Le Grove – Arsenal blog featuring Arsenal news

Peter Hill-Wood has said that Arsene didn’t mention Joe Cole in his conversation with him, so he guesses that he won’t be coming to the Arsenal, Barca have said they are looking elsewhere, so now they have unsettled Cesc they will turn their attention to David Silva, perhaps we should too.

It is funny though that Pep Guardiola has been quiet throughout all this, could it be that he fancies being the next Arsenal manager or could it be he didn’t want him in the first place?

What is strange though, is the man who just cleaned up in Spain, feels he needs to add to the squad, no team actually, perhaps we should take note, that no matter how good you think you are, you never stop improving, why? Because those around you will.

I just hope that if Cesc does stay he doesn’t stay because he’s been bribed with another bumper pay day that will stop us having the money to buy, and he’ll be unhappy and only hang around for another season. I only want players at Arsenal that want to stay and play, Cesc hanging around to see out Wenger’s contract out isn’t good enough for me, if of course that’s the deal. I could be wrong! I hope I am.

Maybe we have already agreed to buy Eden Hazard, is he good enough? I’ve only seen him on youtube, David Silva looks good, but Barca are after him and they are superior to us, so I doubt we will be sniffing around him.

I hope the Schwarzer rumours are untrue, but having said that, he is so much better than what we have I really don’t care who, as long as it’s someone.

I don’t know why we insist on leaving our new shirt debut so late, I’m sure we would do better business if everyone got in there before their holidays, it would also give us something to talk about before the transfer window deadline when we go shopping for whatever is left that’s cheap.

I know I said I wasn’t  interested in the world cup, but I am starting to have a peek, so maybe having something to watch at the weekend will stimulate something in me.

I do wonder what our staff do in these downtimes, they certainly don’t go out looking for players like old Mr Dein did, or at least they’ve done nothing over the years that leads me to believe they do.

A Grover told us yesterday that he went down from 46,000th on the waiting list to 16,000th, take note Ivan, the warning signs are there, Arsene may leave you with the legacy of no fans, add that to the thousands that are renting theirs out, you might start to see a pattern emerging. BEWARE!

I occasionally get people on that tell me that we don’t want to end up like Leeds, Portsmouth, Liverpool or ManU, well that got me thinking, in the world of football, and I mean the WHOLE WORLD OF FOOTBALL, who out there is actually solvent? Apart from US that is?

My request for a bit of tranquility on here yesterday certainly worked out, so a big thank you to all those that participated in the experiment, it did seem to go well. We also welcomed a lot of new grovers to our world, so it was a good day, lets extend it!

Have a great day Grovers because I’m sure tomorrow Pedro will be back, I’m taking a few days off.

We have signed Chamakh on a free, good news indeed, one in, but we already have two out on frees with Merida and Senderos, one in 2 out so far, well we know that Gallas, Silvestre and possibly Campbell are next out, so that would be 5 out and 1 in, so by my calculations we will need 4 new signings just to stand still.

Doing business with Fulham would have been a smart move, given they wanted Senderos, but I’m sure they shook hands on something. Good luck anyway Phil, you were a much loved player, error prone maybe, but loved all the same, you’ll get a great reception when you return.

Now we know every year we have more out than in, and we have signed a 17 and 16 year old, but they are for the future and Wellington (19) won’t arrive until January, so if we are to strengthen this season, we will have to be very busy indeed, Cesc seems to be upping his value with every game so he is doing us a lot of good but as Wenger always says, no more than 3 in or the balance gets affected, now whilst I don’t believe that, I am getting concerned that a team like ManU have spent £20mil already and they owe over a billion and all we have is a free in and probably 5 out, and that doesn’t include Cesc Fabregas, who looks like he will also be going.

If we get rid of the players on the fringes, like Simpson, Hoyte, Barazite, Gilbert and Randall, and then those that are not good enough like Almunia and Denilson, we are facing a massive spending spree, or another influx of youth.

Maybe our wily old fox has a plan, great, but what if there is no plan? It’s not like that hasn’t happened before is it!

I also read that Ronaldo was very close to signing for us, unfortunately the Mancs offered more for him, at £12mil, it didn’t seem such a risk did it.

Oh well, no point in going over old ground, perhaps we have agreed all sorts of deals that can’t be made public until after the world cup, maybe July will be busy, it’s not as if all the other teams are tearing up the transfer market is it?

What about signing Petrov on a free, he’s now available, maybe we will get the world record for all our new players signing on frees, Petrov, Cole, Assulin and Chamakh, I wonder what keepers, centre backs and defensive midfielders are currently available of frees?

