LW saga continues…
Can we hijack Barcola or Godts?
3rd year of chasing Nico Williams?
Does Juve getting Alajbegovic make Yildiz feasible?
Is Ndiaye good?
Can Alvarez play LW?
Will Arteta run “save me” gimmick on Rashford or Leao? (No)
Find out next week on Dragonball Z
🚨🤍 𝗡𝗘𝗪: Yan Diomande emotional letter to his late sister:
"Dear Roxane,
Remember when somebody bought me a fake United jersey, and I wrote Ronaldo 7 on the back with the black marker?"
"We didn’t know rich or poor. We just knew happiness."
"Remember 25 people sleeping in one house back in Abidjan? Mum wanted to watch her soap operas. Everyone else wanted to watch movies. Remember how I always used to fake like I was asleep and then go into the TV room after midnight? I’d put the TV on real low. Just like 2 volume bars. I’d watch football in the dark and dream."
"Remember when the adults saw me playing football in the dirt and nicknamed me “Roberto Carlos” because of how hard I would shoot? And remember how I was secretly so mad about it, because CR7 was my idol?"
"Remember when I went to play so far from home? I was 9 years old. Inter Foot Sud Comoé, all the way near the Ghana border. Just a little boy on his own. I don’t know if I ever told you this story, but me and the other kids used to go into the village and steal potatoes because we were so hungry. We did a “bank heist.” Two kids distracting the shop owner, and 18 other kids running out with two potatoes. They weren’t even good. But they tasted amazing. Hahahah. It’s still my favorite thing to eat. Boiled potatoes with some oil. It reminds me of those times."
"Remember when I got my first real football boots, and I used to sleep with them? Growing up, I always played in those white plastic sandals. Even when I go back home now, I still play in them. It’s our tradition."
"Remember when I would come back home, and you would tell my friends from the neighborhood, “Why did you stop training? Yan is not going to buy you cars. You have to keep working."
"You were 10 years old, and already my agent."
"Remember how we used to sit and dream about moving to France? How we were going to go shopping and get our own apartment and I was going to be a rich footballer with cars and a big house, and you wouldn’t have to worry about nothing. You were the one who always believed that I could be the next Cristiano, when everybody else laughed."
"Remember when I moved to America for high school at 15, and I was so homesick? I didn’t know what anybody was saying for months. They sat me next to a French kid, and he tried to translate everything the teacher was saying. Remember when I called you, saying, “You won’t believe it, the kids here argue with teachers."
"Back home, you know we wouldn’t even dare to blink at our elders."
"Remember when I couldn’t believe the kids were smoking after school? You used to say it sounded like I was in an American TV show."
"Remember when they took me on trial at Bournemouth? At Chelsea, Rangers, Olympiacos, Crystal Palace? Eze and Olise even came up to me after one training and said, “Yo kid, you’re really good.”"
"But they still didn’t sign me."
"Even the B teams in the MLS didn’t want me. I didn’t even know why. They never gave me a reason. The adults handled everything. They just kept taking me all around Europe, and everybody kept saying no."
"My visa was up. My dream was over. They sent me back to Africa, and we cried together."
"You were the one who never stopped believing. A few weeks later, I signed for Leganés and we cried different tears."
"That was back when I used to have emotions. Now, I don’t feel anything. It’s like I’m not even human. Since you died, I’m just blank."
"I don’t even think I shed a tear the day they told me that you were gone. I was just in shock."
"It was a few weeks after I made my debut for Leganés. Who makes their debut at 18 against Real Madrid? It was too crazy. It was a dream."
"And then it was a nightmare. Someone kept calling me from back home. I was annoyed. I didn’t understand why they kept calling me."
"I picked up, and they didn’t even soften it. You know how it is back home. No emotions. Just……..
“Your sister is gone.”
“What?”
“She died.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Somebody put something in her drink at a party, and she never woke up. She is gone.”
"You were 15."
"15."
"I never got any answers. I don’t know if I want to know why. Maybe it was jealousy. Maybe it’s just something that happens in our country. Maybe I could have protected you. I don’t know."
"I try to trust God’s plan. It’s all I can do. I don’t try to forget, because I know I won’t forget. All I can do is use the pain to work harder, and to do everything we dreamed about."
