Arsene has identified a problem with defence this season says Ivan, defence, really?

May 12, 2010

No sh*t Sherlock, a problem with defence eh? Even a blind man using a rats arse as a wedding ring could see that, we on here have been saying it since we started Le Grove. Amazing, we have had jerk after AKB jerk on asking us if we know more than Arsene or are we scouts, well if it’s taken this many transfer windows to identify we concede too many goals, and defence is the problem, then yes to both questions.

I find it staggering that Ivan and Arsene announce it like they have just discovered the meaning of life, never a bigger statement of the obvious have I ever heard, we need to address the defensive issue! So what do we do first? Oh yeah, we sign a striker.

Not that I’m against a striker as we do have a forward line of crocks and it will be at least 6 months until Benik Afobe and Luke Freeman are ready, but the real issues we have at Arsenal are at centre back and more pressing at goal keeping, but if the manager thinks that Fabianski played well against Fulham, then I fear he hasn’t seen the real issue with our goal conceding problem. The crap keepers.

Also we need a defensive midfielder that can defend, has pace and will be as immense as Patrick was in his day. We need at least one winger, remember them Arsene, let me jog your memory, Overmars, Pires, Freddie and Reyes, now they were the last proper wingers we had and when we had them, we won things, coincidence, you work it out. And please no SWP on the cheap, he’s too old and not even good enough for England.

STOP PLAYING PLAYERS OUT OF POSITION, IT DOESN’T MAKE THEM BETTER, IT JUST IRRITATES THE FANS

Theo is not a winger and nor is Vela, Arshavin or Bendtner, address these issues Ivan and maybe we’ll start to see some success, buying Silvestre did nothing but cost us money, keeping Senderos did nothing but lose us points, stop doing everything on the cheap and go out and buy some decent players.

I also keep hearing from Gazidas that Wenger will re-sign, I don’t care about that Ivan, I’m more concerned that we compete for four trophies next season and buy in some talent, I don’t care if Wenger signs or not, we did Ok before he arrived and we’ll do Ok when he’s gone, there are plenty of decent managers out there, plenty.

It’s funny, the very first Le Grove post was the day that Wenger signed a new contract and we were all delighted, how sad that his intransigence and obsession has led us to this, I’m fed up with being so negative but how many windows come and go with disappointment, I’m just fed up with it, and all we get from Arsenal is how clever they are with our debt, buying players doesn’t make you go tits up Ivan, buying players for silly money does though, as does paying average players crazy wages, and we have more than enough of them.

If we aren’t going to compete for 4 trophies next season, either buy us the squad we need to, or give me a rebate on my season tickets, I’m not that bothered about the Champions league, we’ll never win it anyway, let’s go for a domestic cup and with our best players, if you haven’t got enough of them, then go and buy some.

Oh and for those of you who said Cameron was a toff and Clegg was a working class boy, Clegg went to Cambridge and Cameron went to Oxford, so in theory we have an educated line up, a bit like the Arsenal eh! Who ever you wanted to win the election, at least it’s over and we can get back to speculating about the players we are about to buy.

Have a nice day Grovers, Pedro is back for the next few days and no doubt he’ll be more cheerful than me.

P.S. Check out our textual chat at GoonerSonline here and drop a comment!

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Posted by Geoff

FKB: Fans Know Best / Arsenal make biggest signing of the summer!

May 11, 2010

Arsene Wenger eh?

Did you hear him yesterday? You know, saying he was concerned the fans wanted him to spend big. Apparently it’s not about spending big, it’s about quality. Ahhh, quality signings like Silvestre, Almunia and Denilson!

Arsene, it’s time you took yourself up a pseudonym on Le Grove and interacted with us in the comments section. We’ll throw some names your way, honestly, I reckon you could make a massive saving using our scouting network!

It was good to see Gazidis backing the manager as usual. This adds fuel to my theory on Wenger… if he didn’t have the money for the past 3 years, he has used his silence as a power consolidation tool. A bit of a dark theory you might say… well, where is the benefit in his vow of silence? There is none. If anything, lying to the fans has made his job twice as hard because if we’d been made aware of the situation money wise early on, we’d be far more forgiving.

If it comes out that this was the case in his book in ten years time, I won’t regret a single word I’ve said about him. He’s looking out for number one and that’s all that has mattered to him over the past few years. His personal battles should have been with the trophy cabinet, not his ideology versus the fans…

I’m dismayed that we’re being spun the same press script as last year already. What does sufficient funds mean? Why do we constantly have to be told that the money will be spent wisely… like we’re 8 year olds who’ve just had a birthday windfall? Who was asking for money to be spent on bad players with poor quality anyway? I’ll give you some examples of money spent badly.

