Le Grove – Arsenal blog featuring Arsenal news

So when the Gooner review contacted me about reviewing their DVD of the 2008-09 season… I thought, jeez… that’s like asking the Iraqi people to review the ‘Magic moments of the Gulf War’ DVD special… why would I want to review the torment of last year… then I read on…

It’s for Charity!

Hooray! The Willow Foundation take 100% of the net profits… you could say the Willow foundation are profiteering from our misery, but that would be silly.

So… on that note, I got down to work. Reviewing a DVD is a pretty scary thing… I’ve never read a film review, I’ve never read the television pages… and I hate music reviews. So please bear with me on this one…

Here goes…

Paul Kaye opens the show with the line,

‘Sit down, relax and spark up a big red and white bifter…’

…that I did… I had my piece of crap scarf Arsenal gifted me rolled into a zig zag and I was on my way.

The format of the show is basically the top ten talking points of the year… there’s no video footage of goals and players… but there is plenty of opinion… it’s like watching a video version of a comments section.

So what did I think? Well… I was pleasantly surprised. Real fans giving real opinions. I don’t know why I thought it was going to be sugar coated because it wasn’t… you had your AKB’s… mostly people on the Arsenal pay roll… you had realists… mostly fans, supporter association members and celebs… and you had your experts, journo’s, ex-players, etc… It was a really good mix… mostly because they kept the AKBish talk to a minimum.. it was like listening in on a typical gooner convo you’d hear at the pub or in the stadium.

Tom Watt really rankled me… he is so AKB it hurts. He said…

‘If you think Jack Wilshere is going to be the player you hope… do you buy a player who plays in his position?’

Ok Tom… let me just inform you that we purchased Nasri (21) at the start of last season and we purchased Arshavin (27) in Jan… we’ve also got Theo (21) out wide plus Carlos Vela (20), Bendtner and Diaby (<-Snigger)… plenty of players who are competing with him… your argument is invalid. If that is your argument… why don’t we just get rid of the rest of the youth set up… and only have one age group until they all make it? Dumb idea… of course it is… like your argument for not bolstering the squad with proper players. The cream rises to the top in football… you shouldn’t have to clear the pathway artificially… that’s type of culture has go us into this mess in the first place.

He gets worse as it goes on… I don’t think I’ve ever seen ass kissing like it? I felt uncomfortable at one point… like I was watching something I shouldn’t… It’s sad when someone has job insecurities so bad they forgo their opinion to tow the company line… At least Shovell was true to his opinion despite being on wage bill.

Paul kaye said something I connected with,

‘It came to February and I thought we still in with a chance… but that’s because I’m a fucking idiot’

Hilarious.

There was quite a bit about the horror moment when a shareholder called Silvestre ‘geriatric’. I thought it was a bit rich listening to people defend Wenger on this one… he pretty much tells any player who hits the age of thirty they are geriatric by only offering a one year deal… why would he get offended when people slag off Silvestre for being old when #1 He is old. #2 He got a 2 year deal. Yes 1 more year than Bobby, Freddie, Ray, Dennis and Gilberto were offered.

I don’t want to continue to give away the good parts of the DVD… but know this my friends… this is an effing good DVD and considering the proceeds of the sale go to the Willow foundation, I think you should purchase it. It’s a proper season review put together by the people who matter… the fans!

So don’t act like Wenger, stick your hand in your pocket… pull out £8… send it over to the Gooner review and enjoy that warm feeling of doing something charitable and getting something nice in return! Like when you are on holiday and you give a kiss to the monster girl standing in the corner… at least this wont cost you your dignity!

On another note. I shared a taxi with, surprisingly… with a taxi driver. His son, who is 7 years old had apparently just signed up to the hammers for 4 years from his 8th birthday onwards. I asked him whether Arsenal had come in for him and he told me that they had… but the training on offer at West ham suited him more for now as they do it 3 times a week. He also told me that an old friend of his was heading up scouting for kids at Arsenal and that when he went to see him, Arsenal had 7 dossiers on his boy! Crazy or what? The guy said if Arsenal are interested in 4 years time, that’s where he’ll be going… Young guns… eat your heart out…

I find it amazing we have 6 dossiers on a 7 year old… but apparently there are no 23 year old defensive midfielders with tenacity, mobility and skill on the market… it’s a crazy world we live in folks.

