Welcome to a late addition of Le Grove!
First up… the fantasy Grove standings… are you top, bottom or in need of a serious rethink?
Me? Well, I just had to sacrifice 20 points to sort my team out.
Onto the leaders:
| Position | Team | Manager | GW | Total |
| 1 | Dtox | Dylan Clayton | 58 | 810 |
| 2 | empat mata | tukul arwana | 40 | 796 |
| 3 | Galacticosly | van de Jie | 46 | 775 |
| 4 | This Cesc Is On Fire | Richard H | 46 | 775 |
| 5 | the Mustangz | sAshi Nefarious™ | 60 | 774 |
| 6 | Waynes Wonders III | adam curtis | 40 | 769 |
| 7 | ‘allo ‘allo XI | willo Wilson | 61 | 768 |
| 8 | Tony Adams | Jaakko Kalliokoski | 46 | 759 |
| 9 | 1 Season Wonders | Tom Bartram | 54 | 758 |
| 10 | CorkGoon | Mark O’Connell | 57 | 752 |
| 11 | Extra Avanza | peter randianto | 57 | 751 |
| 12 | Gunner 4 life | Stephen Percey | 52 | 750 |
| 13 | Bad Boys 4 | Tej Patel | 58 | 743 |
| 14 | Gommit | Finnur Einarsson | 58 | 743 |
| 15 | Partisan Drumbess | Damian McCaffrey | 38 | 741 |
| 16 | FSSSS | Ramy Oraby | 44 | 740 |
| 17 | Trinidad_Gunner | Stefan P | 54 | 738 |
| 18 | Saucepan Lids | Mr Kate Winslet | 52 | 737 |
| 19 | One Damn Dolla FC | Dara Feiritear | 68 | 733 |
| 20 | F5′s Arsenal | Daniel Wilcock | 39 | 725 |
Onto other news. PHW stated today that Arsene will have money to burn in the January transfer window. Asked whether there would be funds available in the transfer window, he replied,
‘Absolutely, yes. There have been suggestions we keep stopping him buying, but that is not the case.’
I assume Peter Hill-Wood was reading the Le Grove comments section the other night and decided to publicly deny the assumptions some of the Grovers were making!
I don’t have any inside information, but I’ve formed an opinion on this matter using the facts we have available.
1. There is nothing in the annual reports to suggest Wenger is being crippled by the property side of the business.
2. Danny Fizsman said the manager has money available,
“It’s not our decision who he spends money on, nor will it ever be our decision. If he said to us ‘I want this guy and he’s £30 million, can I buy him?’ the answer is yes. Absolutely yes. We totally back him. It’s his decision. I’m unfortunately not good enough to be a manager myself but I’d love to be.’’
3. No one has ever come out officially and said that the property aspect of the club is hurting our finances. In fact, totally the opposite. Here is what Ken Friar said earlier in the year,
“The finances for the Highbury Square development have been ring-fenced so they are separate from our usual football business,”
According to Ken, more than 90 purchasers have already completed deals to generate £39m (€49.8m) and 598 units of the 680 total have been pre-sold. So instead of being a leech on our finances, the property will be a bonus,
‘As such we have not budgeted for the profit and this allows the board to be flexible over its use as the money has not been earmarked for anything in particular.
“In that sense it will be a bonus.’
‘We have options available to us. For example, profits could be used to reduce the stadium debt or to strengthen the team if the manager wishes.’
4. The stadium debt does not affect our transfer budget. We turn over £3million (Double Highbury) a game and we have a mortgage to cover the cost of stadium. It is manageable! When asked about whether the stadium would negatively affect our ability to compete, Mr Fizsman said,
‘There is this constant thing that the Emirates is bleeding the club, that we’ve got these repayments — it’s total crap’
He went on…
‘Look at our accounts and you will see our net payments are £20m and the revenue increase from the new stadium is close to £50m. Explain to me how that stadium bleeds the club if it’s producing an extra £30 m-a-year. Our wage bill is very similar to Manchester United’s and substantially above Liverpool’s. It’s substantially below Chelsea’s, but that is expected.’
Can you get any more emphatic than that?
Why are people still trying to make excuses for Arsene? He doesn’t want to spend because he is on a promise. Whether that is right or wrong is a different debate, but until someone can provide categoric evidence he has no money, you have to go on the current facts and they all point to there being a substantial transfer budget (Especially when you do the sums for all the comings and goings, TV money, Champions league money, sponsorship etc…).