  • Almunia, Mannone, Fabianski – New contracts
  • Theo Walcott – £60k a week
  • Silvestre – 2 year contract £50k per week

Less of the ‘fans don’t know’ rubbish.

Le Grove has called how the season will end 3 seasons straight, where is the credit for that? Instead you’d prefer to tell us and the fans how this season was an over achievement because people predicted worse!

When your child is sitting in prison for armed robbery, do you thank your lucky charms because his teachers said he’d be a murderer?

I’m getting sick and tired of Arsenal.com. The people who run the club forget we’ve been watching football for 20,30, 40 years… we know a good player and we know a bad one. You don’t have to be a horse to be a jockey. Football is a game we’ve all played. Now whilst we might not have hit the heights of top level football, lets not kid ourselves that’s an intelligence issue.

Telling the world Fabianski is a top class keeper no longer holds the mystique it used to. All it does is clarify the point that you’re losing the plot. Who are you to tell the fans he had a great game against Fulham?  We all saw he was diabolical, he’ll have known he played terribly and my guess is that he’ll take no pleasure from the last few games. He should have been pulled from the firing line after his first clanger.

Wenger’s art in years gone by was to take an amazing raw talent and turn it into something world class. He tried to take that technique into the average player band. He made Song average after 4 years, shame he failed with Diaby, Denilson and Almunia. His belief in his own convictions is killing the fans passion for the team and that’s a rocky road to disaster.

Will Gazidis man up and share his true thoughts with Wenger or is he a fully paid up member of the dwindling club of AKB?

Apparently Wenger will have his new signing wrapped up early in the transfer window. Wenger likes to do that to bed the players in… and to make sure the Emirates cup sells out. Gazidis should consult the last 4 years and see how many times he’s taken transfers into the last day. Yet another example of the de-fanification of Arsenal. We’re now customers, set demographics, walking wallets… corporatism has infected the blood stream of our club and it’s only going to get worse. Arsenal.com seems to be more about tricking us into spending more money than being an infomation portal for the fans.

It was disappointing to hear that the down grading of the two cup competitions was here to stay. Apparently Gazidis said (at the AST meeting)we still had to prioritise competitions. For me, that’s not on. If we’re only playing for 2 competitions, season ticket prices should reflect that… and hey, maybe player wages!

Still, the best news of the AST meeting was that Arsenal have finally taken some advice from Le Grove and sought professional help on the injury front. They’ve got a company in who use GPS player tracking which helps the club manage players fitness with supreme accuracy. I have a friend who works as a physio at a London Rugby club and he said all the ruggers teams use the tech and it’s pretty special. I think Fulham use something similar and their record of player fitness shames ours. I’ll do some digging over the next few days and see what I can find out. Regardless of what happens this summer, that is a major step in the right direction. If we can keep a squad fit, that’d be the equivalent of 6 new players! Wenger will be pleased…!

As for the Arsenalisation stuff… couldn’t give two hoots. What good is a bunch of Arsenal posters in a stadium where you can’t stand up and sing?

Focus a bit more energy into bolstering the playing staff and filling that dusty trophy cabinet! That’d make us feel more at home!

P.S. Before we go, I had to partake in Charity walk for a friend’s company. Turned out it wasn’t a walk, it was an 18 mile trek up 10 peaks. Now, after some stern words with my friends company, it turns out the Charity don’t pay you to do this sort of thing… they actually expect you to get sponsorship. Whoops…

Anyway, if you’re feeling generous, stick a few quid on this page, I’ll be forever indebted!

Tony Adams, you’re excluded. I wouldn’t want to take money from a man so desperate he has to coach at Gabala FC in Azerbaijan.

Bad time Tony, bad times…

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UPDATE: Gazidis said the staff read the blogs… we told you that a while back. Normal corporate companies would have to pay hundreds of thousands to get the type of market research Arsenal can get for free.

Your voice on the internet is heard… that’s nice to know.

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Posted by Pedro

We need to be brave, or at least realise what we have is not enough.

