Arsenal striker scores with baroness 13 years his senior…
Things just keep getting better for Nicklas Bendtner. A week after the Arsenal striker was chosen as the Danish Player of the Year, newspaper reports claim he’s found himself a new girlfriend. One with £400m and a castle.
34-year-old BaronessCaroline Luel-Brockdorff is a member of the Danish royal family who recently ended up quids in after a big money divorce settlement from the cousin of James Bond creator, Ian Fleming.
The couple met when she appeared in an episode of what we assume is the Danish equivalent of Changing Rooms (except she was doing up the family castle rather than a two bed semi in Warrington), in which Bentdner was guest-starring. At the time, she was quoted as saying:
He is charming and bright and he’s very willing to help other people. You never know when our paths will cross again.
Since then their paths, and probably a couple of other things, have indeed crossed, with the Danish high-society set heralding the relationship as a ‘fairytale romance’.
van Persie, Fabregas and Arshavin > Henry, Pires and Bergkamp?
After Arsenal’s 4-1 Champions League cakewalk against the Eredivisie champions last night, Arsene Wenger was moved to compare his young team to the unbeaten Gunners squad of 03/04:
We’ve never had as many options on the creative side. We still have Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott who are offensive players who are not available.
Denilson, Eduardo, Tomas Rosicky did not start - that is why I was amazed when people said, ‘Buy, buy, buy’. And Carlos Vela as well… I forgot him!
Fair assessment, or another one of Le Prof’s attempts to tack an extra psychological boost onto an impressive performance? Ljungberg, Henry, Pires and Bergkamp had racked up 16 goals and 10 assists in all competitions by this time in 03/04 season; while van Persie, Arshavin, Bendtner and Fabregas are already on 24 goals and 23 assists.
In terms of depth, Wenger has a point - as backups go, Eduardo, Rosicky and Nasri are a more desirable trio of reinforcements than Reyes, Wiltord and Kanu were. But does the overall attacking quality of the squad match up?
Furthering the widely held belief that footballers have a hard time translating their excellent foot/eye coordination into the successful operation of an automobile, Nicklas Bendtner wrapped his £160,000 Aston Martin around a tree on Sunday morning.
The striker’s car left the road as he drove to Arsenal’s training ground in London Colney, Hertfordshire, ploughing through a fence and a tree before coming to rest in a field. It sounds (and looks) pretty serious. But don’t worry Bendtner fan! The slipper-sporting Dane walked away with just bruising to the shoulder and grazed knees.
According to The Sun, a ‘motorist’ who ’saw’ the accident said:
“The car wasn’t going especially fast but careered off the road. The driver must have lost his concentration for a moment. There was a massive amount of damage to the car but he got out, brushed himself down and seemed right as rain. He’s a lucky boy.
Arsene Wenger now has a selection dilemma, with Bendtner out of tonight’s Champions League clash with Olympiakos. And we’re sure he won’t have been happy seeing his striker hitting the woodwork again. *bu-dum-tssh.*
The private beef which caused Emmanuel Adebayor to moonwalk over Robin van Persie’s face a fortnight ago has been revealed to be the same reason he fell out with Nicklas Bendtner last season - an unhealthy shoe obsession.
According to the News of the World, following Arsenal’s final day win against Stoke last season, Emmanuel knee-slid into the Gunners’ dressing room with an extra-strength bin liner and (as one club rep put it) ’swept the place’, bagging as much of his team-mates’ kit as would fit - including a pair of boots Robin van Persie had planned to give to friends - before hauling ass.
A member of the Arsenal backroom staff was left break the news to the players:
“We never saw him - or the boots - again. Robin was going mad.
English clubs keep 100 per cent record after first round
Liverpool 1/ Debreceni 0
After going through the process of finding out who the hell their opponents were, Liverpool fans were generally pleased with last night’s performance. Handsome Dutchman Dirk Kuyt made the difference, but there probably should have been a few more goals.
Standard Liege 2/ Arsenal 3
After five minutes it looked as if The Gunners were going to get hammered in Belgium, but they overcame the two-goal deficit in spectacular style thanks to Nicky Bendtner, Thomas Vermaelen and definitely-not-a-cheater Eduardo.
Spoiler bonus: Inter Milan’s clash with Barcelona promised to be a thrilling affair, but that promise was ultimately broken. Check out highlights of the deadlock after the jump…
Lanky Dane to wear pointlessly high shirt number this season
Alleged Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner has announced his decision to double his squad number this season on the official Arsenal website:
“Before [the season] starts I wanted to change my squad number from 26 which I’ve obviously had for a number of seasons now. I chose to move to 52 because it’s a special number to me personally, and I hope that it brings me good luck for the new season.
“I appreciate that a good number of fans have bought their kits for 2009/10 already with names and numbers printed up so I’d like to personally cover the cost of replacing anyone’s shirt that has my previous number. It means a lot to see supporters wearing your name and number, and I want to ensure people aren’t inconvenienced by the change.”
The refund is expected to cost Bendtner £10,000, which means that 250 people have already decided to splash out on a shirt bearing his name. It seems like a low amount, but that’s approximately 250 times greater than the amount of Michael Owen shirts that Manchester utd have sold.
The Spoiler is quite puzzled by the decision to double the squad number. Does he think he will be twice the player next season? Is he intending to dramatically cut the amount of decent chances he fluffs to 52 per cent?
The games that have made this season worth watching
Now that Manchester Utd have pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of the 2008/09 Premier League title race, it’s high time that we start peddling out some end of season lists. Accordingly, here is a top ten of the campaign’s most entertaining matches, which somehow includes a game involving West Brom…
#10: West Brom 3 - 2 West Ham, 13th September
Gianfranco Zola must have been wondering what he’d signed himself up for, watching his first West Ham game from the stands before taking over as manager. A game with a neutral-baiting mix of awful defending and open attacking play, both teams managed to lose their lead twice before an 83rd minute West Brom counter attack saw Chris Brunt sprint free of the Hammers’ defence and clinically place one inside the far post.
#9: Fulham 0 - 0 Sunderland, 18th October
Sunderland’s early visit to Craven Cottage should go down as the best goalless game of the season. Fulham’s goalmouth literally took a battering. Kieron Richardson, taking time off from his usual job of lying on a physio’s table somewhere, had his 25-yard free-kick bounce between the posts twice (before having another free-kick goal disallowed) and Djibril Cisse’s rasping long ranger was saved by the crossbar. However, the Cottagers created their own opportunities in the back-and-forth battle, with Zoltan Gera having a shot cleared off the line from Pascal Chimbonda before spurning his team’s best chance with a Carragher-esque air kick.
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