There was a question from a number of grovers yesterday about some bloggers continually having a pop at our management and players, well it’s hard to tell people what to think, that wouldn’t make it a place to have an opinion, the only time I block people is if they come on for a row, or insult fellow bloggers, so let’s all try and be positive and have some fun today, you know who I mean and you know who you are. I’m not judging, just making a friendly suggestion.

I know Arsene could help by opening up his purse, but don’t hold your breath, he must however by now see the writing on the wall, there’s nothing wrong with changing tack boss, in the real world we do that all the time, as the market dictates, and you know what? If we don’t do it soon, we could get left behind.

One thing is for sure, we will get injuries, live with it, plan for it and see where it takes us, otherwise your beloved 4th spot could come under a bit of pressure this coming season and that would be a shame in what maybe your last season.

Have a fun filled and happy blogging day Grovers, the world cup starts in a few days and maybe things will start to fall into place.

Good morning all, on yet another no news day in blogland, well at least it is if you are an Arsenal fan, still with the world cup looming, all eyes are elsewhere.

I want to take you back a few years, to when we had one Ashley Cole, a product of the Arsenal youth set up that pre-dated Arsene Wenger, remember the time he met the Chavs in a hotel somewhere? Remember when he was worth £25mil? And in those days for a full back, that was a lot of money, then we swapped him for Gallas plus £5mil. Well Gallas was quite a bit older and it’s up to you whether you think we got the best deal or they did, well both are in their respective countries world cup squads, only one is about to leave on a free and one is set to go to Real Madrid for big money, it’s obvious to me who did the best in that deal as we have won nothing and they have won a bunch of cups and a league trophy, tonked us a few times along the way and will make at least £25mil when they sell him on.

I see a similar situation looming for us right now, with YaYa Toure’s agent now saying the northern chavs are acting like they are bankrupt and Barca valuing him at £29 million, it seems the stage is now set to swap him plus £1mil for our captain.

It also seems that now Toure has decided that maybe he’ll come to Arsenal after all, and with Barca desperate for Cesc, it may well happen. He may want to check with his brother first though as he went to Man City to win trophies. Didn’t he? Him and Ade-the-whore?

A couple of things there to think about Arsenal, Toure has burned his bridges at Barca and is basically a reject they no longer want, Cesc is 23 and still has a massive sell on should they choose to do that in 4 years time, when of course he doesn’t work out.

I would have Toure because I think he is just what we need, I think he is better than Song and will add some steel in our back line, playing just in front of them, he isn’t worth £29mil though. Maybe if he really wants to join us we should have him as well as Cesc, or maybe have him plus £20mil and a few other players they don’t use, like the centreback with the funny name, the Israeli kid and the youngster Bojan.

Then it would be a reasonable deal, because if Cesc really wants out, and that’s a big if, then keeping him for another year will be a waste of time.

We really ought to be be buying players that are on the up and not those that have run down their contracts, and us thinking we have got a result, because we get them on a free.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Joe Cole would be a great addition and could take turns in the treatment room with Rosicky and Diaby. So I would have him, but we also need to set our sights higher, maybe get a Galactico type signing, like a Di Maria or similar.

So although I would have YaYa, he isn’t worth £29mil anymore than Gallas at the time was worth £20mil.

Don’t make the same mistake twice Arsene, Cole will go to Madrid for £25mil plus, Gallas will drift off for zip, you do the sums.

Have a great day Grovers, the quicker the world cup starts, the quicker it will be over and we can concentrate on what we really care about, the Arsenal.

I’m now off the play Football manager and FIFA 2010 to get inspiration for my next post. Thank god I’m not the Arsenal manager eh? I would hate to win the league. (That was for the 2 AKB’s we had on here yesterday and I in no way meant it)

So we are upping the stakes telling Barca we want £50mil for cesc, yes £50mil! I hear you saying that’s great, £20mil more than Barca told us we were getting, but wait, isn’t that £30mil less than we first said we wanted? Don’t be so cynical!

As I said earlier, I think Cesc will stay and Wenger has promised to bring in some world class players, well after it looks like we won’t be signing Campbell or Gallas, we have gone for Lorient superstar Laurent Koscielny (yes indeed, named after his team) who could end up costing us a whopping £8mil now, well that should be enough to keep our young Spanish hero. Good going boss.

I wish all this speculation would end, it is really getting boring, I thought we would spend the summer wondering how we would spend our huge warchest not talking about Cesc in the same way we used to with Vieira.