May 10, 2010

Ok I’m on match report duty as Pedro didn’t make the last game of the season. Let me start by saying there were huge gaps all around the stadium, I have never seen that in all my time as an Arsenal season ticket holder and that is a long time, last game of the season, wow. Then come the Arsenal lies about 60,180 something in the stadium, sure there were, even blind Arsene could see that there were at least 10,000 empty seats, when the players walked around the pitch at full time the ground was half empty, and again, that I have never seen before, so I hope him and his players copped that little message. In fact even the red action section looked light.

We played well but we only played a depleted Fulham who were clearly thinking about Wednesday, I watched the game from a box so had to behave myself, I was also in the company of winning Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher and his son so I watched the game sober and made comments like, what a good goal, and I’m glad we didn’t spend £8million on Chris Smalling.

It was a typical end of season rout and there was only going to be one winner regardless of Fabianski and his flaps, he is 6′ 4″ tall and jumps for the ball whilst going down, very odd that.

I had us down for 5 and we did score 5 so I wasn’t far off, Robin looked sharp and Arshavin and Vela scored peaches, Djourou coming back looked good and I think he’ll be a great centre back, a bit of a crock though so we can’t bank on him for a full season. If you want to know what we need in a centre back then look no further than Sol Campbell, who was again our best player yesterday.

We need to sign a centre back like him, now this is where I would be brave, William Gallas is 32 and hasn’t finished a season in the last 3 years, so I am puzzled as to why on earth Wenger is offering him another 2 years. I think him and Vermaelen are top, top players but there record for me isn’t so great, they conceded a lot between them, yes I put a lot of that down to atrocious keeping but they are footballers and not stoppers, here’s my solution, say goodbye to Gallas and make Vermaelen a DM. Not instead of Song, but as well as Song, he has pace, can tackle and can score.

Then go and buy two centre backs in the Campbell mode, like a Cahill, or a Shawcross, yes I can hear you all saying what??? But that’s what we need, a couple of playground bullies that will worry forwards, not a pair of good footballers like we currently have. I’m not suggesting Shawcross, I’m saying, like a Shawcross.

If we had Buffon in goal, or Hart, the defence will feel confident and that will have a knock on effect through the team, if we have Vermaelen and Song in the midfield then we have a barrier that few will pass. Diaby is a luxury player, one that can either turn a game or go missing, trouble is I’m not sure what one we get and I believe the team feels the same way.

Either way we must get rid of the two keepers, they are costing us and everyone I know feels the same way. Wenger, please listen, you must see they are just not good enough.

We need an out and out goalscorer up front, like a Drogba, but that won’t happen, maybe a cheeky bid for Benzema would do it, then we could sell Eduardo and possibly Vela. Nikki B will make it one day, but not yet and we will need 4 strikers, we always have injuries and next season will be no different to this.

Some will say Benzema hasn’t done it at Real, but he hasn’t had a run, and he will score a lot of goals in the right team, don’t forget last season he was a £40million striker.

I think it’s time to give up on Theo as a winger, he isn’t, he’s a Michael Owen type, a striker, an inside forward and he should be used as one, he is wasted on the wing and he can’t defend.

So that brings me on to the wing, Sagna and Clichy are shocking crossers, with Chamakh we need crossers of the ball, so a winger or two is what we need. Who? I don’t know, SWP maybe, but he is 29 and for me that’s too old.

Time to bring Wilshere back and play him, where? Again I don’t know, but not to have a talent like him in the side is just stupid.

Denilson needs to go, why? Because he is just not good enough, Eastmond is way better already.

So I would say goodbye to Almunia, Fabianski, Gallas, Silvestre and Denilson, I would put Diaby in the last chance saloon and if he won’t try Vermaelen in the midfield then buy someone, now whether that’s a Melo or and Inler, I don’t care, but we need someone in there who’s name doesn’t end in son.

Today the rumour mill is in full flow, Chamakh will arrive on June 1st, so there has to be another that will arrive before the world cup, my guess is it’s Melo.

If we don’t get in some class, the spuds will, the chavs will and both manc teams will, if we don’t watch it, we’ll slide down the table next year, be warned Arsene, you are also in the last chance saloon.

Have a great day Grovers, at least we finished above the spuds!

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Posted by Geoff

Let’s enjoy the day, finishing 3rd is our goal, let’s give them and us a good send off.

May 9, 2010

So this is it then, the end of a strange season, one that started with no hope, filled with injuries, then massive hope, then nothing, but we still continue to qualify for the champions league and as you saw from the spuds celebrations, it is a very much sought after tag, top four.

