Le Grove – Arsenal blog featuring Arsenal news

Well yesterday was the greatest night since the night before when Arsenal’s kids won the double, watching the hapless Mancs getting humiliated by two Arsenal old boys was almost as good at watching the academy side spanking the scousers at Anfield.

The arse kissing BBC sports correspondent Chris (I only got this job ‘cos my dad was famous) Hollins enthused about them being current world champions and the best Manc team ever yesterday morning, they interviewed all the trailer trash half wits they could find, showed their team practicing, talked to Lou Macari like they were old mates and said bugger all about out kids lifting the FA Youth Cup, not a dickie bird, it goes to show how biased the BBC really are.

Hey dipstick, they only played two games to get the World club championship, and one of the was a Japanese factory team. World club champions my arse.

Watching the other twat on Sky last night was equally funny, he was wacking skippy over the Mancs and how they were so dominant for 7 minutes (sound familier?) as Eto’o wacked in their first goal, at the end he and his boyfriend were talking like they knew all along that Barca were going to win, pair of muppets.

At the end of the Silvinhio and Henry show, TH14 told the world that Arsenal were in his blood and he’ll always love them, he even dedicated their win to Le grove for their unbending support for the maestro over the years, Thierry, we salute you.

Even though the transfer window hasn’t opened yet Arsene has been quick off the blocks to sign, wait for it… …yes, 15 year old wonderkid, Jamie Edge. I know we joked about it, but at least he’s English and not Uruguayan!

The Hangeland rumours won’t go away but honestly, where they come from, I’ll have money that Wenger has said nothing, I would still like Chelleini, having said that I bet Old Red nose is regretting letting Pique go eh? I’d have him in a heartbeat.

Have a great day today Grovers, tomorrow it’s Pedro’s post.

P.S. I have 8 season ticket loans going on… please e-mail in sharp if you want a chance to see your team next year!

Ok it’s now official we won the Academy league and the FA youth cup and fittingly we did it at Anfield on the exact day we won the league on Merseyside in 1989, what a great night it was.

I just read that Pedro missed the game so I’ll be doing the match report, well here goes it will be brief.

I expected Liverpool to come at us from the off and I guess in their own way they did, but they just weren’t good enough, Shea made two great saves early doors and that seemed to settle our nerves, we dominated possession and when the goal came it was all about pace and strength and that boy Watt has both in spades, a very well taken goal that had calmness written all over it. Too many players stood out for me to mention but Coquelin, Wilshere, Watt, Bartley, Lansbury and Thomas were extra special.

What did surprise me was the awesome supporters, ours not theirs I mean, Friday saw 35,000 at the Grove and last night I think they mustered up around 11 scousers, they even had the cheek to sing you’ll never walk alone on the PA system, what a joke, if this was a game they needed a few supporters in the legendary kop, they sure as hell didn’t get it, our mob on the other hand didn’t stop, top marks the crowd -10.

At the end of the game our team went nuts and when I saw them lift the trophy at the end and run toward our fans, it reminded me of 89 and Tony Adams.

Thanks for that the Arsenal, you were all men last night and I give the whole team a 10 star, what a great season, if only the grown ups could have done likewise. So Stevie Bould to take over at the top and Arsenal to win the quadruple next season? Don’t hold your breath Grovers, but I would seriously consider moving him up next to Arsene, those set pieces and the defending had George Graham written all over that team last night and that’s not a bad thing, a combination of the two could be a devastating one.

So we have to wait until June 1st before the fun begins, well that’s not too long is it!

Have a great day Grovers, bask in the Arsenal kids glory, it was a great night.

So is this the real new away kit of the 2009/10 season?

Or is it the shyster who mocks up fake kits to throw us off the scent for Nike! Thanks to whoever the chap was for letting me take a picture of him outside the Arsenal tavern, it didn’t look as bad as I feared!

In other news, Pedro has been doing some sluething off duty. He met a guy in Camden over the weekend who works for the hospitality people at Arsenal. I don’t want to name names, and he was a Manc… but he did share some interesting titbits.

