Arsenal have completed the loan signing of Kim Källström from Spartak Moscow.
The 31 Swedish midfielder has been with the Russian club since 2012, and previously spent time at Lyon – winning the French title twice, and the French cup twice.
His arrival certainly adds experience to a midfield that is temporarily short on options with Mathieu Flamini’s suspension and Aaron Ramsey’s new injruy which will see him miss 6 weeks.
Källström has over 100 caps for Sweden and is well known in his home country for his ability to lift a small car over his head, a feat he carries out each Christmas to the delight of children everywhere.
Welcome
Well…..Kim
another signing before the deadline? maybe he’s the kall before the strom
Actually, it turns out he wasn’t well 🙁
I guess this means that in this transfer window, the following has officially happened;
Rakesh out, Kallstrom in.
In white supremacist circles he is known as KK OK.
Decent signing.. Surprise no British clubs in for him before now,
When I come here to read the Arsenal news and scan the comments to waste some time I’m always left scratching my head wondering, “God, where are all the white supremacist jokes?”
HERE THEY ARE EVERYBODY! RIGHT OVER HERE!
Anyway, if this loan deal is half as successful as the Benayoun one two years ago then I’d say it’s decent business.
Next what the Kardashians Sisters?
Hopefully when gets on the pitch he Kalm-storm that’s been rocking Arsenal midfield lately….
joke!
top top top?
January signing: Wenger £24m or something?
players: £0!! LOL (1,5 hr left I still hope)
Manu:Mata
Fulham: Mitroglou !!??
etc.
Please don’t tell me there are not good players for sale,please.
We got good team when all fit,but if want trophy we must strengthen.
Emre me old china, you were a shit hot midfielder at your peak (WC2002)…have you still got your boots? My futsal team’s one short for this Tuesday night at the local Poly.
Thanks ‘Old China’,yours lack arguments just confirm my opinion .
Good luck for your ‘futsal team’s’.
My ‘name’ its nothing about Emre Belogozlu (I guess that midfielder you mean..), but no problem that good your remember him…
I have got question guys who are happy white Kim, would sigh him If you can decide? honestly!
Wenger has a budget to manage. Even the AST have said they believe Wenger has around 100m to spend as he pleases. So why no Draxler? Well, that money is for now AND the summer coming up. The Draxler deal fell through it seems (according to a well know and accurate ITK named Geoff) due to add ons. He would’ve cost a lot more than the fee itself. Perhaps as much as 50m. So, 50m for a 20 year old winger. Unproven in the PL. Has one goal to his name all season and has injury problems already. Should he… Read more »
There were not good players for sale. Not the kind you were thinking of, at least.
Kallstrom is actually a very shrewd signing. Southampton exposed a glaring weakness in our link up play from deep midfield where quick passes are needed to create an attacking opportunity. Arteta is unable to do this quick enough so we suffer. The only ones who currently do this are Wilshere and Rosicky. In addition, Wenger needs to play Podolski more regularly. If you create chances he will convert them.
#WelcomeNacho
Really good squad player, can’t complain.
Underwhelming really, but i guess a ‘body’ is now added to the squad.
If he can be like Benayoun was for us a few seasons ago he could really help us out. I really took Yossi to my heart.
And if I remember my Championship Manager 01/02 correctly, he will inevitably fire us to silverware. Welcome!
Haha he was a wonder kid for sure
Exactly. I don’t get people complaining. I mean if you insult Kim cause we didn’t sign Draxler or another big name, then there is something wrong with you. It’s like you want to go to an amazing restaurant, but you can’t, and then a friend of yours cooks for you, and you throw the food he made at him. I get that a lot of people had high hopes of signing Draxler (or someone else), but it’s not Kim’s fault we didn’t get ’em, so instead of directing your frustration of not signing a big name, how about actually being… Read more »
Bergkamp fan, relax a little, dude. I hardly think people reacting to this signing as ‘underwhelming’ is akin to ‘one of the worst things you could do in general life’. And yes, that is how you twisted it. I think if anything, the reaction is more a frustration to the situation where people were expecting a ‘big’ signing. It’s not as personal an attack as you are making out. Anyway, as someone who watched this guy a lot at Lyon, I think he does fit a lot of what we need right now. He is a very good, sharp passer… Read more »
Mate, I’ve seen people say stuff like “F*** Kallstrom” “He’s absolute sh*t”, others calling him useless, with some Arsenal fans and pages posting pictures making fun of him, etc, and it’s been an hour since we’ve signed him. And what did Kallstrom do to Arsenal? Sign for us.