"I wrote this because I can’t speak about it. I wrote this because I want you to know that I will make sure that you live on. I will make sure that everybody knows your name. The whole world."
"Everything I do on a football pitch, it’s for you."
"So much has happened since I last saw you…… You would not even believe it. I don’t know if I believe it."
"You know what’s crazy? After my debut against Madrid, I actually swapped shirts with Mbappé. Remember when we used to watch him on TV, and you’d say, “Mbappé? Yeah, he’s good. But my brother is better.”
"I was wrong about one thing. I don’t want to be rich. I see what it does to people, even to family. When I was at Leganés, everything I was earning, I was sending home. It got to the point where I didn’t even want money anymore. It was just a burden. They never stopped asking. I guess they thought I was a millionaire already. I didn’t even have an apartment. I was living at the training ground in a room with no TV. Just football and sleep, football and sleep."
"I didn’t want a big house. I didn’t want cars. I just wanted to put everything into football. Everything to show the world that my sister was right……."
"Ha…. you will think this is funny. When I moved to play at RB Leipzig, I was always late. Well, not late. But I was on time, which in Germany means you’re very late."
"So you already know what I did next. I started arriving 90 minutes early to everything. I was so early all the time that the guys started calling me “The German.”"
"I always have to overdo everything. I have zero chill. You always said that."
"The pitch is the only place that I feel at home anymore. It’s the place where I feel calm, and I can speak to you. I just wish you were still here so I could tell you….. We did it."
"Everything you said came true."
"We’re leaving for the World Cup tomorrow. For real. Your brother is going to play for Côte d'Ivoire, like Drogba, like Yaya, like Gervinho."
"I don’t even look at it like a game. I look at it like a stage. This is my chance to show the whole world what you saw in me. Every time I score, I’ll make sure everybody knows your name. I’ll make sure they don’t forget you."
"You always said that I could be better than Cristiano. If I see him there, I’ll tell him hello for you."
"I’m going to do what you predicted, I swear. Before I even had real boots, you were telling everybody, “My brother is going to be the greatest in the world.”
"I will prove that you were right, or I will die trying... Your brother, Yan."
— @PlayersTribune
Hand on heart, I dont feel sad at all. Im so fucking proud of this group. Won us a PL after 22 years and took us to a UCL final. Kings who will be remembered forever. 99% of Europe would want our season.
Thank you Mikel and Thank you Arsenal.
I recognise my football club again.
Marc Guehi is one of the most vocal footballers in all of football about his faith, so is Doku. Saka, Eze and Timber are also children of God.
You can argue that Guehi single-handedly gifted Saka and Arsenal the Premier League trophy with his error against Everton.
So one might be tempted to ask: whose side was God on?
The answer is neither. And that is the most interesting answer available.
The easy theology says God rewarded the Arsenal believers and abandoned the City ones. That Guehi’s faith failed him at the back-pass. That there is a moral ledger being settled in the final weeks of a title race. This is the kind of thinking that makes Christianity look small and transactional and frankly embarrassing, and it is not serious.
Here is what is serious. Ken Kutaragi built PlayStation. When he watches someone play at 3am, grinding a level they have failed thirty times, he is not waiting for them to win. He is watching someone be fully alive inside something he made. The tears of the losing player are not a malfunction. They are the highest testimony to the product.
You do not lose sleep over something average.
God built creation on this exact logic.
He did not make a world that produces beautiful outcomes occasionally. He made a world where full operation IS the declaration.
The zebra at full speed declares something whether it escapes or not. The lion in full extension declares something whether it catches the zebra or not. The margin between those outcomes is paper thin by design because God built a universe where every moment carries full weight. He is not glorified by the winner. He is glorified by the intensity of what He made.
He does not need the righteous to win for His case to hold. He does not need the title to go to the more faithful dressing room.
Guehi running onto that City training ground believing God had a plan for him there, that was the full operation. Guehi’s back-pass and the collapse that followed, that was also the full operation.
Doku scoring a curler into the top corner and fighting until the 97th minute and it still not being enough, full operation.
Saka calling out Arsenal’s naysayers post victory, Eze lifting the trophy on a pitch that used to belong to his old club, full operation.
God does not need a winner. He was never waiting for one. He already got what He came for.