Guess where Shawcross is next week? Ratings + Review

February 28, 2010

Before I start the post, I just want to say the thoughts of everyone at Le Grove are with Aaron Ramsey. Get well soon…

I had a pre-match post dedicated to explaining my finance post the other day. I don’t feel it necessary to post now, all I want to say is that I apologise for the regrettable Gazidis headline. It was a heat of the moment opinion that upon reflection was unfair, irresponsible and clouded the point I was trying to make. I’ll explain my concerns another day…

Saturday kicked off in spectacular fashion. Chelsea dropped 3 points at home to Manchester City and lost ground with their superior goal difference. The Chav’s attacked with little intent and defended shambolically. I’ve been saying all week that I think we can win the league and I’ve been saying all week that Hilario is a keeper of questionable ability. If Arsenal could capitalise on Chelsea’s slip, there would be 3 points between the top 3. This is the closest we’ve been at the end of February since we last won the league.

What a mad season eh?

Almunia

Sagna Campbell Vermaelen Clichy

Fabregas Song Ramsey

Eboue Bendtner Nasri

The notable Absentee from the starting line up was Theo Walcott. Preferred in his place was our answer to Lionel Messi, Emmanuel Eboue. The team looked strong, the results earlier were encouraging, the only missing ingredient was a rampant Arsenal victory. Stoke had become something of a bogey team for us, Arsenal Addict made the point to me on twitter… we couldn’t let the Potters become the new trotters!

Clichy started the game with a mistake, running past the ball allowing stoke to create a move which saw fuller fizz a ball across the goal. Song lost the ball sloppily shortly after, the through ball was marshalled by Sagna, Almunia took and age to come, then crunched Sagna. A worrying start from Arsenal.

It didn’t take long  for Stoke to take the lead. 7 minutes to be precise. A Delap throw, nodded on for Pugh to head in. It’s just so depressing that firstly, Song preferred to play it out for a throw instead of leaving it for the corner or dealing with it more effectively and secondly that we are getting beaten to second balls in our box, what was the greatest right back in Europe doing at the back stick (What he does best, switching off)? Shocking defending.

Individual errors were stopping Arsenal getting into any kind of rhythm, we hadn’t turned up for the biggest game of our season.

Clichy’s tiny throw made me laugh after he took the ball off Delap. The stoke players throw in prep was starting to grate.

Song continued to have a shocker after failing to push up with the defence allowing Shawcross to tee up Fuller.

After 30 minutes we began to find our feet.

Cesc picked the ball up out wide, whipped in a cross, Bendtner squeezed between two defenders and buried a header back across Sorensons goal into the top corner. Superb header, finally, Nik had delivered his first bit of true class this year.

Eboue wasn’t imposing himself on the same way as he was the week before but he was playing for freekicks and winning them, which can be a touch irritating. He has the skill to skin people, he should have the confidence to use it when his chips are down.

Only two question needed answering in the second half. Were Stoke too tired to make an impact? Were Arsenal hungry enough to dig out a result?

Eboue launched a rasping shot that was tipped over by Sorenson.

Then came the saddest moment of 2010, Shawcross flew into a high challenge and snapped Rambo’s leg. Yep, once again, a disgusting high challenge from a so called physical team has ruined 18 months of a young mans life. How many times do we have to see this happen to our boys? Diaby against Sunderland, Eduardo against Birmingham and now Rambo at Stoke. It’s a disgrace… I don’t care what Shawcross  intentions were… he tackled half way up a fellow professionals leg, disgraceful. More disgraceful than the challenge? Stoke fans chanting, ‘your f**ked and you know you are’ and ‘he’s only got one leg’ to a 19 year old boy verged on criminal. Words can’t describe how sickened I was by that. It sums up the attitude of certain clubs though… the fans knew what their player had done, but didn’t care… it was part of their make up and Arsenal needed to be man enough to accept that.

The game kicked off again but the players were shell shocked. I was praying this wouldn’t become another Birmingham 2008 moment. Cesc fired a freekick into the box, Sol Campbell failed to get on the end it and the ball flashed narrowly wide.

Shortly afterwards, Eduardo found himself through on goal after Song played him in, he hooked the ball just past the near post.