And I said that one of the worst things you could do in life is to take what you have for granted instead of appreciating it. Don’t tell me that’s not true.
@Arsenal just signed a spartak moscow benchwarmer not even a barcelona or bayern one? Arsene wengers blind belief in his squads “depth” will be his own undoing. We have a pretty decent squad but for some reason we get twice as much injuries at others. Any sort of injury to Giroud and we’re fucked.
Anyway now that kallstrom is signed lets just hope he helps where he can. In the league and champs league though our 2 main rivals hold a certain advantage over us. Tough!
VERDICT: TRANSFER WINDOW FAIL.
Verdict: Shit post.
You’re a swede i get it.
VERDICT: Patriotic
Just Fuck off Heroldgoon
Actually, I’m not very patriotic at all, I just don’t like you.
You’re a turnip i get it.
VERDICT: You threw your toys out of the pram. You can have them back when you’re a big boy.
Can’t realy say i know much about this guy but If the scouting report i read on mirror of him is anything to go by, then he’s defo not a bad signing by any means of the imagination. Welcome to the arsenal
I like the cut of his jib.
yeah but…. *throws toys out of pram*
I’ve still got this in my clipboard from the Draxler article a few days ago, so I might as well get some more mileage out of it:
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Good squad player but where’s the strikers at?
Where is the stricker?
Always like a good Swede
thank you sir
I prefer turnips !!
They’re fuckin’ excellent!
I for one will cheer Kallstrom on when he steps onto the pitch. I really hope the fans do not get on his back. It’s not his fault that this has been an underwhelming transfer window.
Welcome to the Arsenal!!
Welcome to Arsenal Kim.
With his ability to lift heavy things over his head we may well be headed for several trophies. Can’t see another reason to sign him. (of course except for the midfield cover that’s needed)
He must have the big shoulders Thierry Henry talked about all those years ago, because cannons are indeed heavy.
Did Arsene put in the 03/04 Championship Manager disc instead of the 13/14 one?
Pretty happy though to be fair.
…………well…i dunno what to say. I suppose as u signed for my team…welcome and gd luck.
see, you do know what to say 🙂
Looking for positives.
Last time we had a Swedish international midfielder we won the league
Larrson? 😛
Became an international after we had him 🙂
He’s got a killer left foot. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=751431894869146&set=vb.506767449335593&type=2&theater
Wenger loves his left footed players
I’m Swedish. He’s not so very good. Hope he shows form he hasn’t shown in years
He’s not here for hatricks and chips. He’s going to keep the ball, break counter attacks, tackle the ball, something like a more defensive Rosicky.
How the fuck do you know that he is here to do the shit you mentioned?
Maybe Arsene want him to clean the toilets?
Plus, please tell me how you tackle a ball?
Bendtner tackles the ball regularly. he’s so good at it that you can almost guarantee that with a single touch he’ll tackle the ball right off the pitch.
The missing link between trophies and the treble
Good to see we got all the T’s crossed and the A & O dotted on this deal.
“A storm is coming Mr Wayne”
“Oh you Draxler?”
“Err.. No. Kim Kallstrom”
A good signing to get an experienced player in midfield, but would have liked to see a cover striker as well. Either way we got a good player in so really can’t complain. COYG!
Is it just me or does his head kind of look like a bun? Or a hamburger roll?
It’s just you
I’ve no idea what your head looks like.
Eat man
Don’t take pill if there’s no label on the bottle.
Best of luck to him. If he’s anywhere near as good a loan signing as Benayoun was for us then I’ll be pleased.
kim kardashian…
First Yaya Sanogo (Fm 2011) now Kallstrom (Cm 01/02)
I never knew Wenger was a gamer
I bet partly the reason Aresnal went for him was for the ö.. They know how gooners are suckers for the umlaut.
Töö true!
Interesting to see if, he still has his abilities from freekicks? Can add to that, with oppositions sitting deep in their own half. And with the setback, suspention etc. I welcome him.
and suspense. don’t you forget the suspense.
Fully expect him to appear in the new Citröen-commercial lifting a car over his head, telling how light it is.