Rumour is that we are after Robert Green, although I would have him over what we have, I still want us to sign Hart or Buffon, we should stop trying for bargain basements buys, and Green is not a big keeper, remember when the great late Brian Clough bought Peter Shilton for £1million 400 years ago? I do, and people thought it was a lot to pay for a keeper, but as George Graham proved with David Seaman, a great goalie is worth what you pay and as Arsene Wenger has proved a cheap one will always cost you eventually.

We talked briefly yesterday about centre backs and who we should go after, inadvertently I stumbled on where I think we go wrong and what we should be after.

We seem to sign athletes that can play football, players like Gallas that try and play there way out of trouble. Our history has showed us that players like Adams, Bould and Keown were top stoppers, where having the ball in the stands was more important that threading a silky pass through 9 players, defend first, play the offside trap and everything else will fall into place.

Many great defenders started off as forwards, players like Campbell and Cole started off as centre forward and left winger respectively, so they know how to bomb forward and they know when to hoof it into row X. So my feeling is lets go for a big lump, someone who can get in the way and terrorise the forwards coming at them.

Don’t forget they used to call Tony Adams the Donkey, and he was one of the worlds best.

Onto today, the talk is that Roy Hodgson will field a weakened team, so what? So will we, I think they are dangerous no matter who they select, we need to get in their faces and score early, the longer we go without a goal the more nervous we will get, it kind of reminds me the last time we had this type of game, it was our last game at Highbury (I think) we were playing Wigan and the spuds were at Upton Park, the Boleyn ground, this was the famous Lasagnegate game, this time though we only need a draw.

I think we’ll spank them, so I am going for a 5 nil win, something to cheer us up over the summer, this will be a summer of speculation, let’s hope it not one of disappointment.

Yeah sorry, it was a prediction!

We’ll be here all summer as usual, but enjoy today, this is it until the pre season friendlies against the Austrian giants, then the Emirates Cup.

Don’t forget to take your Wenger-notes and let him know that we want him to spend some money, after all it’s ours, not his!

Have a great day Grovers, it wasn’t a great season, let’s hope the team gives us a send off to remember!

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Posted by Geoff

I have the answer to our problems, lets have a Coalition at the Arsenal!

May 8, 2010

Okay lets all stop the squabbling, we have the ‘Arsene know bests’ on the left, we have the ‘Arsene’s lost it’ to the right and we have the ‘give him one more seasoners’ in the middle.

So I have a very ‘todays fashion’ idea as a solution, and we could do it all in house, tell me what you think.

Retire Pat Rice, Pat I love you mate but a change is needed, bring in Steve Bould as your new number two, he’s in your academy so it’s progression and he’s your choice, he will be more vocal and knows the younger players. We need freshening up, you and Pat are getting stale.

Bring in Keown as the defensive coach, him or Adams. Bring in Seaman as the goal keeping coach, and buy Joe Hart or Buffon, no one else will do, my choice is Hart.

If you don’t have Bould as your number two then swap that idea with Keown, he’ll be vocal and frankly that’s what you need Arsene, someone to challenge you and your autocratic way of running Arsenal football club.

As I have said many times before, a football club should be run prudently, it should work spend only what it can afford but it is not a business and should not be run as one.

A football club is more a public service, it has paying fans that give it the money, not shareholders, yes Arsenal does have shareholders but they don’t get paid a dividend, if Arsenal were a business, then it would pay a dividend, but it isn’t and it doesn’t.

Businesses don’t have 60,000 fans paying them entrance money every 2 weeks and businesses rarely sell merchandising, so I get fed up when I hear that we are a business, we are most definitely not.

So if we have a transfer budget, it is the duty of the management to spend it, that’s what it’s there for, to improve the team, to freshen up the dressing room and to give the fans something to smile about and of course to brag about.

So to sum up, a coalition could be just what Arsenal need to bring us some silverware, no one loses face, we are crap at the back and Wenger has admitted he is not a great knowledge on keepers, bring in someone that is, then and listen to what people are saying.

Tomorrow we talk about the game, Today spare a though for Pedro who is on a mountain hiking sponsored walk somewhere in the countryside, I’m meeting him and his brother tomorrow but I’m not sure what sort of shape he’ll be in after an 18 mile hike! I’m not sure what the charity is but Let’s wish him luck! Any kind of charity work is good work.

Have a great day today Grovers, tomorrow is the last game until July, let’s all enjoy it!

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Posted by Geoff

Theo has written an autobiography…

May 7, 2010

Morning all!