1. The burgers you saw Cesc and co wolfing down at the youth cup final first leg were in fact purchased from the burger bars in the normal seats. I think we call that keeping it real in the business… however, they did not part with any cash. Maybe it’s a company perk? A good one if you eat enough… £5 a burger is extortionate! I wonder if that went down on their P11D’s as a benefit in kind?

2. Nik Bendtner has a nickname amongst the Arsenal players… ‘Barbie’. I’m going to hazard a guess that this nickname has more to do with his pink boots than any physical similarity… pretty damn funny if you ask me!

He also told me the Arsenal season ending do was pretty amazing. I can vaguely remember him telling me some celebrity names that were there, he mentioned a female singer who is going to be big next year sang (Name if anyone has it!), Matt Lucas was there, he said the Who were there (and played I think)… he also said all the players were there and in good spirits and that word on the street is that Ade is a goner this summer, note goner, not gooner!

Mystery Manc, we salute you!

The following question was sent from an AKB, who even calls himself an AKB, these people occasionally post to ask us how we feel about certain Arsene Wenger issues, and if we believe we were wrong in our assumptions during the season, I decided to post this today and to answer his deluded question.

The glorious sunshine on the last day of the season.

Author : AKB and proud
Comment:
 A quick question…

Earlier in the season I kept reading on here that Arsene has loads of cash and does not want to spend it. Many kept assuming they knew how much we had to spend. The board kept saying that Wenger could spend as much as he wanted but was apparently too tight fisted.

My view was always that, that view was pure bollocks. I am intrigued to know if most still feel that its the case.

Geoff’s Response:

Ok , let me put you out of your misery AKB and proud. I have said on many occasions that Arsene has had the money to spend, he has chosen not to, why else would he have bid for Alonso? He decided to go with project youth and told us to judge him in May, well we did, and so it appears did he, and that my friend is why he is now saying he will strengthen his squad, because we weren’t good enough, and don’t forget he also said earlier in the season that if he had £100 million to spend, he wouldn’t spend it, now he may now be saying if he did have £100 million he would be stupid not to spend it, but he obviously forgot his earlier statement, I hope that answers your question.

The time for apportioning blame is now at an end, we won nothing and the season is over, so let’s all look forward to see what he’ll do in the summer, we’ll get behind him because we are all Arsenal fans, you Mr AKB posted your comment at 3.30 just before the 4 o’clock kick off, so if you were so proud to be an AKB, then why were you not there paying your money to support your manager? Why? because you are not a real fan, you sir are a plastic.

Now although I did say we have won nothing this year, I didn’t mention that we are playing the second leg of the FA Youth cup tonight against Liverpool, so at least we stand to win something this year and that will go some way to proving we do at least have the best young kids in football coming through under the expert guidance of Stevie Bould, let’s hope some of them go on to forge a successful career at the Arsenal, boys we wish you luck, go and do what the big boys couldn’t, win us a trophy!

And a huge well done to Mr Bould who has been quietly instilling some of that old spirit of 89 resilience in the kids that has appeared to be lacking in some of the first team, maybe Arsene, it’s time to promote Steve to the first team bench.

P.S. There are people who want to do deals with their season tickets this summer due to work commitments etc… mail in if you’re interested because you’ll have to move quick, today is deadline day!

Morning everyone!

Just a quick post from me today! I’ve predicted that my hangover is going to be pretty horrific… so this is being written at 0400. Dedication to the job my friends…

I thought the game was pretty standard stuff… we knew we were going to beat Stoke… Stoke knew we were going to beat them.

We beat them.

Robin proved his value to the team once again with and assist and two goals… his productivity this year has been impressive, and I would suspect with a player like Arshavin in the team from the off, he’ll do even more next year.

Vito Manonne played pretty well. I was quite surprised how big he is! What a beast!

Other than that… there’s not too much to report on!

I’d like to thank all the Grovers who turned out in force today! We had the usual crowd, some new people and even some people who just read the site but don’t comment! There really are some great characters who read this blog and meeting you all really does make it all worth it! Thanks for another great year from a non-footballing perspective… make sure you stay tuned over the summer… we’ve got plenty of new ideas to keep you interested!