He lifts Swedish cars – they’re well known for their massive weight!
Given Wilshere’s/Ramsey’s/Arteta’s/… injury records does that mean we’ll be resigning him next January on a 6 month loan ?
The media promised us a German and we end up getting a Swed.
Smooth Wenger!
Welcome!
Wenger stopped Draxler transfer
Wenger is to be blamed if we fall short of title tilt coz of our “failures upfront”
(Lets just put that there for future reference)
Draxler isn’t a striker Herold….so signing him wouldn’t have solved any “failures upfront”. There was talk of potential turning him into a striker, which I’m guessing isn’t something that Merlin the Magician could achieve in a month or two, never mind a mere mortal like AW. Also there was a small matter of £37m. Juan Mata money, almost Mezut Ozil money. In other words, proven very top quality players cost £37m, Wenger considered it too much for Draxler. Great looking prospect but hardly a nailed on guaranteed superstar, where you happily cough up £37m. Learn a lesson from our beloved… Read more »
Agree. Would have loved to have seen Draxler at Arsenal, but as you pointed out 37M is a lot of money for what would essentially be a long term project. Add the fact he is injured and that our medical staff seem to be the medicinal equivalent of the keystone cops maybe it’s better for all concerned that he stays where he is for the time being.
Still we need a striker, we’re one injury away from relying on TGSTEL to fire us to the league and that is enough to make a grown man wet his pants!!!
Thats exactly the problem when you want to keep up pace at the too you will sign Kallstrom but when you want to win the league you will sign Draxler, perhaps put in a bid for hulk, pato etc show you mean business. Draxler is ofcourse not a striker but any sort of frontline firepower boost should be priority, it was clear last summer and even more now that Walcott is out. This is all truly bizzare.
You’re truly bizarre!
You’re like the seven year old who lectures adults on what sex is. You have an imperfect understanding of the international market for footballers. You can’t buy them like they were lollies sonny.
Agree TV5 and Breezy it is a stupid fee 37 million for a kid. But with the fucking chavs and shitty psg’s and the fucking over paying idiots at Madrid it is how the market has become. If he has a good world cup then that is exactly the fee they will get for him. Just hope our German contingent can be very persuasive if we do go for him in the summer.
Just hope he is good
Don’t worry, he is.
Somehow it seems that joining Arsenal sucks the ability for players to put the ball over a wall and get it back down to goal level. We have seen all of them blasting away at free kicks with only the occasional one actually going in. Hopefully Kallstrom-with-an-umlaut will buck the trend and score a few like we saw in the video somebody linked to earlier. If he can defend in the spirit of The Great Flamini and add a few goals from free kicks he is exactly what we need to bolster the efforts of our forward line… and in… Read more »
Definately did not mean sucks. We “lack” a truly accurate taker of free kicks. Maybe the man will remedy that.
I agree. Cazorla in particular was one of the best free kick takers in Europe, now seems to always just fizzle into the wall.
Good grief…. Wenger misses his big chance. Stubborn cunt.
What a charming way to speak about our manager!
Which big chance is it? You mean paying through the roof for an unproven kid.
And the language you use for the manager!
Fuck You
Asshole
I’m not one for name calling, but Wenger did blow a good opportunity here
Good Grief… Wenger didn’t sign a player who only the Press said was for sale.
Signed him for the Arsenal 10 years ago in Champ Manager! Good to have more midfield cover but a striker, really is whats needed. Come’on Arsene!
His name has two umlauts, does that mean he’s twice as good as Ozil?
I am Swedish, and I am ambivalent about this. Kim has a very high potential, I think he is slightly underrated. He has a ton of experience from Lyon, through their best years (i.e. he’s played a lot of CL matches) He was always questioned as a starter though through most of his years in Lyon. Interestingly enough he usually ended the seasons with the most minutes played, in a Lyon team that was in CL every year. He’s also been questioned as a starter in the national team. Mind, that has been a question of the Gerrard and Lampard… Read more »
I am agreeing with what he said, tack, very well put.
