Wenger's greatest achievement - that everyone has overlooked.

As we all know, Arsene has been the boss at Arsenal for 20 years now. Over the last few weeks many an article/ex-player has told us of how the modern game formed in his wake, his trophies have been listed, whilst his detractors remind us of how many times he didn’t win The League/Champions League/an Oscar. 

This argument has unfortunately rather overshadowed what should be the true legacy of Wenger, that is as an exemplary role model, perhaps the only example of a decent human being while all about him football falls into into a mire of nastiness and stupidity.   

Wenger has the kind of standards that you might tell your kids to maintain; fair play, decency and prioritising other values over winning; values such as loyalty, faith, patience and good old how you play the game.

He looks after his players, he even lets them move on if they want, even when they’re clearly the best in the team, he never throws them under the bus, he doesn’t criticise them after they’ve left, he gives them chance after chance to prove themselves, he rarely whines or makes excuses, he never tries to steals the limelight, nor blow his own trumpet. He’s clean living, dedicated, incredibly hardworking and ambitious. 

Is there a better role model in popular culture? Would you rather your kid look up to England Captain and habitual face-screamer Wayne Rooney? Maybe serial league winner and ego-monster Ibrahimovic? How about The Special One and eye-gouger Jose Mourinho?

EYE GOUGER!

FROM BEHIND! 

Football (and politics) seems to be more and more about idolising quite horrible people be it managers or players, until they go too far of course and then we ask ourselves (for about five minutes) what kind of example they give to young footballers. So ridiculous has it become that this season they`ve actually had to bring in laws to stop players shouting in the referee’s face. Far be it from the players and managers themselves to behave like any normal civilised person might. 

And amongst it all, Wenger. For my money perhaps the only half decent role model in professional football. 

 - A final thought. When Arsene has left, the Premier League will be like a band you like that turned out to be a bunch of racists. You still enjoy the music but a part of you knows you shouldn't really listen to it.

Top Podcasts

I'm a huge podcast fan. We're so lucky to live in an age where the internet gives us access to such amazing work by talented people and podcasts are perhaps the best manifestation of this.

I've been listening to podcasts for years now and they're getting better and better. There are serious journalistic podcasts like Serial and brilliant interview podcasts like RHLSTP and WTF, sports podcasts like Football Weekly and historical podcasts like In Our Time.

Here is my list of favourite podcasts, the ones I always look forward to downloading and recommend that you do too.

1. Radiolab. A work of art. Radiolab takes amazing stories, often scientific, and then presents them in the most compelling way with clever sound effects and use of conversation to help you catch the most important details. It's truly wonderful.
2. This American Life. One of the podcast pioneers, it almost seems dated now but the same level of professionalism is still there and there's a huge back catalogue of every kind of story you can imagine.
3. The Smartest Man In The World Podcast. Greg Proops takes to the stage and records, in front of a live audience, an awesome monologue/ramble/sermon often about his life experiences, overlooked people who have just died and why we should appreciate them more, music and a lot about feminism. It's fascinating and funny and light-hearted and all told with Proops' crazy self-mocking but honest conviction.
   
   
   
4. Conversations. This Australian podcast gets some great guests, some famous, some not, all interesting, and has long interviews on a huge range of topics.
5. Rear Vision. Another Australian podcast but this time one that picks a topic, often one in the news at the time, and tells us about it with the help of expert contributors. Great for catching up on current affairs you know nothing about.
6. Adam Buxton. Once part of the amazing Adam and Joe team, now media-meddler Buxton seems to have found his place with a series of great interviews. To date there have only been around 30 episodes but they've all been excellent and are broken up with the host's madness and insane jingles.
   
   
7. Second captains. My favourite general football podcast. The three hosts ramble their way through the week's top football stories and always manage to offer an interesting alternative to the normal boring/summary/aren't we crazy football podcasts. Great musical interludes too.
8. Arsenal Vision. The best Arsenal podcast. If you're a football geek, this one is great. No bollocks analysis filled with empty explanations of motivation or desire here. These boys break it down and tell you why the team is working or why it's not. Stats and formations abound. 
9. Witness. Short but fascinating podcast from the BBC. 1st or second hand accounts of and variety of historical events. Often powerful stuff. 