Someone made an interesting point yesterday about player transfers… shouldn’t the manager know what he needs player wise before preseason? Wenger like to tell us that he must assess what he has in training first… well as far as I can see, he’s got all the same players he had from three months ago minus Kolo, Ade, Rosicky and Nasri… why does it take a preseason to tell him what he is lacking? Or did he have every intention of hitting the August 31st sales all along?

Finally… on the financial doping of the market. If you have a car worth £5k… and I offer £2.5k for it… you refuse that £2.5k and sell the car to another person for £5k… who has got the value of the car wrong? Wenger has consistently talked about the value of players being out of kilter with reality… well for me, maybe his expectations of value are the problem? I had countless discussions with people about the value of Alonso last year… people were claiming he wasn’t worth £15mill… now he’s gone for £30mill. Ok, that price has been slightly inflated due to the Madrid effect, but clubs like Madrid will ALWAYS be flush with cash… and there will always be a new sheikh on the block willing to buy players up like toys… plus, great players will go up in value until they are 28.

Right, on that note, I’m off to upload this DVD onto you tube! Have a rip roaring day Grovers!

P.S. We’ve been name Omniblogs blog of the week! Click here to read up about it!

Add to the team now or be lucky to stay in the top 4. And stop bragging about losing as if we should be grateful.

After watching the Chavs and Mancs grind out a bore draw yesterday, I thought, well they haven’t improved, good. But at least they haven’t gone backwards and I think we have, with Nasri and Rosicky out and with Kolo and Ade gone we have gone the wrong way.

If he bought a centre back and a big midfielder in now, then we could win the league, that’s all we’re lacking, even Paddy in there would do the job. If however Wenger is determined to stick with what he has then please persevere with Wilshere and Ramsey and not Song, Denilson and Eboue, at least you can see those two will make it.

He also seems obsessed with Numchucks, I really think he would be a great signing, but do we really need another striker? We need a midfielder and a centreback, the whole world knows it except the boss.

Someone said yesterday they didn’t realise we had already lost to Celtic and Everton yet, well if we sign no-one soon, you can add City and ManU to that list, then our season will be over, in September.

That’s how confident I feel, and with all the money we have to spend, that’s all bollocks.

The latest boast is we got to 2 semi finals, well in the ECL we lost our group, beat a shit Roma side on penalties and a poor Villareal and then got humiliated by the Mancs, and the FA Cup saw us all the way to the semis without meeting a premiership side and when we did, we didn’t play our best player and lost, and what, that’s our new benchmark? Please!

If someone out there can tell me selling two and buying none makes sense when we were already two short, I’ll listen, but don’t call me negative, that title’s already been taken…

Have a great week Grovers! And no bitching today, that’s for the other blogs.

Sorry for the delay, Pedro isn’t around. So this post is one to counter my previous, some say negative ones.

We lost, and Song and Eboue all played, we don’t need to strengthen in that area, but we do need another French speaking forward, that’s vital.

Had Denilson played though he would have been awesome, check out his stats.

Everything is rosey and I’m happy with the squad, don’t forget Arsene knows and although we have £40 million in the bank doing nothing, we really don’t need to buy, so please, no speculating.

Next up Everton, and I’m looking forward to seeing Senderos play and happy that if we get £7 million for him it will get added to the £40 million we got from Ade and Kolo.

Kolo it seems left because he was bored but Ade left because the fans didn’t show him any respect, Arsene said that not me, but without Arsene we wouldn’t be where we are today, so I for one am grateful, you lot though should be ashamed, not loving Ade, how can you not love Ade?.

Balanced enough? Don’t judge the boss now, do that in 2 years. That’s what he asked for.

Have a great day Grovers, now you know why I don’t do match reports.

I know someone that does! Well let’s look at this game first, forget it’s Celtic, on paper it will be like playing West Brom in the FA Cup, but history will show us that when they play English teams it becomes like a regular domestic cup game, in short, although it shouldn’t, it could go either way.

