All In The Game: Plymouth Argyle’s vaccine mix-up

Covid confusion at Home Park

Having only finished six points clear of relegation in League One this season, Plymouth Argyle were probably quite surprised to see the length of the queue outside their Home Park ground last Monday when they put their season tickets for their 2021-22 campaign on sale. “There was a clamour from fans to get them,” reported The Plymouth Herald, who sounded a bit surprised themselves.

Alas, it turned out that there was a bit of confusion - as the Mirror put it, “people hoping to get their long-awaited Covid vaccines at the stadium were stunned to discover they were actually queueing to buy the club’s season tickets”.

Home Park has been used as a vaccine centre since January so the queues got muddled last Monday, resulting in the possibility of season-ticket-seekers ending up vaccinated and vaccine-seekers ending up having access to all Plymouth’s home games next season.

One report quoted a Mr Wes Hewlett, a Plymouth die-hard who wanted a season ticket but ended up, unbeknownst to himself, in the vaccination centre. They asked him if he was aware that a “massive headache” was a possible side effect, and he said yes, as an Argyle fan he was left with one after watching most of their games.

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It was only when he was advised to take paracetamol if he experienced any pain that he twigged something was up. “Us Argyle fans need something much stronger than that,” he said. (It turned out that this report was actually from News Biscuit, a satirical site, but it sounded like a perfectly credible account to us).

Quote of the week

"We drink a bit, dance, hug, at 11.30 pizzas arrived. In England the parties are just alcohol, not food, I don't know why. So when the pizza arrived was the best moment of the night." Pep Guardiola on how he lined his tummy mid-way through Manchester City's title-winning celebrations.

Number of the week

42,390 - That's how many little stars Ajax made out of their 2020-21 league trophy after having it melted down, before gifting one to each of their season ticket holders. Nifty.

Word of mouth

"I'm almost 30 and I have a good career, but on a personal level I want to have two more kids, to give my son, David, some brothers." Does this mean if David ends up with a bunch of sisters, Neymar will roll around on the ground howling?

"If you want to be a number nine then you're going to get hurt and break your nose once in a while. He's a pretty boy and I don't know if he wants to do that." Old Gunnar Solskjaer on why he reckons Mason Greenwood will remain on the wing.

"Come on fatty, don't mess with us." Gerard Pique's rather unkind message to his former team-mate Luis Suarez after Suarez, a tad dishonestly, tried to win a penalty in the recent Barcelona v Atletico Madrid game.

Micah Richards hits bullseye

Micah Richards was, no doubt, chuffed for his former Manchester City team-mate Kasper Schmeichel after his two worldies of saves helped Leicester win the FA Cup on Saturday. Not that they always saw eye to eye, mind, Richards mightily peeved by Schmeichel regularly calling him “Mucker” back in the day, which he took as meaning “s**t”.

“I’d been called ‘Mucker’ one too many times by Kasper,” said Richards in his Daily Mail column last week. “He was standing not far from the dart board. Stupidly, I threw a dart in his general direction, with no intention of hitting him but hoping to give him a fright. To my horror, I got the angle wrong and it landed in his leg.”

Gulp. How did Schmeichel respond? “He removed the dart with a wince and the matter ended, there and then,” said Richards. And they’ve been the best of old muckers ever since. He’s a forgiving lad, is Kasper.

More word of mouth

"I ****ing love VAR." Gary Lineker somewhat reassessing his view of the video assistant referee after it ruled out that late Chelsea equaliser on Saturday.

"I'll let you in to a little secret: I've had a couple of conversations with him. Since I retired we have parked our rivalry up and he gave me time on the phone to bounce a few things off him." Steven Gerrard revealing that Alex Ferguson colluded with him on the banjaxing of Celtic's season.

"My teammates told me: 'don't leave Edi, we love you'. One of them said to me: 'If you go, I'm going to want to cry'." Edinson Cavani explaining why he decided to stay with Manchester United for another season. Mind you, after his team-mates' performance against Liverpool last week, he looked close to tears himself.