Le Grove – Arsenal blog featuring Arsenal news

So first things first, I don’t think that Wenger would bring in RVN, it’s not that he was a problem for us in his Manc days, it’s because he’s injury prone, and we have almost 10 players like that already, I wouldn’t be surprised though, if as usual, he bought no one.

There are plenty of players that would come, he won’t pay for them though, Milan would, and they are not in our league, no Italian club is, yet the press still refer to them as a giants.

If it were my money (actually, it is!) and I had to juggle need, want, and balance that against Wenger’s stingyness I would do no more than go out and bring back Paddy and Thierry, they would snap his hand off, for a season or two they would be perfect, they would also help the kids, so they’d be no killing, they are also Arsenal to the core (unlike Anelka) they would be like the ManU signing of Larsson and the crowd would love it. REALLY, LOVE IT!

Imagine Paddy protecting Cesc and Henry alongside Arshavin, I’m salivating as I write, fantasy blogging if you will.

Then the following season they could join the coaching staff, bring back Dennis and we then have a succession, and perhaps my friends that’s precisely why it won’t happen, as Wenger has to be the centre of attention, that’s why he has the mild mannered Pat Rice sitting next to him, that’s not a slight on Pat, I love Pat, but he is very quiet and I’m not sure Paddy would be the same, and the crowd may start singing their names if the team is having a wobble.

Anyway, sausage and sizzle, a sausage will sell itself as it’s a commodity, but with good branding (ads) the sausages will sell much easier (sizzle) and the public will become brand loyal, so the branded sausage will outsell its non branded rival.

Now for our team, read great sausage, in other words the ingredients are all there, nothing wrong with the forward line save it’s a bit small, now if they were given the right service (sizzle) we would take teams apart, like we did against Stoke, where it could have been 10, not 2.

What??? I hear you say, okay, take the chav game, there we were, ripping them new arseholes and when it came to the final ball, we whipped in high ones that went nowhere other than onto their defenders heads or straight to their very ugly, helmeted keeper.

How should we have played then? Well, like the spuds did yesterday, Aaron Lennon whipped in at least 6 crosses that bounced on the floor in front of the dwarf named Defoe, everytime Lennon crossed, I thought they would score, nothing went high, they all came in low and curling, and if the spuds were any good they would have won 6-2, they aren’t, so they didn’t, but I did wonder why with our vertically challenged front line, we don’t adopt the same tactic, either that or buy a player that can do that, Roberto Carlos used to be able to do that for Madrid, Alves can and Cole did it to us twice, neither ball was higher than the waist.

That’s it then, the closest I’ll ever come to giving a spud and a phone receiving chav a compliment, solving Wenger’s problem and saving Arsenal millions in the transfer window.

All that though rests on the stubborness of one man and his silly girl like rules. Arsene, that would be one decision the fans would never give you shit for, bringing back two of Arsenal’s greatest ever legends to save our season would elevate you to even greater greatness, I know the English is bad, but hey, you get the gist!

Call them today Arsene, sound them out, Thierry needs a home before the world cup and Paddy needs to play to get to the world cup, and us, well we need them like never before and we don’t want to kill the kids, do we???

Oh and of course, you save money.

Have a great day Grovers, we clawed ourselves back in the race and we went ahead of Spurs, a perfect weekend!

Our little Russian reminded us yesterday of what a super, super talent he really is, I cannot come up with enough superlatives to cover his performance in this game.

I have to say the starting line up filled me with horror, Eboue back in midfield again, no, surely we have better options than that, well we do, but Wenger put him there regardless.

A 5 man midfield at home against Stoke was a strange choice and it still puzzles me, but to be honest, when we played, we still looked like we were playing 4-3-3, the fact that we only had one striker dulled the point of the sword a tad, but the football we played was amazing.

I won’t do a match report because that’s Pedro’s job, and he was partying last night so you’re stuck with me, thank god we won eh!

I’ll start with a 9 for the team, so no one can say I gave one more than I gave another.