Then our moment came, Nik B was searching for an opening on the edge of the box, his flick through was handled, the penalty given. Cesc stepped up against a keeper who had saved his last 3 penalties. He glanced at the goal, ran towards the goal and buried the ball just past Sorenson’s hand. His celebration was a dedication to Rambo. Touching.

We were playing for the third goal, Nik Bendtner was denied a clear penalty after being shoved over blatantly in the box. Ref’s find it tough to give two penalties in ten minutes though. The Rosicky controlled the ball on the edge of the box and low and powerfully, Cesc anticipated the spill, intelligently cut it back to Vemaelen, bang! 3-1… dead and buried!

The team huddle called by Sol Campbell after the game reminded me of the unity and spirit after Bobby Pires busted his knee incident a few years back. Lets hope that spirit brings us a trophy we can dedicate to Rambo… he deserves as much.

Cesc was fiery after the game, he pointed out that he appreciates the English game is rough, but it goes too far sometimes. Today it went to far. It was disappointing to listen to the sky interviewer trying to get Wenger to look like he was a whinger after the game, his message was the same as Cescs, the jist was -

1) There are no coincidences in football

2) The treatment meted out to Arsenal is unacceptable

Andy Gray can talk about players not wanting to injure fellow pros, but that’s b*llocks. Most of us know what people are like in Sunday league, so to think Pro’s have a different mind set is fantasy talk. He might not have intended to break his leg, but the intention was there to hurt.

However, talk that Shawcross is the only person to blame here is unfair. He made a hideous mistake, but be fair, he’s playing in a country where that type of challenge is lauded and he’s at a club where ‘physicality’ even brutality is demanded. When you’re raised in a culture of vindicated thuggery, things like this will happen.

Though it must be noted he has previous and I’m pretty sure he was let go by United because of his disciplinary record in the reserves… I’m open to correction there. I’m pretty certain he smashed Adebayor in the sidelines last year. It’s interesting to note that this type of thing only happens in away games. Even more interesting is the whereabouts of Shawcross tomorrow… According to a Diamond Club member he’ll be at Arsenal’s training ground reporting in for England this week (*I was told last night before I just saw it in the NoTW). I’d like to a be a fly on a wall there…

This is an issue that must be addressed with balance and intelligence. I want to see all players protected, but I don’t want to see the league lose it’s edge. Maybe the introduction of foreign refs would do the trick, perhaps we need proper retrospective punishments for challenges that are blatantly reckless or perhaps fairer analysis of thuggery in the main stream media. I don’t care what happens… something needs to be put forward now because at the moment, Premier League football seems to throw up more nasty injuries than motor sport or rugby.

Just a thought, how would the press react if Rooney was in hospital with a snapped leg?

Back to the team, I couldn’t be prouder to say I support Arsenal right now. Screw the balance sheet, this is what supporting your football team is all about… watching your team battle against the odds to turn in a fantastic result, give the fans the opportunity to connect with them. We showed grit, professionalism and maturity to win that match today. They’ve delivered an inspirational come back which could go down in folklore if we can deliver the league.

We’re in a title race, we’ve got more motivation than ever and as fans, we should all unite… this feels like its about more than just football now. Lets all put our differences behind us and all get behind the team… in ten games time, we could witness the most unlikely of trophy lifts… wouldn’t that be glorious?

Have a great day Grovers!

Ratings

Almunia: I thought he played well today. He made a couple of decent saves and there wasn’t much he could do for the goal. 7

Clichy: Still looking a liability to me. He was better going forward as the game wore on, defensively a little worrying. 6

Vermaelen: Top scoring defender in the league this year, played like a warrior, looked an emotional wreck after the goal. He brushed himself down and popped up as our fox in the box in the second half. 8

Sol: Again, took the challenge to heart and looked the most frustrated. Performed with gusto and helped lead the team through a painful incident. Probably one of those days where you’d prefer Sol in there to Gallas. Good defensive performance from our rock in reserve. 8

Sagna: I thought he played well bar some suspect attacking play 7

Cesc: It didn’t click for him in the first half but he still whipped an amazing cross to loan striker Nik B. He scored a penalty and set up the third. There is no denying Cesc is one of the best midfielders on the planet at the moment, today he delivered on the big stage in an important game. 9

Song: A very up and down game from him. He gave the ball away a lot in the first half and was part responsible for the first goal because he went out of his way to concede a throw. He grew in the second half and put himself about a bit more. 6