Apologies for the post delay, I wrote one, then clicked back this morning and it was gone! A bit like Gordon Brown’s Labour seats! Sorry, that was a low blow, I just had a lot of fun this morning chuckling to myself about Jacqui Smith losing her seat. Possibly the most vulgar woman in Government. Well played to the people of Redditch!

Onto football, I don’t have much news on the transfer front. There are strong rumours about the move of hot-shot Edin Dzeko. I like the look of him and he seems like a Wenger type signing, however, with the arrival of Chamakh imminent it’s hard to see where an older version of Bendtner would fit into the squad… especially at £35million!

I spend a lot of time in the car for work and yesterday I had the pleasure of catching a 20minute Talk Sport interview with our very own Theo Walcott.

Basically he’s written some kids books in the build up to the world cup. Great idea I thought to myself. Very creative for a person of the football persuasion. The interview went on and more information was divulged.

The book is about a kid called TJ, Theo’s nickname as a kid. TJ is an aspiring footballer. TJ comes out of goal in his first match and scores a hattrick in his first ever game of football. TJ shares the same friends as Theo when he was a kid. TJ goes onto play for England in an important game and wins it for his country.

Hold on? Has Theo written an autobiography here?! The interview went on and Mike Parry joked they could he could take the story to the big screen, Theo thought about the question and said he’d definitely look into the possibility! Hilarious stuff, you have to love how up themselves footballers are!

What was interesting was Theo’s take on the season. He reckoned it disappointing and the age thing couldn’t be taken into consideration anymore as it was a tired excuse. You could tell he was itching to say we need recruits but he stopped short of saying that!

For me, Theo is in the wrong team. He should be playing for a club like Villa. I don’t think he has the same natural skill that our previous greats had. Maybe he could develop his game in a similar fashion to Freddie Ljungberg? Well timed runs and bundles of goals? I’m not sure… all I know is he needs to knock it up another gear next year or it’ll be time to start looking for a new club.

Sunday is the last game of the season, a traditional p*ss up outside the Arsenal Tavern is in the offing and you are all more than welcome to join us! The Arsenal Tavern is on the Blackstock road or out the station, turn left and follow the road to the end and it’ll be in front of you!

Come down, enjoy the sun, drink Peroni!

Have a great weekend!

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Posted by Pedro

The BBC, Sky Sports and the spuds all say qualifying will earn them £50 million.

May 6, 2010

A protest on Sunday? It's your call!

So add that to the £30 million we get from the EPL and that means that we earn £80 million before we kick a ball, and that every season. Hmmmmm. Gazidas said we don’t need ECL qualification to survive so presumably the £50million is all bunce? Or did I read that wrong, what Ivan said?

First of all, though it kills me to say it, I have to congratulate the spuds and their manager Harry halfwit, on their performance last night.

They needed to go up north and beat the ‘new chavs on the block’ at their gaff, and did so with ease, a team made up of Arsenal reject David Bentley and one that got away, Wilson Palacios, plus a whole host of ex Pompey players and the Southampton player we didn’t get, that is actually worth his transfer fee, Gareth Bale.

The big difference between their team and ours, is they know how to fight, Harry tells Bentley and Gomes to find another team as they aren’t good enough, and they step up a gear, our manager tells our hapless players it wasn’t their fault as they are young and the other teams are beastly and look what happens.

Ok that’s the spud bit over, but watch it Arsene, they can still finish above us, at that point I would just give up, I have on here been warning you all season, beware the chasing pack and always play your best team.

So we’ll now have to suffer watching Harry spend £60 or £70 million in the transfer market whilst we bring in a free transfer and maybe one other from the French second division and persevere with this team as it’s very young and has great mental spirit, Arsene if you were watching last night, you would have seen a team with great mental spirit and it wasn’t us.

Anyway onto the positive bit, Kolo Toure and Adebayor left us for silverware, ha, ha, you pair of muppets, enjoy the Europa league next season! Oh and that’s if you’re not both replaced by decent footballers, it was great at the end to see the hapless Adebayor keep getting himself offside again, happy days!

We asked you yesterday for ideas that we could use as a protest, a protest for not spending our money, one of our lady Grovers, Queen of Suburbia, suggested a mock £20 note with Arsene’s head on it, something you could print off and leave at the stadium. Nice idea but, I’m not allowed in law to mimic our currency and I can’t suggest you distribute anything at The Grove as that’s also against the law. The litter law.

What I have done though is a funny money note which tells the boss that it’s actually our money and not his and would he please spend some of it, so double click on it, print it off and put on your wall at home as a souvenir. Or you may want to share it with your friends if you go to the game.