Anyway, I now think I know how we’ll spend that money, with the free signings of Chamakh and Joe Cole on the horizon and Koscielny coming in from 7th place Lorient all we need now is the 37 year old Schwartzer to ensure we finish outside the top four, what a summer in prospect.

This weekend was a good one if you sleep with the English, England trounced the mighty Bangladesh and got 10 wickets on the final afternoon, apparently that’s good in the cricket world and Justin Rose clattered a top class field at the Memorial and beat teen sensation Ricky whatisname, who was dressed like an Alabama convict to a pulp on the back 9.

Let’s look at the other side of the coin though, suppose this is all a smokescreen, yes a clever piece of gamesmanship from our club. Cesc to stay, Joe Cole and Gourcuff in, Subotic and Cahill, Velosa and Krasnic and Joe Hart or Buffon, now that would be something wouldn’t it? Or if Fulham are after Senderos, then him plus cash for Hangeland.

And it could still happen, Cesc would then say he never wanted to leave, Almunia and Denilson could go to barca as that’s all they can afford, we could clear out most of the reserves and bring in some money, get a new kit that we all like and have the greatest season ever under Arsene Wenger.

Well that’s what I am choosing to believe and for all those of you who said that we are only a week into the window and what’s my problem, I will now believe, I will believe that this time the boss will spend on the players we need and get shot of those we don’t. And if all else fails, don’t forget, this team has great mental strength and is still very young!

A final word for the Americans, I will be playing golf in Florida for a few days in July, I hope they clean those beaches up by then or it will ruin my trip. BP have done their bit, it’s time for the Yanks to do their’s, if they don’t we should pull out of the Gulf like George Bush’s dad did in 1991, the same year we won the league conceding just 19 goals (I think)

They get more Brits than any other nationality going there on holidays, they ought to get that Hilary Clinton over doing something useful for once instead of poking her nose in everywhere else.

How’s that for a Monday morning post then?

Have a hopeful week, keep the faith and smoke the same stuff that I obviously am!

So Andy Gray reckons the new bid from Barca’s Joan Oliver of £42million would be enough to see us strengthen and win the league.

So some woman at Barca has upped the offer, and before you say Joan Oliver isn’t a bird, he has a girls name so in my book he’s a bird. Sounds like that good looking one in Romancing the stone, now we know what she did with her cut, I bet Michael Douglas is glad he bought Catherine Zeta Jones with his dosh instead!

What Andy Gray doesn’t realise is that if we copped £42mil from selling Cesc, it would go into paying a bit off the never ending debt, a bit into buying another 16 year old (sorry, we already did that) and the rest will go into Arsene’s sky rocket, job done, well that 2 free transfers, Mark Schwarzer and a Polish French defender that will cost us £7million and two young boys.

Or maybe this will happen, maybe we’ll keep Cesc, get Joe Cole, buy Gourcoff, sign Cahill, Velosa and Joe Hart and we’ll be on our way!

LA, LA LA, LA LA, LA LA, LA LA!

I have to say though that Cesc is making his position untenable by the day and that’s a shame, as usual our club is screwing up a simple situation, they should report Barca, much the same as the Mancs did Madrid, forcing them to get their cheque book out, or stick him on the transfer list and sell him to the highest bidder, that would be my choice now.

If Cesc had come out and said ‘that’s it, I will see out my contract’ then all this would have gone away, I also think either we have done a deal with Cole or we haven’t, if he wants to come, then announce it now, the only reason for not doing that is if he wants to showcase himself during the world cup, if that’s the case he is whoring himself and he’s not for us. Come on Arsenal, grow some nuts.

Also we need to replace Cesc and spend the money, buy Gourcuff and Van Der Vart, get some Dutch steel in there, it seems to me that Robin is the player we need to please now so let’s waste no time, the prices will go sky high in a week and we should buy before we get the Cesc money.

Otherwise all Wenger will say is because we have money the prices go up…

Now think about what we will have in the transfer fund, we were told we had £25mil, so add that to the £40mil from Ade and Kolo and then add that to at least £50mil from Cesc and we can really tear it up this summer, that’s £115 million quid people!!!

if we don’t, then it really is time for a change, because this mob will truly have forgotton what a football club should be doing.

No one bullied me at school, I always fought back, not matter what they threatened, that’s why I hate my club being so wimpy, I think it encourages bullying, time to stand up and take your glasses off Arsenal.

Finally I got a phone call from Pedro yesterday at 11pm, so midnight in Amsterdam, he must have pressed a button accidentally as all I could hear was shrieking boys, hmmmm, either there was a football game on, or he was in a Gay club.