Rambo: Was having a blinder. He was winning balls in the air, driving forward with intent and he was doing his bit in the middle to mix it with the rough boys. I’m angry just writing about the challenge, but it was sickening to see the best talent in British football lose a year of his career. 8

Nik B: He was sloppy with his control in the first half, but he was a physical presence. His header was nothing short of world class in a big game where perhaps you wouldn’t expect many strikers to score a header. That set the ball rolling and in the second half he played very well. His deft flick led to the handball and the second goal. 8

Nasri: He tried really hard today but not much fell for him. 7

Eboue: Not his best game and more typical of the type of performance I’d associate with him up top. He did let off a rasping shot and his runs occasionally caused bother. Preferable to Theo. 6.5


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Posted by Pedro

I know how to deal with the Delap throw…

February 27, 2010

Keep the ball, go up the other end and score more than they do, this Delap throw really gets me, I would be more worried about facing Torres, or Rooney, suddenly the footballing world is worried about an average player being able to throw the ball into the area.

I thought having a 6’4″ keeper took care of that, or maybe a few 6’3″ defenders, move on boys and stick a few in their goal area then convert them, fight fire with fire. Maybe the manager will have a look and see if we can go out and buy some big lumps in the summer, they always used to do a job for us in the old days, maybe a re-think in defence will see us keeping more clean sheets.

This Stoke hex is becoming like the old Bolton one, this lot were the strongest favourites for years to go straight back down, now they appear to be the Wimbledon of the noughtees.

Screw them, they aren’t that good, let’s give them a lesson in football, let’s show them the Delap throw is another way of saying ‘the long ball’ and stick 4 or 5 past them.

Yesterdays post got a record number of bad comments from Arsenal knows best accountants, good to see there are seemingly more people out there that prefer a clean balance sheet to a trophy, but don’t mind spending our transfer budget on salaries, to all those people that didn’t get let on yesterday, it wasn’t because you disagreed with our take on the finances, it’s because you started your post with ‘are you mugs spuds’ and stuff like that.

Well for people that claim to be able to read a balance sheet, you are all pretty stupid to think either of us would write a blog if we supported another team.

Hey and you know what, if I didn’t like something I was reading, I would stop reading it, reading then bitching is what old ladies do.

For all you normal people out there, enjoy the day, enjoy the game and enjoy the result, because I have a feeling the balance between the poor team and the good team will be addressed today. Big win coming up, chavs to draw, us to close the gap, perfect day!

For Micky!

Almunia

Sagna Campbell Vermaelen Clichy

Eboue Cesc Song

Walcott Bendtner Eduardo

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Posted by Geoff

Anyway, we aren’t skint are we, so are we now going to spend some, or are we going to rebuild the Holloway road next?

February 26, 2010

So a stirring post to start the day, a pop at the financial running of the club in the middle and now we’ll finish the day with this, 3 posts in one day who’s the lucky ones!

With the latest figures showing our debt is now just £190 million, in anyones book, that is amazing, £450 to £190mil in 5 years is fantastic, we’ve sold nearly all the flats and we are embarking on more community projects, great, now can we stop?

Can we stop telling the world and our fans we are skint, because we clearly aren’t.

It’s now time to stop re-building the Holloway road and start re-building the trophy cabinet, we have still got a 15 year mortgage and we don’t get gold stars for paying it back in record time, let’s stop making a load of average squad players wealthy and start making a decent team that can and will start stocking the trophy room again.

Let’s stop bragging how much we make on matchday because that money comes off the fans, so let’s start repaying that debt next.

At the end of the day we are a football team, not Marks & Spencers, we don’t need to appease analysts or shareholders, we need to appease the fans, now the debt is down, lets stop looking to pat ourselves on the head about how clever we all are, let’s look to start dominating football again.

We don’t need many players, just the right ones, now we have the money and very little debt let’s start using it, and go back to being a football club again, remember Arsenal?

Victory in harmony, let now have some of that back.

Have a great evening Grovers, tomorrow it’s back to being a football blog.

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Posted by Geoff

Gazidis exposed as financials reveal disgusting plan…

February 26, 2010

Arsenal just released their latest financials so Geoff and I have put a few comments together about our initial thoughts on what we’ve been presented.