Pedro sent me a link where Arsene mentioned his pay was linked to how much money the club makes, and that my friends is why there is a massive conflict of interest between buying the players we need and the managers salary, it’s simply wrong. Find it here.

Finally when the manager tells us he doesn’t need many signings this summer, he’s wrong, we need to get rid of the dross and sign some big lumps that know how to fight to win a game, and not keep playing rubbish keepers and gutless players who are only interested in their next extended contract, which is pointless as he lets them go when they want to.

A CONTRACT SHOULD PROTECT ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB, OTHERWISE WHY BOTHER EXTENDING THEM?

The Arsenal board reward people that make them money, they also reward people that win them nothing, the manager walks into yet another improved contract extension for winning nothing, Arsene, have you no pride? The players get extended contracts for winning nothing and watching them play recently shows they have no pride, so I have to wonder why on earth the board run a football club, because ripping off the fans seems to be their only goal.

The goal of a football club is to win things, of course it should be run well, but all we do is make money, we’ve forgotten the other bit.

This is my last whinge Grovers, tomorrow Pedro’s back and we start the countdown, I’m going to the Fulham game to have fun, whatever happens I’ll always support the Arsenal, regardless of what this board and it manager are doing to it, it can’t last for ever can it!

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Posted by Geoff

Loic Remy wants to join Arsenal, Fabianski needs more games and tonight we could cement 3rd.

May 5, 2010

So the latest player to be linked with the Arsenal is 23 year old French starlet Loic Remy but do we want him? I don’t know a lot about him, but do we really need another French hopeful? I would sooner see us go after a out and out goalscorer. I know little about him, save he’s scored 13 goals in a poor side, but I’m sure Nikki B could get more in that league, if we were going to add a youngster to our forward line I would sooner have the Italian Inter player, at least he is tall.

Yes I know he’s trouble, but so is Arshavin.

Now Sol Campbell has joined his manager saying that Fabianski needs more games, there’s a surprise, Campbell wants a new contract and he happens to be agreeing with his manager. Now I think Sol is terrific, I would keep him, but Fabianski should go out on loan, I want Joe Hart next season.

Tonight the two upstarts play each other, I hate them both and would sooner have Everton or Villa there, but it will be one of them, to see the spuds go above us would hurt, but it may teach the club a lesson, however if I had to choose, it would be a City win or a draw so that we at least finished 3rd, having got just 1 point from the last 12 after us having the easiest run in says we deserve nothing, but I am an Arsenal fan and will take what we can get at the end of the day.

I think the last few games have showed us what we feared, Vela, Diaby and Eboue have to go, Diaby has skill but doesn’t have much else, Vela just isn’t that good and Eboue is in the way of a decent player, at best he’s cover at right back but even Sagna like Clichy can’t cross a ball to save their lives, so maybe we should cash in there as well.

Almunia is shocking and Denilson just isn’t good enough, Gallas is a crock and should be shown the door with Fish head, add to that mob the fringees that will never make it and I think we could bring in £25mil, put that with the £40mil from Ade and Kolo plus the transfer fund of at least £30mil, as that’s what we’ll get from the EPL this season and we would have close on £100mil to spend on ready made players.

There is no excuse this coming season, we clearly need new blood and we can afford it, we paid £130mil off our debt last season which is massive by anyone’s standards, our debt now is next to nothing and if you add in the property sales we have to come, then we have no debt, Arsene you have failed in project youth, learn from your mistakes. Please.

If teams like Blackburn, Stoke and Wigan can turn us over, then their players are at least as good as ours, if it were tactics that beat us, then our manager is clearly crap at tactics, either way there is no excuse next season, either our players are not good enough or our manager is inept, something has to give.

SHOW US THE MONEY ARSENAL!

The Fabianski howler was so obvious, why on earth allow yourself to get sandwiched in between 3 big players? Don’t blame fat Sam, thank him for exposing the weakness everyone in football saw apart from Arsene Wenger. If we don’t learn from it then we have nothing to look forward to next term except an awful lot more of the same.

There are some out there that are happy with this season, well they can’t be Arsenal fans can they? They must be Arsene fans. I am planning some kind of demonstration this weekend, I don’t mean a ‘Manager out’ deal, I mean a ‘spend our money please’ one, if you think I’m wrong then tell me, if you think I’m right the give me some ideas. And nothing that will get me banned!

