He’s a man with many names. Bazzo. Two Kits. Half Kit. Whatever you know him as, if you have ever followed the Arsenal to any degree you will know him. Yes, the slightly rotund, shortish chap with the blond ponytail and an Arsenal top made up of the away shirt and the home top.
Today Arsenalinsider has scooped the world. Because we can exclusively reveal that Bazzo is shunning the new blue away shirt for the new campaign. Instead he is using last season’s yellow kit along with the new home top and, on the back he is having “I don’t do blue”. OK, the ‘exclusively reveal’ bit is a joke as he has told a few people out here on the tour of his intentions.
Along with a very organised chap who goes by the name of Colin, I have had the pleasure of travelling with Bazzo as the Gunners tour through Asia for the game in Kuala Lumpur and here in Yiwu, China. Bazzo is short on conversation. By that I mean he doesn’t say too much. But when he does open his mouth it is usually worth listening. He has a very dry sense of humour and a suitcase full of Arsenal anecdotes. Evidence of this can be found simply by taking a look at his passport. In the section headed who to contact in case of an emergnecy he has entered ‘Arsene Wenger and Pat Rice’.
Anyway, keep an eye out for Bazzo come the start of the season. Or in Cologne next week. Or indeed in Lisbon in a couple of weeks. Asia this week Europe next.
We have just arrived in Yiwu City where tonight we face Hangzhou Greentown in the second match of the trip.
After yesterday’s nightmarish train trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou (we waited for two hours to buy a ticket and then boarded a train that even a sardine would have trouble squeezing into) this morning we elected to get a cab to Yiwu. Best part of two hours and sixty quid later we got to the hotel in this sprawling metropolis surrounded by mountains.
The hotel is five star with two star prices. The staff, as throughout China, are impossibly thin and impossibly well mannered. Friendly and helpful, too. I am surprised at just how many people speak English. But like the Japanese they are reticent to converse sometimes because they are ashamed that they are not word perfect.
One time I asked a woman in Shangahi if she spoke English as we were trying to find the correct metro line for our hotel after travelling on the world’s fastest train (430kph) from the airport into the city. Me: Do you speak Englsih please. Her: No, sorry. Me: Oh, you seem to be able to speak a little English. Her: Yes but I English isn’t very good, so sorry. Me: Er…
During a warm-up drink at the hotel bar in Shanghai before hwe hit the twon, we got chatting to the bar gals, one of whom said he very much liked the film Titanic. Yes, I am aware of the work, I replied. She said she very much liked Black Pete, also. Hmm, I thought, this is obviously a Chinese film star because I know my movies and I don’t remember any such actor. No, she insisted, he is a very famous star. Huge. Handsome. Sexy. I thought some more. No, sorry I don’t know of him. We would have to leave that one in the sunsolved file. Later that night when I recounted this mystery to an American lady teaching English here she smiled and said, ‘I think she means Brad Pitt’. I am not joking. Ask Bazzo.
As you would suspect, our Mandarin isn’t what it was, although I am convinced Colin will be studying the language on our return so he can be even more organised if we ever come back to China. Which I am sure we will, given the reception the team has had here.
Because of the train chaos, we missed the open training session but we were in time to meet up with locals who did go during a trawl of various bars dotted along the huge lake in Hangzhou which is a massive tourist attraction for the Chinese (Two girls on our rattler into the city had undertaken a 26-hour journey to spend one day at the lake!).
The sight and sounds of a throng of Chinese youngsters bedecked in the famous red and white and talking passionately about the Arsenal was one that will live with me forever.
Believe me, Mr Wenger and the boys will be back in Asia next year with Japan on the agenda. Don’t rule out America either. The days of a tranquil and relaxing few days in Austria as a pre-cursor to the season are gone. Brand awareness and revenue streams have beaten Wenger’s football masterplan into submission. The mentality is ‘go global’.
Start saving for next summer. Bazzo has…
Receive a digest of our best Arsenal content each week direct to your mailbox