Key points and questions:

  • We’re £200million in debt. £130million less than last year.
  • What happened to the sponsorship money we received up front? £100million from the Emirates + whatever Nike provided.
  • How come the property sales haven’t covered off more of the debt? £95mill to develop, we’ve recouped £200+ million so far with a further 130 odd flats to go.
  • What happened to our television money? We earn £50million+  from the EPL and the Champions league.
  • What has happened to the transfer budget we never spend? We’re in the black for the last 5 years.
  • Pleading poverty when you can comfortably increase the wage bill by £17million seems a little outrageous. This is before Cesc has signed a new deal, so expect it to increase further despite no additional achievement (You know, trophies). This increase is despite losing Adebayor (80k p/w) and Kolo Toure (50k p/w).
  • The player sales of Adebayor and Kolo appear to be key to keeping us in profit, despite the fact we lumped £130million off the debt. Will are use this as a stick to beat the fans who want us to spend money?
  • Arsenal make £3million a game of of you, the fan but don’t want to give anything back for your investment.

Conclusion:

The club are being frugal to pay off the debt quicker, but why? We have a 17 year mortgage don’t we?

Is it to be able to invest in the world class player that are currently out of our reach or is it to make the club more attractive to sell to an investor who will immediately plunge the club into debt and put us in a Manchester United/Liverpool situation.

If it’s the latter, like Geoff and I have predicted for a while… are you still happy?

More to the point,  what is the MO of Gazidis? Is it to make us a world class club or is it to clear the debt for the owner in waiting, Stan Kroenke. I wonder what the bonus scheme looks like for our master of marketing and man of the people?

Is he the trojan horse, has he been employed to use our money to fatten the wallet of a billionaire? Is this the reason Stan hasn’t taken his holding to 30% becuase he doesn’t want to buy the club till it is debt free? No wonder he doesn’t answer questions at the AGM…

Will the fan base wake up and smell the coffee now? Are the debt buster brigade still pleased to see fan money go towards making a hideously wealthy cowboy even richer?

We’re being conned and it makes me sick to the pit of my stomach.

Pedro

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Posted by Pedro

So with Diaby, Gallas and Arshavin all out, what’s our plan B? Read on…

February 26, 2010

Gallas, Diaby and Arshavin are all out for the game at Stoke one wonders who will get the nod. Effectively the spine of the team has gone missing.

Here’s what I’d do.

Almunia

Eboue Campbell Song Vermaelen

Ramsey Cesc Nasri

Rosicky Bendtner Eduardo

Here’s what he’ll do

Almunia

Sagna Campbell Vermaelen Clichy

Eboue Cesc Song

Walcott Bendtner Eduardo

To be honest I wouldn’t have a cow with either team, I would just like to experiment a bit with mine. I just hope neither team sees Denilson.

Cesc says he wants his future sorted out before the world cup so he can concentrate on Spain with no distractions, said Marca.

Sure he did! However indulge me on this one, I was trying to imagine the scenario if Cesc should choose to walk away from his 4 year contract this summer, these are the possible outcomes.

1) Gazidas would add another 10 people to his already overstaffed staff.

2) Use the money to pay off our la, la, la loan, yeah, the one that never seems to get paid off even though we make loads and spend none.

3) Pay some decent bonuses to management (see RBS).

4) Buy 5 – 17 year olds and pay them massive wages to buy their loyalty.

5) Buy a decent player or two with a minimum age of 24.

I don’t think we will sell Cesc, if we did, then Wenger would follow him out the door as project youth was built around Cesc and that would mean failure.

Me? I would say Cesc, when you signed the contract extension and received a healthy pay rise, the contract worked for you then, did it not? So that’s it then, we can talk about you leaving in another 3 years, you’ll be worth more, you would have honoured your contract and at 25 you’ll be way too old for us anyway, so everyone wins.

I don’t think he’ll go, he’s loyal and he knows what happens to players that leave the Arsenal.

What has happened to Arsenal, when playing a team like Stoke becomes a tough fixture, I could understand if they spent gazillions on players, and I could even understand if they were coached by Gus Hiddink, but they aren’t, we have Arsene Wenger, the worlds greatest scouting network, the best young players on the planet, and we are mentally strong, yet it seems getting a result against Tony Pulis and Stoke would be up there with winning the Carling Cup.

What happened to the EPL pecking order Arsene. Someone needs to put the faces of Rory Delap and Ricardo Fuller on the blackboard and say to our team, ‘are these chumps better than you’ ‘Well, are they?’