This is our club, this isn’t Monaco or Grampus8, this is the Arsenal. If the Arshavin comments are true, then please don’t sell him, let him spend 6 months in the stiffs, what is the point in continually increasing the players contracts when we allow them to leave when they want? That is naive at best and completely unintelligent at worst, it doesn’t even get manager loyalty, Cesc has a contract until 2014, so in my book he stays until 2014 and if we want to sell him, then do that in 2013, if he starts playing badly, then shove him in the stiffs, screw player power, they earn enough, it’s time to stand up and show them who is boss, MAN UP ARSENE.

If we were winning anything other than the Emirates cup, I could understand the extended contracts and the big wages, but people, we have won zip for 5 years, zip. So why on earth are we doing it and then claiming poverty, it’s shockingly bad management, and that means all of them, from Wenger to Gazidas.

Have a great day Grovers, tomorrow we could be in third spot and tomorrow we go to the polls to vote out this shower of benefit paying, economy ruining half witted puss bags, this is not a political blog, I wouldn’t dream of advising anyone who to vote for, but remember tonight when you are snuggled up in your Arsenal quilt that David Cameron is a Gooner!

1,041 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Geoff

Wenger’s idiotic stubborness looks like it could cost us 3rd.

May 4, 2010

Before the game I sat there and wondered to myself…

How many mistakes would Fabianski have to make to be considered a liability?

Why when 3rd place is yet to be confirmed would Wenger think it a good idea to play a man who near enough commits a goalkeeping crime every other game? Why was he still trying to convince us that his young Polish keeper was going to be great?

Wenger’s stubbornness no doubt cost us the league this year and after yesterday’s team selection, there is a very good chance it could cost us 3rd place meaning we’ll have to qualify through the preliminaries in the Champions League next season.

The game started off relatively brightly for Arsenal. We fizzed the ball around the pitch and looked in control. Fabianski claimed a fair amount of high balls into the box and after about 20 minutes, Sagna flicked on a front post corner to RvP who was at the back post to nod the ball into the net. 1-0 up against a lower half of the table team should have seen us cruise to victory. However, as we all know, this team is built on brittle foundations. Blackburn had tactics in mind. Those tactics? To target a keeper Wenger believes to be great. They used every opportunity to launch high balls into our 6 yard box, knowing like the rest of us, Fabianski would make an incorrect decision at some point and we’d concede.

Just before half time, that moment came. Blackburn were putting two players on the keeper. They hit a looping ball to the back post, Fabianski tried to claim it but got under the ball and could only muster a flap, Blackburn returned the ball back across the face of goal where David Dunn was on hand to slot into an empty net.

The second half began and it seemed like Wenger had given one of those silent team talks, possibly just letting the players listen to their ipods. We came out looking uninterested and demotivated. The boys looked like they were in summer holiday countdown moment. It was disgraceful to watch and showcased that we’re no where near a championship winning team.

Blackburn don’t have the best players by a long way, but what they lack in technical ability they more than make up for with fight and discipline. They continued to pummel the Arsenal area with high balls and it didn’t take long for our terrible keeper to drop another howler. This time a simple cross was fired directly at Fabianski, he got under the ball, made a horrendous attempt at a punch, Samba simply nodded in.

Wenger sat on the sidelines flapping his arms more wildly than all his keepers have done this season. I didn’t get his point? Blackburn weren’t playing unfairly, they had identified our weakness and exposed it for the world to see. Wenger seems to believe that teams like Blackburn should set up to play Arsenal in a way that suits Arsenal. The ex-Prem champions don’t have half the funding or facilities we have, yet Wenger believes they should try and out play us! He lives on a different planet!

Here’s an idea Wenger. How about taking a closer look to home before you start blaming everyone else bar yourself?

All those players out on the pitch are your players and they failed you miserably. They don’t look like they can be assed. That is a disgrace to the 3000 away fans that travelled up to see you. That is a disgrace to the millions of gooners watching on TV. Everything is given to our boys on a plate. They don’t have to work for anything at Arsenal and it shows. Since going out of the Champions league, the players have switched off. It doesn’t matter though. They know full well you don’t get picked on form at Arsenal and you don’t get sold as long as you keep your mouth shut.

How about accepting the fact that the Premier League is a physical place to play the game of football and that sticking players on the keeper is fair tactic? If you had a good goal keeper in the squad that sort of tactic wouldn’t be employed. If you had players in the team with fight in them, they wouldn’t get bullied out of games. Yesterday, I hardly noticed Diaby and Nasri, they were that anonymous. Since Porto, Nasri has gone off the radar. He doesn’t have the stomach for the Premier League, he should try his luck in Spain or Italy. Massive disappointment. Diaby? Well, after he’s had his customary 3 good games a season, he goes AWOL. He looks lethargic and a long way of the physical stature of PV04.