We got an early penalty from a great little jink through from Arshavin, and when Cesc stepped up I just hoped that when he side footed it, he didn’t side foot it the way Sorenson was going, well he did and the score stayed 0-0, shortly after our diminutive little Russian playmaker scored a fantastic goal, much deserved and very, very accurate.

Then we broke through again and the post saved an own goal, Cesc latched onto the rebound but Eboue cleared it off the line for Stoke. …Yes I know he plays for Arsenal.

Second half saw the end of Rosicky so Vela came on, Arsene, you must not renew Rosicky’s contract, he is a crock and we can’t afford to keep him, do it on a pay as you play basis, but don’t give him a shiny new contract. I love him, but enough is enough.

Sorenson kept them in the game, oh how I wished he played for us, the first three Delap long throws that came in, the hapless Almunia flapped at them, what does Wenger see in him? Someone please tell me, there must be an AKB reading this that has some idea, I won’t hold my breath though.

Tony Pulis substituted Eboue shortly after and the magnificent Ramsey entered the stage, he started those wonderful little one-two’s and the team started to get closer and play better, shortly after he scored from a great little move and another one-two. Arsene you have got to start giving him the time you give to the Marmites, this kid can play anywhere in midfield and looks the part.

And yes, I know Tony Pulis is the Stoke manager!

Some may say the chavs lost so we are back in it, others may say it was only Stoke so don’t get too excited, me, I think all the games are tough and we have our work cut out finishing in the top four.

I will say our midfield look much, much better than it has done for weeks, we looked more like a team that could move the ball swiftly from one end to the other, so draw your own conclusions from that one.

I would be unfair if I didn’t say well done to Sagna, I thought he had a great game, the whole team looked like they had a toe up their arses for this one, and rightly so.

Great performance Arsenal, get your cheque book out boss, we really do need to spend some money, and before you say Dzeko is out of our price range, you may want to ask Wolfsburg, how much first, they may surprise you.

Have a great day Grovers, we won, we closed the gap and we are back in front of Tottenham again!

How funny is that then! The £40 million Hughes has spent on two of our rejects have both lost their form and it’s not even Christmas yet! Serves the bastard right. He says they have both lost their form but he hopes it will return tonight, now where have we heard that before???

He also said ‘Some clubs won’t go into the market and spend £5million on an 18-year-old. Arsenal have done that on many occasions. They spend significant amounts of money on young talent and, at times, the experience of the so-called youngsters is greater than you would think’

Wenger is often lauded for his frugal transfer dealings, but Hughes insists that a massive amount of money is instead spent by the north Londoners on acquiring young players from around the world.

Well thats what I’ve been saying for two years, so he’s right there, he claims Arsene says he doesn’t spend on big players because he likes to bring on the youngsters, but it’s a false economy because by the time they get good, we could have bought a ready made that would have worked years ago.

Take Theo, Ramsey and Denilson, between them they cost £16.5 million, add the money they have cost in salaries and then you can work out how much they have really cost, and none of them are regulars, we could have signed 3 world class players and got change out of that and they would have been ready to go 4 years ago. And yes, that included the £4mil discount Southampton gave us.

Anyway, lets hope the kids do us proud tonight and that the rejects have another shit game. Wenger also claims the experience the kids get from the Carling Cup is invaluable, he cites Fabregas, Bendtner, Song and Theo as examples of how that benefits the team, I’m not sure what benefit we got on Sunday, I’m not sure what benefit the kids get from playing 3 games in a cup they eventually get knocked out of, but there you go.

I can’t see how bringing them into the first team occasionally is any different, at least if the first team played in the Carling Cup, we would possibly win something, the Chavs will field their top team, shitty will tonight, the Mancs will by the time the final comes, but we won’t and I cannot see how getting beaten eventually will help our youth players develop.

Still let’s hope they go out tonight and stuff the northern chavs, let’s hope they show the first team what a bunch of losers they were against the southern chavs, and let’s hope we see someone in there, that can can step up, because what we have in the first team is not enough to win anything this season.

Go the kids, good luck, you have the hope of a nation on your young shoulders!

Have a great day Grovers and let’s hope we have a great evening as well! I could do with something to smile about!