Let’s look at who we’ve lost first from the first team.

Rosicky, Nasri, Kolo and Adebayor. Now although we didn’t have Rosicky last year that’s still 3 players missing.

So who have we bought in? Vermaelen. Does that make us stronger than last season? Of course it doesn’t, and it wasn’t last year, it was 3 months ago, you’ve seen pre season, has Song or Denilson got better? No of course not, has the defence? No of course it hasn’t, I like Vermaelen, I think he’s Keownesque but he couldn’t out jump a 40 year old Barnet player, and height and winning high balls was the problem, so we haven’t addressed it have we???

Anyway, who cares, we are richer than we were in May and as Wenger told someone who said he has been supporting Arsenal for 50 years and last year was a disaster. ‘did we get into the Champions league semi final before?’

If getting humiliated in a semi final of the champions league is what you judge success on Arsene, I guess we should be grateful, me, I like to win, and if that means spending money we have on players we need then that’s what we should do, almost to a supporter we all say we need a centre back monster and a defensive midfielder as Denilson is not good enough.

Don’t wait to get knocked out of the ECL until you realise you are wrong, act now before the season is over. Dramatic maybe, but true. Looking good in pre season against shit teams tells us nothing.

We play Valencia tonight, I don’t see the point, but if you can get David Villa and that big centre back it’s a good plan.

Enjoy today Grovers, next week it begins…   …At last!

So after Jackie boys double man of the match performances at the Emirates Cup at the weekend, I wonder if it brings out the little green man in him. I hope it does, Theo for me could be the Michael Owen of the 2010’s, he has what Owen had in spades, he has been put on the wing to develop but Owen went straight in the lone striker role.

When Theo played in the middle for England in the summer, he was woeful, so up front for us ahead of Bendtner, Arshavin, Robin and Eduardo? I’m not so sure.

I also believe Numchucks is on his way so there’s another one ahead of him. Yes I said Numchucks!

I believe Theo will be played as a winger again, or as we used to have in the old days, an inside forward, that used to be the number 8, inside right or the number 10, inside left.

In fact when I played, no one wanted the number 10 shirt, the number 9 was the big one, I think 10 became fashionable when Maradona came along.

Hodgson seems to think we will be back in for Hangeland and Wenger is sending signals that we will go to the wire on transfers, unfortunately he is only talking defender and forward, so as I see it, Song and Denilson are in again, Rosicky and Diaby will be injured all season, so here we go again.

I believe that he is proposing 4-3-3 to protect his favourites and it will negate his need for a DM, fine, it that’s his disguise, but we still need a big centre back, our defensive frailties have been there for all to see all pre-season, if he can’t see that then he’s the only one. I would still bring Paddy back, he’ll sort the kids out.

I found out today that Ronnie Biggs is an Arsenal fan, well welcome to the list, we all know that Osama is also a gooner. I would appreciate people not sending him get well messages on this site today, I am an honest man and he wasn’t, I’ve had to work for my family, he didn’t, if anyone wants to debate his new found status as the modern day Robin Hood go and find a Ronnie Biggs website, don’t do it on here.

Sorry about that Grovers but I’ve already seen one site this morning sanctifying him, it’s a shame the train driver who died only got £25 for his trouble. If anyone wants to show some respect, show it to his family, maybe he was a Gooner too.

Have a great day Grovers, today could be the day we make a signing, tomorrow we play Valencia, don’t they have someone we’re after at the back?

Morning all, I believe we will sign Wenger’s preferred striker today and that his club will take the money rather than have a disaffected player going for nothing next season. What worries me is we have not signed the beast we need in midfield, let alone the centre back we need.

Why were we not in for Aquiliani? Why are we not after Diarra? Why have we not re-signed Paddy?

Some suggest we still have no money, well if we don’t, we were massively overstocked last season then, weren’t we?

So if he is being a good housekeeper this season, was he a bad one last?

All our ex players are urging him to buy two more players, we saw in the Emirates Cup we still need two players and I fear if we don’t do so quickly, we will be out of the Champions league and the Premiership by September, then we’ll be screwed.