Bar a few exceptions, the players on the pitch yesterday disgraced themselves and put another black mark against project youth. Carlos Vela was so out of the game it was difficult to make a judgement on him. For a player supposedly fighting for a future at our club his showing was nothing short of pathetic. Theo Walcott? Similar story as always. Unless he can get in a race, the best he can do is fire a cross or shot into his front post defender. You know it’s a bad afternoon when your best attacking player is Eboue.

Robin Van Persie’s return to the team proved to me that we wouldn’t have won the league even with him staying fit this season. Our problems are deeper than having a great striker on the pitch.

When you’ve got a manager who refuses to blame the keeper for his howlers, you have to question whether he is seeing any of the above problems?

Wenger isn’t in competition for trophies anymore, he’s in competition with his detractors. That competition in all likelihood will leave us in the same position this time next year as the Arsenal post 2004 de ja vu virus strikes again.

Personally, I don’t think Wenger is the man to lead us back to glory. He’s stuck in 1998 and had refused to move on. He won’t acknowledge tactics, he doesn’t punish poor performances and he rewards failure. Not just that, instead of raising the bar, he’s in a constant battle to lower it. No manager should be telling the fans 3rd place in an over achievement.

Wenger, unlike Fergie, looks unable to adapt for a second time. He wants plaudits for how he plays the game, not for the amount of trophies in the cabinet. We’re now known as the nearly team and judging by Wenger’s comments on transfers, we’re probably not going to address that this summer. He constantly reminds us that his players are extremely young. Well Arsene, I’m sure Titus Bramble was young at one point… he was rubbish though and he grew up and turned into a rubbish player. Being an average young player does not mean you’ll become a great 25 year old. Look no further than Senderos for evidence on that front.

Watching the demise of a once great manager has been slow and painful. I no longer have faith in him. I’ve wrestled with this in my mind for a long time, but watching our season go from potential greatness, to painful mediocrity has been awful. Listening to his ever familiar press conferences about the youth of his team and how he will be sensible in the transfer market is an all too familiar sound.

Deep down we all know the truth… Wenger hasn’t got it in him to change his ways and the board don’t have the balls to tell him.

It’s a sorry old situation we’ve got ourselves in.

See you in the comments.

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Posted by Pedro

No kids today the titles gone away, and 3rd is all we have to play!

May 3, 2010

Yes there was a song in there somewhere!

Arsene Wenger has promised not to blood any kids today and go for an all out win, the team selected will be the strongest available.

That would have been nice for the Spud and Wigan games, but RVP was left on the bench, ho hum, it’s all over, let’s just hope we finish third and win 8 nil today against that fat gum chewing slob Allardyce’s team Blackburn.

There’s no point in talking about who we’ll buy next season as it’s quite apparent he believes in this squad and he won’t be changing anything so we may as well sit down, shut up and be grateful for what we are given.

What is important though is to get a point from the last two games, now before you all laugh, we only managed a point from the last three, and we were the ones with the easiest run in, boy thank god we weren’t trying to win the title eh?

At least we don’t have to make our way over to the Grove, most of us can watch it on the TV, apart from those going up North, good luck to those lucky fans, I hope the team do you proud.

I noticed this last few days there has been a lot of negativity in the comments, and I don’t blame anyone for that, I’m as guilty as the most negative, today though is a match, so let’s all try and think of ways that Arsenal can win all four trophies next season, the boss has a few months to make that happen, perhaps we can all give him some ideas!

What doesn’t help though is when we read the Sunday Times rich list for sportsmen and see how much these lucky boys earn, a twat like El Hadj Diouf, or whatever his name is, driving a £400k sports car, that’s why it would be nice if our management would come out and say, that the reason we increase all these kids contracts by so much is to keep them at the club, thereby safeguarding the club, so when we get the press saying that Cesc and Arshavin want to leave, they can say well they can’t and that’s why our manager gives them such huge contracts.

Now that would be nice and it may stop some of the resentment.

They can’t go anywhere until we let them, and if they do, they can pay all the wages back we gave them in their increase, it’s time to consider the fans Arsenal. Crazy concept I know, but why not give it a go?

Have a great day Grovers, and enjoy the match!

1,521 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Geoff

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