Special mentions. The following can be a bit hit or miss but are definitely worth a listen.

1. Doug Stanhope. Often more like a live recording of a psychology case study; comedian Doug Stanhope records at his bar/home with his neighbours randomly popping in. The Bingo Is Missing episode, where his girlfriend disappears and Doug and his (ex) girlfriend's new love interest sit at the bar and talk about where she might be whilst waiting for the phone to ring, is incredible.
   
2. WTF. Maybe the most famous podcast of all. If the guest is interesting then it's worth a listen. Host Marc Maron's self-analysis/open style is also kind of fascinating. Skip the first 15mins though.
3. Stuff You Should Know. Two guys that sound like old hippies explain stuff. Some great episodes to dig out.
4. The Infinite Monkey Cage. Great science talk but too often ruined by people trying to be funny.

Some blasts from the pasts. Podcasts that are unfortunately no longer recorded. 

1. The Russell Brand Podcast. The mp3 version of the radio show. First on 6Music then later on Radio2. Love or hate his later incarnations, his radio show has some of the funniest moments I've ever heard in my life. This Cry For Help Playlist on YouTube is wonderful.
   
   
2. The Adam and Joe podcast. Again, a podcast version of their BBC radio show. Great regular items, listener contributions and a lot of two old friends talking nonsense.

Some BBC podcasts. 

1. Desert Island Discs. Good when the guest is good. 
2. David Baddiel. tries to understand. Quite new but some surprisingly interesting (and nicely short) episodes. 
3. In Our Time. Interesting historians try to explain interesting topics whilst getting badgered by an increasingly stressed/senile Melvyn Bragg. 
4. Shortcuts. Comedian Josie Long does a sort of dreamy British version of This American Life. 

Makkara

Finland is an outdoorsy country. Pretty much everyone has, at some point in their life, camped, fished, skied, gone trekking, picked berries, built a fire, punched an elk, etc.

What you soon realise though, is that the main objective for any outdoor activity in Finland, is to get to a place, often a laavu, where you can cook and eat sausages (Makkara).

The Finnish sausage is a bit of a sorry beast. Most people seem to peel of the plasticky skin, often burnt anyway, and then cover the sawdust meat inside with mustard. Those that know me will confirm that I am almost completely devoid of national pride, but the Finnish sausage is a poor imitation of its German or British equivalents.

Makkara

British Sausage

The countryside here is full of laavus, traditional shelters once used by the farmers when they went out to cut the hay meadows. Nowadays pretty much every ski day or trekking day is designed around a visit to the laavu where desperate skiers/trekkers hurry to the fireplace to get their burnt sausage fix.

They really are makkara addicts. This year I joined a kayak club and on the beginners' course they explained how the kayak has a little storage space just perfect for storing a barbecue for your sausages. Having passed the course, we adventured off to a nearby island only to find it full of people who'd come over for the day in their yachts. We watched them land, walk to the barbecue spot, cook their sausages then get back on their boats and sail away again.

So passionate are the Finns about cooking sausages al fresco that they have even invented telescopic barbecue forks which fit neatly into your backpack/ski pants.

Sometimes it feels a bit like the Pokemon craze where going out is actually an unintended consequence of getting to a place where you can wave your phone at imaginary Japanese characters/ cook sausages. At least it gets him out of the house.

Man overboard!

On the weekend I heard a great story about a man who jumped overboard from a Tallink ferry, swam to a nearby island and survived for two weeks stealing crackers from a restaurant that was closed for the winter.

The man himself told the police that he had regretted his act immediately [presumably seconds after he hit the icy water. Ed.] and had swum to the nearest island. - ERR news.

That nearest island was Pihlajasaari which, as you can see from the map, is barely 1km from shore. It's a busy tourist island in summer but in April he was lucky he didn't freeze to death in the sea.

Here are my top 4 scenarios for why he jumped.

