' Aron Gunnarsson as hard as they come '

Just how hard is Aron Gunnarsson?


Friday 8th June 2018


The Iceland captain has earned himself a reputation for being something of a hardman, and judging by this interview it’s one that is totally justified.

How many other tough-tackling midfielders have honed their skills by playing on gravel?


ARON GUNNARSSON:

“I could only play in the summer. You see, in the winter, the pitches were covered with … come on, everybody say it together! You guessed it: ice and snow. “And I’m not talking about the kind of winters you have in England, where a few centimeters of snow cause panic. I’m talking about proper winters. Several meters of snow. Minus 10 °. Four or five hours of sunlight a day.
“Have you seen Game of Thrones? Well, then you get the idea."

“So in winter, I played handball instead. But that didn’t solve my second football problem. You see, when the snow finally melted, I didn’t play on grass. That kind of luxury was reserved only for the senior players."
“So I had to play on gravel.
“Seriously.
“Safe to say, it wasn’t ideal. One day I came home with this horrific gash on my leg, and my mother was shocked. Of course, all I had done was to go into a sliding tackle, but you’d think I had been fighting a bear!”

Aron Gunarsson speaking to The Players’ Tribune

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The situation with Gunnarsson, he's 29 yrs old, is a little complicated. He is with Iceland preparing to captain his country in the World Cup and is trying resolve any remaining glitches and dot i's and cross t's from there.

The bulk of the work was done before Gunnarsson departed with Iceland and Warnock remains hopeful he too will sign.

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Hasn't everybody played on gravel at some point....

Hasn't everybody played on gravel at some point....

Those Vikings eat it instead of Cornflakes

Hasn't everybody played on gravel at some point....

Haha exactly mate.
Like him or not I certainly wouldn’t call him a hard man on the the pitch.

Hasn't everybody played on gravel at some point....

Exactly what I was thinking come back when you have played Rugby on a pitch covered in broken glass and used needles

Just growing up in the Valleys was tough enough

Mind you, over in Iceland there's some dodgy geysers you wouldn't want to get involved with when they're letting off steam.