Player ratings:

Entire team: 10

Enjoy your hangover… remember, you deserve it.

Apparently another stalker site out there in blog land wrote most of its post yesterday referring to us, Le Grove, how nice! Join the club, you’re not the first and you won’t be the last blog to use Le Grove to get your own post read, as usual I won’t mention your blog name, to be honest I don’t even know what it’s called, I haven’t read it, two of our  Grovers did a cut and paste. I know their names though, Franchise and Adbeadhair. Oh and Irish mentioned it too.

This is what they said – ‘Arsenal fan site Le Grove organises a mass dirty protest demanding Wenger sign that Uruguayan fella from You Tube that can do ten kick ups with a tortoise lest they all stop bathing for a week’

Listen if we could find a player that could do 10 kick ups with a ball he’d have to be better than Diaby and Denilson as they can’t do two, so if there really is a player like that out there, I suggest you get in touch with Arsene Wenger.

Le Grove reserves the right to say we think Denilson will be a great player one day as will Diaby, but not yet and we need good now, so adequate back up, but not more and certainly not at the same time.

Again I don’t know for sure, but one of our Grovers told me that as of 8.45 last night this other stalker blog only had 3 comments, perhaps you’d like me to start writing your posts mate, your advertisers may like to feel your blog gets read, don’t send them here though as I don’t take advertising space, this site has integrity and we do it only for ourselves and our Grovers, no money changes hands.

Onto all things Arsenal, I saw the new kit today as I’m sure you all did and whilst it’s a little dark, it’s not green and it may look better in the flesh, so let’s wait and see, I’m one of the few that didn’t like this years away kit, I loved the ‘Invincibles’ yellow kit though.

Someone is trying to organise a march on Sunday to pay homage to Arsene Wenger, I’ll be drinking outside the ground enjoying our traditional last game at home – knee’s up, so I’ll be missing that one, someone else is organising a petition begging him to stay and some else is having a 10 minute sing-a-long singing , you guessed it, ‘One Arsene Wenger’

I think you have to be a little careful on this one people or he’ll think we are all endorsing project youth and he’ll buy no one. Also, he’s said he’s staying and that may come across a little toady. Still, each to their own.

We all agree he is a great manager and we all love the brand of football, but the team we all support is in fact Arsenal, what will all these people do when he eventually leaves? Become Madrid fans? I will follow my team blindly, whatever they do, and whoever manages them, why? Because I love Arsenal, get a grip people and keep it all in perspective.

I read the chart of the EPL’s cheapest and most expensive seats, well of course we won that hands down (does that count as a trophy?) but what I found astonishing was, our cheapest were almost the same as the Mancs most expensive, and they just won the league three times on the trot so that really rubs it in.

I understand we may be fielding Mannone in goal as Fabianski has a knee problem, wow some leap, if he does, good luck Vito, we’ll give you a huge cheer, that’s for sure. Nasri is also out so I expect he’ll play Arshavin out wide, let’s hope he gives Theo a go up front with someone and puts Vela out wide instead. Or Vela left and Arshavin right, it’s Stoke and it’s our last game, lets attack, I think I can remember the team that played at their gaff and that really didn’t work, so I hope the boss goes all out and tries to score more than they do, like we did against Wigan on that last day of the season and our last game at Highbury when we won 4-2 and pipped the spuds.

It will be interesting to see if he recalls Traore next term as he’ll have Gibbs, Clichy, Rosicky, Nasri, Vela and Arshavin all capable of playing down that side, still we can never have too many in my book.

I think the consensus on here is we sign Cana, maybe I’ll try and get a song going so the boss can hear that, I read about Matuidi but he seems to be in the Diarra mould and Cana is like a beast version of Flamini and with no conscience, and that for me is exactly what this team needs, we’ll see.

Hopefully Gazidas and Wenger will get in quick, like that time with Rosicky, but with a player that isn’t broken though this time, I don’t care where he’s from, I’ll even take a Uraguayan if he can do kick ups and he’s a big centre back or a tough tackling defensive midfielder.

Have a great day today Grovers, I won’t be around until the afternoon.