Marcia Milnes
(Ed’s note – Bit of light relief for everyone today with an account of a Junior Gunners’ tour of the training ground back in late February. Doubtless normal service will be resumed tomorrow!)
Half term, yet my kids, Daniel and Ceri, were up at 5.30am! Luckily this is rare, although today was special – they were off to the Training Ground! Their Willy Wonka style Golden Tickets came courtesy of a Junior Gunner competition, offering the opportunity to attend a “Behind the Scenes” event. This consisted of a tour, a look at the pitches and meeting with the groundsmen (obviously they don’t employ any in Milan), a coaching session, a talk from the physio and a Premiership Footballers’ lunch. I hoped Rob the Chef had a load of fish fingers in the freezer, as my son is fussy and doesn’t like Nandos.
We had to drop the kids at South Mimms Service Station at 7.45am (unfortunately no Lee Dixon style signings going on there) and a yellow coach took the group of Junior Gunners to the Training Ground - no parents allowed! Perhaps they didn’t trust us not to accost Robin and the gang (although they had flown to Milan the night before), or maybe the questions we might pose to the medical team could be a bit controversial. We were to pick them up again at 1.45pm so time to go home to catch up on some sleep.
Although the “how was your day/what did you do/who did you meet?” conversation with my children is usually met with the response of “fine/can’t remember/don’t know”, when I picked them up they were full of excitement about their day. They had dumped their bags in the press room, put on some orange outer shoes (no-one is allowed to wear outdoor shoes inside) and set off on their tour. First they saw the players’ pigeon holes for their post and fan mail, and were told that Thierry had to have his in a sack as there is so much!!!!!!
Then to the dressing rooms where they met Andre Santos, took some photos of Robin’s kit and his flip flops, and saw boxes of energy bars for the players (obviously they don’t sell these in Russia). Next they were led through to the swimming pool, ice bath and jacuzzi area. The swimming pool has a special floor that goes up and down so that the players can run and swim through the water. The ice bath was very cold and is used when players are injured (perhaps in hindsight this should have been the same size as the swimming pool).
Next up was the boot room where they were lucky enough to be allowed to hold some of the players’ boots, including Vermaelen (now we know why he slipped in the San Siro!) and Henry; and they saw Robin’s new style “let’s hope he can score when he wants” boots. On their way to the gym they bumped into Jack Wilshere going to see the physio – hope he can work his magic on you soon Jack! In the gym there was loads of different hi-tech equipment including an anti-gravity treadmill. You have to wear a special jacket and an oxygen mask and are zipped inside the machine, and this allows players to run on injuries so that they can stay fit.
Then a quick look at the players’ restaurant and lounge before they were taken outside to see the training pitches, kept in the same immaculate condition as the Grove. In the indoor dome the kids were trained by Arsenal coaches (pass, pass, pass….) and they met newly signed Jon Toral who spoke about how to improve their skills (SHOOT!). One of the Arsenal physios spoke about healthy eating and staying fit, demonstrating with “Dennis” the skeleton (and accidently dislocated his leg in the process!!) You couldn’t (and I didn’t) make it up!!!
It was back to the press room for their Premiership Footballers’ lunch (which the players would also be eating in Milan before their Champions League match). This was either chicken and vegetables or pasta and vegetables, followed by trifle. A final photo with Gunnersaurus and then back to South Mimms, armed with a goody bag and a piece of souvenir astro-turf.
As much as I would have loved to be a Junior Gooner that day (I might have got away with it as I am slightly vertically challenged), my kids had a brilliant time, so well played Arsenal. Although the team were missing (to be fair it didn’t really look like they had turned up in Milan either) the day was one they will never forget.