This team of clowns dumped our youth team out of the FA Cup, yes I know they beat the northern chavs, but they were down to 10 men and it did go to extra time, but blimey, are we Arsenal or are we Wigan?

This message is for you boys, rectum, a new one and tear them, put those into some sort of order and fulfill your destiny tomorrow. We need this win and we are owed this win to address the insult they laid at our door in the FA Cup, this team will soon be in the championship, let’s do our best to help them on that journey.

I’m writing this stirring post a day early as tomorrow you’ll all be too busy and too focussed, good luck men, we are depending on you.

To finish off the headline and the question was what’s our plan B? WELL THE ANSWER IS, WE DON’T HAVE ONE!

Have a great day Grovers, at least we’ll get to see the game live tomorrow and revenge is that dish best served cold.

P.S. If you’d like to see Arsenal spank Hull, I have two spares… e-mail in!

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Posted by Geoff

Robin scores 200, Tendulkar is back in April, the whore sees red and the chavs go down

February 25, 2010

What a perfect day that was! The Dutch say that Robin will be back in early April for the run in, Arsenal say May, but Robin is in Holland and they see him at first hand, the important thing is Robin says he’s ready, that is great news indeed, the whore got sent off as the northern chavs lost to Stoke, taking them to extra time which means they’ll be cream crackered on Saturday and Milan beat the chav-chavs in the San Siro, so deep joy all round.

The bad news is Arsene has told the press we should be grateful whatever happens this season as we only play for 2 main trophies and we are still in both of them, and furthermore this team is young, oh well, no change in that thinking then.

Other news is the EPL debt, is greater than all the other leagues combined, hmmm, why is that then? If all the others pay big wages as well? Maybe it’s because teams like Milan and Madrid have their slates wiped clean each year? I don’t know, but with Stoke next up, we’ll see how good this young team really is and if it can win the league on a smaller budget.

I fancy us, but then I would, I’m a diehard Arsenal fan and will continue to believe until fat Franks sings, I did see the Arsenal players in syrups though sporting 70′s retro kits, so hopefully that’s a teaser for what’s to come. If we do wear red socks, I hope we have white tops on them, or at least a 70′s style white band, then at least something exciting will come from this season. Me I’d prefer white, or hoops.

I did watch that big Italian guy last night, Balotelli, he looks good, but if Maureen says he only has 1 brain cell, he may be another Ade, so perhaps we should look elsewhere.

I called Arsenal about the supposed waiting list for club level, they told me if I wanted to buy more tickets in my name, I would get them, if it’s a new name, I would have to apply, I think there is no waiting list, and yesterday I offered mine on here, and out of 20,000 plus hits, not one taker, so not as many people would die for a seat as we are led to believe, I think the long list is a bit of yet another Arsenal fib.

Ivan, you can always email and tell me different, but I’m not holding my breath. For those of you that want season tickets next season, I would apply, I think you’d get them.

For the Stoke game I think we need some height in there, so I would play Diaby and Bendtner from the off (not both up front though) I also think we needd some speed, so I would play Arshavin and Walcott alongside Nikki, I would play Rosicky, Diaby and Cesc in the middle and a back four of Eboue, Gallas, Campbell and Vermaelen, give Song and Clichy a rest and see what happens.

Stoke by-pass the midfield so we don’t really need a defensive midfielder.

We’ve tried everything else and we have the Porto game coming soon after, so we need options if we want to continue on the final two fronts.

Have a great day Grovers, Saturday sees the business end looming, and we need to win them all now, Cech and Cole out for the chavs could be pivotal, so it’s not over yet!

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Posted by Geoff

Bendtner – I want to repay Wenger faith!

February 24, 2010

Ha, ha, ha, how many times have I read that on arsenal.com, it must be a headline in their favourites column!

Yet another players says it, join the ranks of young old and injured Nikki, maybe thanking the fans for watching you all these years would be nicer for once.

I watched the Stuttgart vs Barca game last night and quite enjoyed it, even though it was 1-1, Stuttgart were great in the first half, in fact as good as they were, Barca were bad, the second half started with the withdrawal of defensive midfielder YaYa Toure, one that has often been wanted by some well known Grovers. Henry came on and they were a different team. Although past it and committing strange deeds, I did find myself missing mad Jens as well, I also found myself missing Hleb and Henry, still Hleb and Henry wanted to leave and Wenger never keeps people that want to leave, it will be interesting to see what happens if Cesc wants out this summer!