1. The Abort. "What? This ferry goes to Estonia! Abort!" Like when you realise you've got on an escalator that takes you to the wrong floor. You can either ride it out, slowly go all the way down then find the escalator that takes you slowly back up, or you can turn round and charge back to the beginning, leaping at the end to get back to non stationary land.
2. The Did I Leave The Oven On? Maybe you did. Maybe you didn't but there'll be no peace till you've checked. Now over the side with you scatterbrain!

1. The No Ferries To Pihlajasaari in April Eh? "Well I'll show you. Tally-ho."
2. The Stop The World, I'm Getting Off. "Five euros for a coffee! In a paper cup! I wake up at 6 to get on a stinky ferry, travel 2 hours to a job I don't even like then two hours back to a wife who complains I don't do enough around the house. Well no more my friend! I'm going to live on an island and listen to The Stone Roses. See you later suckers!"

Hitching in Lyngenfjord

The old man stopped to give us a lift. He opened the back of his estate car and helped put our heavy packs in without asking where we were going. He'd been down to Nordkjosbotn to get some dog food and now was heading back to his home near Nordmannvik, about a 3 hour round trip.

He told us that there didn't used to be a road on this bit of the fjord. This was where the Sea-laps (Sea Sami) lived and fished; there was no road to them, only boats.

Then the road was built and later the tunnels to protect the roads from the landslides falling from the sheer slopes in the winter.

He remembered a time when there were lots of people who spoke Kven, something similar to Finnish but different. There were some words that sounded familiar to him but it was hard to understand.

He'd heard that once, more than a thousand Brits had come over, by boat, to work in the mines. That was a long time ago.

Many of the first tourists here were Germans. Many soldiers had been here, during the war, and fallen in love with the place; they came back to visit with their new families.

Now there are lots of Japanese tourists. They come to see the northern lights. Most nights there are half a dozen coaches parked in Skibotn. Most of them stay in Tromsø.

They're building a new tunnel too. Then the trip to get dog-food will only take two-and-a-half hours

Porkkalanniemi. Back in the USSR.

After the second world war The Soviet Union demanded the use of the Porkkalanniemi peninsula as a naval base. This small area juts out into the Gulf of Finland and gave control of all naval access to St Petersburg.

Despite being deep within Finnish territory, access to the area was controlled by the Soviet military. Trains however, running along the south coast could still pass through although the windows were boarded up and photography was prohibited.

The area was finally returned to Finnish control eleven years later in 1956.

Harju OK?

The Alps were formed when Africa smashed into Europe and ruffled the continent up like a carpet on a shiny floor. The Andes are the result of the Nazca plate burrowing under the South American continent like a badger.

Unfortunately Finland escaped the exciting game of continental plate spinning and has largely been formed by huge Glaciers planing it flat every time there's an ice age. This means Finland is flat. Very flat. However, there is one exciting geological fillip to make this country a bit more interesting, the noble Esker.

Esker, or Harju in Finnish, are these cool ridges that pop up all over the country. Sometimes they look like railway embankments. They can run for kilometres and rise high above the surrounding countryside providing great views to the, often flat, lands on either side.

So, you may ask, if glaciers raked the rest of the country flat, how did Eskers form? Good question.

At the glacial maximum glaciers, normally moving like a slow frozen river, slow down and stop. Generally the glaciers around this part of the world stop when they get down to Germany, presumably retreating quicky from the weirdos playing dreadful oompah music.

Water however is a tireless beast and continues to try to move through the glacier. As it does it begins to form tunnels which get bigger and bigger. Anyone who's tried to put glacier ice in their whisky knows that the water is full of sediment and this sediment gets left behind in the tunnels. Sometimes the tunnels are huge and they fill with huge amounts of sediment. Eventually the glacier melts away and Finland is revealed but the sediment remains, still in the shape of the tunnel that housed it for so long. And that snake-like pile of sediment will eventually get covered in grass and trees and become the beautiful Eskers that we know and love.

Paradise esker

Canadian Esker

Esker heaven

One final point. The Finnish word for esker is Harju and it sounds like Are you which gifts us a great opportunity for top comedy. i.e. Harju you sure? Harju OK? Harju happy? Harju getting annoyed? Harju re-evaluating our friendship? Harju going? Harju coming back? Harju still there?