On to things of a footballistic nature… Wenger is feeling bullish ,
‘We can play and win everywhere in the world. We have not to consider too much who we play against. We know Chelsea are a great side with a great players. But at the end of the day you beat them if you play at your best.’
I couldn’t agree more… our recent defeats haven’t been down to bad luck, they’ve been down to a lack of fight and a lack of confidence. Hopefully a win on Sunday can kick start a great December.
Have a great evening Grovers, Geoff will be back in the morning with a ripping post!
P.S. There are tickets in Le Exchange and a need for more. Oh, and 65% of you are backing the boys for victory on Sunday! Lastly, read what he thinks of the new boy here.
Update: Wenger has asked that the fans do not target Cashley this weekend.
Arsene, I think I speak for all the Grovers when I say this…
We promise not to shout abuse at Cashley this weekend, because it is immature and unfair on old Cashley. We certainly wont be making any remarks about mobile phones, Jermaine Pennant and that old blonde slapper he got himself into trouble with.
Honestly Arsene... we promise...
why not kaka… he says he likes premier league… and the only team playing premier football in this league is The Arsenal…. not now, but known for it
podolski would be a good buy… esp because we need specialist wingers, so that Diaby and/or nasri can be free to play in the middle whenever possible. It will free us so many options.
Is Podolski a winger? I thought he was a forward. Morning all.
Good Morning Ethan,
I presume you read this link I put up earlier.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/emirates-stadium-news/highbury-square-development-latest-news
if you read this from october 30th it is all based on the selling of the entire block of apartments,which are due for completion mid 2009.There is no guarantee they will all be sold by then and secondly the whole project is bracketed as a seperate company and the board may chose at their discretion how any profits are used.
I agree with your earlier posts,but even if we had about 25 million to spare it might buy us 2 decent experienced players and furthermore they would have to be playing in the PL now,to have an immediate effect.
Injuries are also a big factor.People write about Rosicky and eduardo returning.Rosicky i guarantee you wont play this season and if Eduardo is mentally focused it wil take him a few months.Rosicky hardly played last season,and Eduardo only had a cameo role.
We have only Gallas,cesc,Sagna and Clichy who come ayehere near the standard of the invinsibles,but gallas as was TH14 were both erong choices as captain,one for being too arrogant the other being too emotional,and I am sure gallas will have to lleave.Unrest between the players mixed with not enough experience and real leaders does not bode well,surely wenger sees that.Even if we beat chelsea,which i doubt one has no guarantee we will win the next match.
If it was stated that we had no money,had to sell every year and rely on youngsters for the next 3 years that would be a different matter and some would accept it.Wenger cocked up letting some players like pires and Diarra go,and yet buys a 31 year old in silvestre who has a long line of injuries.
on an unrelated note,i have disabilities,have supported arsenal for 50 years and i only put my jokes up on a friday to ease the gloom
good morning everyone, GEoff podolsky is a forward who can also play on wings…
Just for you Geoff
A Catholic priest, a Baptist preacher, and a rabbi all served as
chaplains to the students of Northern Michigan University in Marquette.
They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and to
talk
shop.
One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn’t really
all that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One thing
led to another, and they decided to do an experiment. They would all go
out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert
it.
Seven days later, they all came together to discuss their experience.
Father Flannery, who had his arm in a sling, was on crutches, and had
various bandages on his body and limbs, went first. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I
went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him, I began to
read to him from the Catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do
with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy
water,
sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he became as gentle as a
lamb. The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion
and
confirmation.’
Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, had one arm and
both legs in casts, and had an IV drip.
In his best fire-and-brimstone oratory, he claimed, ‘WELL, brothers,
you
KNOW that we don’t sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then
I began to read to my bear from God’s HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted
nothing to do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we began to wrestle. We
wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a
creek. So I quickly DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And just
like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the
day praising Jesus.’
The priest and the reverend both looked down at the rabbi , who was
lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast and traction with IVs
and
monitors running in and out of him. He was in really bad shape.
The Rabbi looked up and said, ‘Looking back on it, circumcision may not
have been the best way to start.’
Nice one Kelsey!
ttp://thegoonerforum.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/bendtner-on-a-bender-drunkexclusive-photos/
pinkie has been a naught boy,which shows my earlier point that some players couldn’t give a fuck about wenger and wenger has lost control.
two weeks ago it was gallas supposedly smoking,now this.
NEW POST!