Anyway, Barca proved something I’ve been saying all season, why do we need a DM? even a great one? Barca showed us last night that you don’t.

Dutch Frank won Barca the ECL and La Liga, then they changed  managers to Pep Guardiola and he won the treble and looks good to repeat it, his record is won 70%, so it goes to show, if the set up is right and you buy great players or great prospects, then it doesn’t matter who manages you, I mean who was Guardiola before Barca?

Not that it matters with us, because we don’t win anything anyway. Still with the Mancs winning last night, we really do need to beat Stoke at the weekend, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I think every game now is a must win game, so good luck the boys.

I got my renewal through for my tickets, I’m still not sure whether or not I want to keep contributing to this crazy obsession for youth, so if there are any real fans out there, not plastics, real fans that want two tickets for next season, I am prepared to let you rent them off me for that season, to see if you feel the same after coughing up a shed load of dosh to watch the academy. £5,200 for two, but bear in mind that includes a free beer and a programme. If you are one of those poor people that think I’m lucky to be there and you have been on the waiting list all of your life, here’s your chance to put your money where you mouth is, just like I have for the last 20 odd years.

Send in your request by email. I’ll publish how many interested emails I get if you like.

Have a great day Grovers, it’s a bit nothing out there at the moment, but at least Cashley got tin tacked, and he’s now accusing the chavs of trying to force him out, so maybe he’ll end up in life with what he deserves after all eh! Nothing!

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Posted by Geoff

Exclusive CESC/DIABY snapped in NEW HOME/AWAY SHIRTS!

February 23, 2010

CLICK HERE

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Posted by Pedro

CESC/DIABY snapped in NEW HOME/AWAY SHIRTS! Illegal Ref rules ruining Arsenal

February 23, 2010

Here with the exclusives, as always, Le Grove can reveal the first official shots of the news kits.

Don’t ask how I got them, but it turns out the American kit makers aren’t too launch bothered about launching through unofficial channels. Why give Arsenal.com the exclusive when you can give it to a blog who’ll give you a fraction of the exposure!

As you can see, Arsenal are back to white sleeves… mainly because we normally have white sleeves. We’re sticking with the Arsenal logo and the sponsor… because we have to. We’re also going to go with a 1971 style shirt to celebrate our 125th year anniversary because I can’t find a colour picture of an older shirt to photoshop.

The away kit runs along similar lines to last years with the addition of some snazzy lightning bolts, a classy spread collar with double stitched buttons for playing those pesky shirt tugging Mancs.

Enjoy the pics… keep em’ crossed that Eboue isn’t too peeved at me for breaching his confidence!

Oops, did I just give away my source?

Anyone caught palming this off as their own exclusive will be sued.

No use trying to hide your face Diaby... busted!

Onto the serious stuff…

After reading the bile spouted by one of the most ridiculous, self promoting, calamitous referee of the last twenty years, plus the revelations long time Grover Chary uncovered over at ArsenalArsenal,  I started wondering… why do referees hate us?

Well, an obvious, yet controversial conclusion would be to point out the fact that all referees are English. Yep, it’s in the rules. We don’t allow foreigners to ref our games.

So, the simple solution for Arsenal getting back in the refs good books would be to remove our foreign players and get some good old British stalwarts in. Alternatively, we could send our players on a  ‘How to win friends and influence people’ course in the hope they can socialise their way into refs phonebooks. You know, like the United and Chelsea players have done.

Or, we could take a step back and review an earlier line in this post.

‘Yep, it’s in the rules. We don’t allow foreigners to ref our games.’

Yes, you read that correctly, your eyes were not deceiving you.

NO FOREIGNERS ALLOWED

Sorry Mr Rossetti, despite being the best at what you do in the world, despite Italy being a member state of the European Union, you can’t referee today’s game, because you son, are a Johnny Foreigner.

Now excuse me for being ignorant but I thought one of the main benefits of being part of the EU was the freedom to work where you like within the member states?

I thought I’d check the EU website and this is what it says,

‘Firstly, the EU Treaty has always provided for some basic freedoms, such as freedom to work and travel around the EU’

So if that was true, then there is no way I’d find any press releases on the Official Referees website (PGMOL) that contradict EU Law?