I am fairly amazed by the twatishness being displayed in this thread. I tried to give an honest, balanced opinion of the player, and I stand by my word. As it would seem, there are a lot of glory hunters in this thread calling him a nobody – nope. Not the case. Ask our German internationals what happened when they were 4-0 up and Kim came on? That’s right, the game ended 4-4. I am pretty certain we will have genuine quotes from Özil, Mertesacker and Podolski saying they are glad he is on the team pretty shortly. Or ask… Read more »
Sounds like a strong lad. Hope he helps us pick up trophies. 🙂
Really good player and i think he can also play on the wings.Let’s hope his best years are n’t behind him.Good addition but i was hoping for a striker too(kostas mitroglou would be my choice and i think we could get him cheaper as the player himself would do anything to come to a team like Arsenal).greetings from greece! and a greek gooner.
mitroglou – gone to fulham, i think ( or some other small club )
I think he’s a good player (Kallstrom), I saw a fair bit of him at Lyon and was solid. As for his age, he’s only 31, people make it sound like he’s got a cane and an oxogen tank.
We might as well have signed Kim Kardashian! Not the signing I was hoping for.
Good signing. I’m pretty sure Arsene has already got a list of summer targets such as draxler etc. January is a difficult time to find a quality player without an extortionate price.
Comes across as a very likeable fellow in his interview on Arsenal Player. Remember him from his days in Lyon; can be quite an elegant player, and in my opinion at an ideal age for midfielders, esp. defensive midfielders.
Maybe, he’s not a top top signing but he is a top top lad:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/excellent-story-picture-kim-kallstrom-consoles-frightened-autistic-boy-before-sweden-v-germany/
Hoping for the same outcome that ManU had when Henrik Larsson went there on loan!
I owe you a tenner.
If I recollect, you had raised it to 50. Wengernomics at it’s best!
That was me! ‘I’ raised it to 50. I take cheque or Visa…
He also collects 80′ popstars, he currently keeps 3 members of five star on his office shelf
It would have been four, but Dick Law bungled the negotiations for Denise.
I’m sure he’s a half decent footballer and a nice bloke but how fucking underwhelmed am I ?
We were always up against it but that’s the league gone right there.
I pray we don’t get sucked back into a 4th place dog fight yet again.
You missed a massive chance here Arsene to have a right go. ………….. So disappointing .
Thumb me down all you like. You know its true.
Bring on the vitriol but depressingly I’ll suck it up and hand over my season ticket cash as usual in July ( plus the 3% extra of course)
I’ve just concluded a time and resource consuming internet watchdog report thing for some faceless agency, among which one of the findings was that people who proclaim and complain boisterously about being season ticket holders on the internet are 99.2% of the time fibbing.
0.8 % are telling the truth then and and are royally fucked off.
Oh well, that’s the title bid over,,,, at least top four is more or less assured. Another repeat of season 07/08 I’m afraid,,,
I was going to say that you missed “spiel” from the end of your name, but hey presto, there it is in the text box instead. Lucky, lucky us.
Considering we only have 4 players that naturally play in the bottom two of the midfield triangle and three of those are out of contention at the minute, this is possibly more important than a new striker right now. This will be reflected on as a masterstroke by Wenger when we win the treble this year, called it.
No reason why we couldn’t get both Kim and a striker and I think that is the source of most people’s frustrations. We needed to reinforce upfront at the beginning of the window and before Jack and Rambo (again) got injured yet within a few hours to go we still haven’t done so. If we could tie up an agreement in 1 day for what seems to be a pretty decent signing why could we get a decent striker in on similar terms during the course of the whole month?
God help us if we signed Cazorla today (“OMG he’s 29 and I’ve never heard of him! WENGER OUT”) or even, heaven forfend, Tomas Rosicky (“He’s 33 and scored a goal in teh 2006 European Championships! AAARRRGGHH”)
fact is he might win us the league. then again, he might not, but until we get to see how he gels with the current team anyone complaining is just an idiot
Well said, Sir.
Anyone watching the Primera knew who Cazorla was. He was already one of the biggest stars outside of Barca and Real, and was brilliant game after game.
Yeah, you’re all philistines for not watching Spanish football. Peasants!
If he’s half as good as Freddie Ljungberg he’s good enough for me.
Hmm, I hope he really is the BEST we could have done this transfer window. And I was getting kiddy for Wengers smirk when asked about signings coming in couple of days ago…
Arsenal take drax-tic step!!!
Well-kim lad
I like to believe there’s a strange symmetry to life, remember united signing a veteran Swede on loan a few years ago and going on to win the league (and Champions league?). Make of it what you will 😉