable think to expect.
Should have come to Arsenal earlier
I would’t mind you signing for us
The kallstorm catalyst
If it goes into extra time and the score is still tied and we get to the 119th minute and Wenger still has a substitute left unused, I bet Kallstrom will be coming on to sledgehammer home one of our penalty kicks!
Why don’t let him stay? I mean he’s been doing a quite decent job for us this season, he shows commitment and fight. A type of player we really need 🙂
Long live King Kallstrom.
Super Kim, thank you for the little impact you made on our team. It might be little but it means so much to me. Without your expertly executed we might not have made the final. Thanks Sir!
We should have seen a lot more of you Kim. Starting ahead of Arteta in my book. Hope you get a run out on Saturday, you deserve it. And a winners medal to boot. Better still if we signed you up for next season. Good luck fella.
Fatgooner When the history books are written about the 2013/14 season then so long as we get the job done all they will say is that Arsenal were one of two teams to share the domestic spoils, and it gave them a launching pad for future seasons. I agree there was opportunities wasted to bolster the streikeforce in not the summer and the winter, but history will deal only with the cold hard facts, one of which is good old Mr Kallstrom showed true bottle to slot hiome a crucial penalty, with one of his few kicks that he got… Read more »
Well if history changed and we signed Higuain and opted out of Suarez and Liverpool won the league, Fats will probably accuse Wenger for being a cheap bastard for buying the Real reject.
Additionally Wenger plays Higuain on the wings when Giroud is fit and get accused by Fats for losing it tactically.
Källström came to us knowing he’d be mainly a squad player from the bench, but was prepared to have that role no questions asked. Tbh we need those players who are quality but accept not being first choice. I’d like him retained, very useful.