Hello there, welcome to a brand new RS blog, RSCAST, right here on RSBlog.com.

I hope you're well. If you hear any strange noises in the background of this particular episode, it's because while I'm recording with the window open tonight, I know summer is gone, the mornings are getting darker, the evenings are getting shorter, it's getting just a little bit colder, but it's a beautiful night here in Dublin and I'm sitting here in my office in front of the microphone with a beer, Samuel Adams, and it's just nice to have the window open and some nice warm air coming through and

the sounds of the neighborhood might, from time to time, be audible, birds singing, dogs barking, sirens wailing, perhaps the screams of those people running away from the sirens, neighbors shouting with love at each other, throwing plates of affection, so if those noises are audible, I do apologize, but I'm going to sit here with the window open, perhaps for the final time this year.

And that's a bit sad in itself, and on this particular show, well it's probably going to be a short RSCAST, because normally we look back on what's happened in the week gone by and we look ahead to what's going to happen in the week to come.

And this week not a great deal has happened because we've been smack bang in the middle of the interlull. We could look ahead in more detail to what's going to come, but that's speculation, fortune telling, sooth saying in fact.

So it could be quite short, on the other hand, we could find plenty to waffle about between now and the end of the show, I just don't know. That's the beauty of not knowing, you just never know.

So what has actually happened between the last RSCAST and this RSCAST? Well, from a footballing point of view, clearly nothing. It's been very, very quiet in and around the club since that game at Old Trafford, remember that one?

Haven't, not so long ago, but it feels like ages ago. It's been quiet. We've heard a bit from a couple of the new arrivals.

Michel Artetta has been at the training ground since, since Monday, he moved down to London last Friday. He was eager, wasn't he?

Wanted to get right into it. And that's admirable. He's been talking quite a bit this week about, you know, how he's not a replacement for SASC and how he's not nervous, but excited about this new challenge.

You know, he looks good in the arsel shirt, I have to say. No, many of the ladies agree with me and he, yeah, he does. He looks well.

Apart from that, though, all we've had is some relatively bad news in terms of injuries. Jack Wilshire, two to three months out with an ankle problem.

Thomas Vermalan, two months out, maybe a month out, he'll be back in training in a month, but you know, I think it's wise to remain cautious, don't you?

But how long these guys are going to be at for? And of course, it makes everyone wonder about why it is that so many arsel players get injured.

Something we'll cover now in a few moments time, but I don't know. Is it our training regime? Is it our medical practices? Is it the hardness of the pitch?

There is some suggestion that the pitch at Ashburton Grove is particularly hard, and we know that arson vanger likes to replicate the surface at the training ground, so they could be training on really hard pitches and playing on really hard pitches.

Or could it be that we just have a lot of injury-prone, brittle players? And if we do, then it's no real surprise that they're injured quite a lot.

Maybe it's a combination of all of those things I just don't know, and I don't think anybody else does either. Well, certainly nobody on the outside.

And while I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask questions about our injury record, I'm not sure it's fair entirely to point fingers at the medical team every time it happens.

Like for myelin's injury, for example, came after a kick. How many of vampires these injuries came from accidents during matches?

Maybe the diagnosis have been off from time to time, and maybe we could have treated them better? I don't know. We don't know what's happened behind the scenes and how they've tried to do things.

The thing about it is, as these guys are highly trained, highly educated, professional medical people.

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