It was clear for the whole world to see, we are still suspect at the back, nothings changed there, we need to act now, one whilst we still have the money and two whilst we still can, two more Arsene and we’ll be world beaters, don’t do it and this season will be like last, lots of goals, unfortunately they will be at both ends.

There are players out there, they are available, you have the money, do it before it’s too late boss, please.

I am one of the few that think Nunchucks will be a great signing, so Arsene, I agree with you, but we don’t need a forward as much as we need a DM and a CB, really boss, we don’t.

Have a great day Grovers, I think Pedro has written some crackers this week, so well done that man.

So, the summer transfer window is proving to be as frustrating as finding a closed pistachio nut in your nut bowl. For once, I think most of the Gooner faithful appear united in what we need… a centre midfielder of beast like proportions and a centre back who has good defending at the top of his C.V…

The subject of my ramblings today is strengthening through weakening. Are Arsenal banking on a weaker top 4 to compete next year?

So far this summer we’ve watched Chelsea grow another year older without really recruiting anybody that special. I’ve read about the white Ronaldinho… Jerk-off… and to be honest, I reckon he is overrated. Arshavin is the only Russian who is allowed to set the Premiership alight this season and that is a fact… Pirlo is too old to be trying his luck in the Premiership. His signing reminds me of the Deco signing last summer. Fat Frank is single and ripping up the club scene and Drogba is very injury prone these days. Having a coach without Premiership experience can be as much of a gamble as having a player without it.

Manchester United have lost a winger who they could bank on scoring 40 goals and grabbing ten assists… they’ve replaced him with players of poor calibre if you ask me. Sure, Owen could score a few… I don’t think his signing was as poor as many people made out… Obertan would get me about as excited as a day pass to the library and Valencia has never impressed me.

Liverpool have just lost a superb player in Alonso and Mascharano is making all the right noises if you are a fan of the other top four clubs. Replacing him with an injury prone Aquiliani doesn’t really impress me. Stevie G and Fernando Torres are superb players, but keeping them fit is a harder task than breaking into that pistachio nut I was talking about earlier.

Then we have Arsenal… we’ve let Adebayor, Toure, Senderos (Nice to see Arsenal.com first to let us know as usual) and possibly Eboue move all in one summer. That’s 132 starting appearances disappearing off our books in a month, if that isn’t a shock to the system I don’t know what is. My problem with the sale of the said players isn’t so much to do with them leaving, more to do with a comment Wenger made about Real Madrid,

‘In my opinion, to recruit more than three players in a transfer window, as Real plan, is taking a technical risk.’

If recruiting 3 players is a technical risk, surely selling 3 players who all put more than 30 overall appearances is an even bigger risk. Especially if you don’t replace them…

This leads me to believe that perhaps Arsene has looked at the other top 4 teams, seen that they’ve been weakened and decided that the odds on his gamble will be a little better this year? It’s not the strong getting stronger for once… it’s the weak. Will this mean that the Premiership sees the most unpredictable campaign in its short history? Quite possibly. Does it make the thought of us not signing any more players that little bit more irksome… most definitely.

This summer shouldn’t be the time for taking another massive gamble on a season in the hope it all comes good… this should be the summer we strike while our enemies are wounded, build on our weaknesses and train harder on our strengths. If we do that, this could be our season… our chance to assert dominance on the Premiership and maybe Europe… our chance to wrestle the mantle of prettiest footballing side away from Barcelona… our chance to put Arsenal FC back on the map!

I think our season rests on the decisions the coach is going to make this week. He’s got £50million to gamble with… here’s hoping he’s going to twist… not stick.

Update: Since writing this last night, the rumour that we’re after Kalou has reemerged. Whilst the obvious thing for me to do would be to curse him as a poor player… I wont. He’s not a world beater, but I’ve got a few Chav mates who rate him and I think he’d definitely offer us something with regards to flexibility, skill and workrate. Chamakh looks the more talented of the two… I can’t help but think maybe we’re moving for Kalou to force the French club into selling… I still find it odd that we’re chasing a right sided attacker with the options we have… but I suppose if Eboue is off, it makes sense experience wise.

So… plenty to mull over today Grovers!

See you in the comments!