Wrong.

“There are no discussions regarding the use of foreign officials in the English game and the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) has no plans to do so.”

Cast your minds back to last year when UEFA were told by the EU they can’t discriminate on grounds of nationality with players.

“The parliament calls on the member states and sports associations not to introduce new rules that create direct discrimination based on nationality, such as FIFA’s 6+5.”

If the EU won’t allow clubs to discriminate based on nationality, why do they allow the referees association? That stinks of hypocrisy to me.

You’ve got ex-referees talking in the national press about Arsenal’s lack of British players plus the obvious lack of decisions we get in games. Every time Arsene Wenger makes a comment about a bad refereeing decision, there is an article from Graham Poll slamming him. Where are the Graham Poll articles hammering Steven Gerrard after he dives? Where are Graham Poll’s two pennies when Alex Ferguson takes a pop at refereeing fraternity EVERY WEEK!

Seems Mr Poll (and Jeff Winter) is only interested in slating Arsenal players or foreigners… that has to filter down to the referees still in the game. I feel we’re getting a sneaky peak into the mindset/culture amongst British refs when it comes to foreign teams/players/managers.

Arsene Wenger alluded to the close relationship refs seem to have with the Brit pack a few months ago after watching Alan Wiley refer to Rooney as ‘Wazza’.

‘‘I believe for them [referees] to do their job to do their job in an objective way they have to keep their distance as much as possible. From the players, from the English national players and from the managers.’

That statement couldn’t be truer and it couldn’t be any more evident.

Teams with a British core have an unfair advantage over teams that choose to look abroad in their quest for Premiership dominance. This is unfair and by the looks of it, against the law.

How long before someone picks up on this and puts an end to this injustice?

* The Times nicked our Sorenson story a few weeks back, so hopefully, not too long!

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649 Comments | Editorial | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

We are on our way and a gap is appearing, but what about Eboue?

February 22, 2010

So we beat Sunderland, great stuff, we are back in the race, we have the easier run in, but we still have to put the points on the board, so what do we make of Eboue?

So the boss does his trademark smirk and says we were booing him a year ago and now we love him.

Okay, Eboue has indeed been a revelation at right back this last 2 games, but we always said he was a good right back, so what’s changed then? What is different since the Wigan game when he got booed off the pitch?

Well first of all we always said his best position was right back, not right wing, nothing’s changed there, when he got booed off, he was not playing right back, he was playing left wing and giving the ball away, I was at that game and the rumblings were beginning long before he got taken off, the rumblings were for Wenger and his crazy selection that day, Wenger subbed the sub and in my opinion cynically put Eboue there in the firing line. Yes he was woeful, but in my opinion poor old Eboue was just made the scapegoat.

Go back to my post the day after and read it! If you don’t believe me that is.

Now if Eboue plays that well in training and then plays rubbish on match days then he needs hitting hard with a cricket bat. That’s why they are paid so much, to play like he did on Saturday. Me, I would play him all the time at right back because this last two games, he has made the difference, credit where credit’s due, keep it up Eboue.

If I had to ask him a big favour though, it would be to stop the rolling around in pain rubbish, it’s the one thing that does stop him being as popular with us as he is with his team mates, stay on your feet mate, it’s not that hard.

I had a problem with a steward again, just when we said they were getting Ok, one comes out and treats me like a football hooligan, these guys need to remember who pays their wages, I let him know that, and hope he accepted it, he did look a tad shocked. Remember the days when they were just there to show you to your seat???

We’re good mates with 3 or 4 of them at Highbury, we even used to get them a beer and we knew each other by name.

Half time entertainment at the Grove

I read a letter that Paul, a Grover got from Arsenal regarding Club level next season, from next year we’ll all get a free programme, if we renew before the 8th of March, we’ll get a brass plate on out seats with our name on it, but hurry, there’s a waiting list, why do Arsenal continue to lie? If we had a waiting list, we wouldn’t be offered all these trinkets, Ivan, save your money, buy a few players that will see us competing on 4 fronts, that will see me renew, not a programme and a name plate. Bah, piffle!

A lot to think about before we play Stoke, but let’s enjoy the Sunderland win first, well played Eboue, keep it up and you could end up becoming a legend!

Have a great day Grovers, it will be a slow week I reckon!

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742 Comments | New Review | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Geoff

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