Have a great day grovers, maybe the Sunday papers will tell us more.

Well there’s not a lot to talk about, Arsenal have told Barca to sling their hook, LaPorta and his team of in debt human ticks won’t stop talking and the latest sneaky trick is suggesting Cesc could buy himself out of his contract, what filth.

Well that can’t and won’t happen, why? Well because if it did then overnight the transfer market would be over, it would mean that any player could just pay off their contracts and the good ones simply wouldn’t sign one, what would be the point, they may as well just sign 12 month deals, it would screw over teams like Barca proper, it would equalise the transfer market by taking away the advantage the big teams have.

For instance, if Cesc was worth say £80mil to Arsenal, but his contract was £25mil, you see where I’m going with this? It would mean that Fabregas’s name would go into history like Bosman, people would say he’s gone on a Fabregas. That would make Cesc proud don’t you think? Best player in the world to scumbag that screwed over the transfer market, hmmm, interesting legacy!

We could then go and buy Kaka for a similar amount.

Now the silence is deafening and I still think he’ll stay and we will buy some quality players, but to be honest, I, just like a lot of you am remembering the Paddy Vieira days of will he? won’t he and it’s beginning to irritate me.

That Madrid refused to call him a Galactico so he didn’t go, I wonder if Cesc will feel the same with the £35mil valuation they have on him?

Like I say, Wenger will have to change, whichever way this goes because if he doesn’t, he will lose the mob, and once you’ve done that, it’s curtains, boy do we need David Dein back now, he would know how to handle this situation, in fact it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s somewhere behind the scenes doing a little bit of orchestrating right now!

Whatever happens Arsenal need to move on, Arsene Wenger said unless there was an exceptional talent out there he would not be buying after the world cup, well in my book he only has a week left, why does he do this every time, we had all this rubbish at the Euro’s with Nasri, why can’t we just have a normal manager?

Still having said all that no other team in the EPL has really started buying players yet, have they?

Have a nice weekend Grovers, only a week to go till the world cup, I don’t want France to win, I sure as hell don’t want Spain now, England are just a team of overpaid nasty pussies (Joe Cole aside) so maybe I will follow Holland, they are the closest I have to Arsenal. We’ll see!

I want to apologise for appearing to be talking about the same old thing again, you see we are in a window, the buzzards from Barca are circling around our captain and if the Titanic went down this week and all I talked about was how much a second hand Gimp suit cost in Amsterdam (where Pedro is) you would all want to know why! So I am going to try and address the real current issues, and these are those.

Let’s deal with Cesc first, well I’m already bored with this saga, if Arsenal have said no chance, then we ought to be reporting Barca to the relevant authorities.

Forget the fact they have now bid for him, the amount is laughable, these flat track bullies from the Spanish SPL think they can offer what they want and we have to accept it, it’s time to offer them the same amount for Messi, they will have to say, ‘you have to be kidding, he’s worth 3 times that’ then we can say, ‘so you think that Cesc is only worth a third what Messi is do you?’ Then that will tell Cesc how much they think he’s worth, in fairness Cesc should object to what they are doing, he has been an Arsenal player longer than he was a Barca one, he must have some sort of loyalty, I think he has, and this is all Barca paper talk.

They must be proud of themselves, unsettling their Spanish starlet before the world cup, chumps.

Project youth was started around Cesc, it almost worked, Cesc asking for a move has proved that it hasn’t, he can’t keep waiting, we now have the money and we have the squad, time to mix it up a bit and show Cesc why he needs go nowhere else to realise his ambition. Let’s go into the new season with real belief we can win some trophies, have a clear out and bring in some top players, stop shopping in Primark boss, we are the Arsenal.

As far as Ian Wright is concerned, wasn’t he the same bloke who advised his son to join the chavs? Hmmm, we’ll listen to him then, won’t we!

I have no idea who Koscieny is, but if we wanted £80mil for Cesc, and we offered £4mil for him, then it doesn’t say a lot does it? Why are we always buying bargain basement? I hope the proposed swap deal is merely a loan because I think Coquelin is one for the future, I really do and would hate to see him go.

Richards is back on the radar and I think he would be a good buy, strong and pacy and an Arsenal fan. Remy I don’t know, but anyone who wants to join us has to be a good shout, we will need to lose a striker though, and that would probably be Eduardo.

I still think we need a big lump at the back, a Zing for Vermaelen’s Zang. If we are serious about Cole, we need to do a take it or leave it deal now, if he has a good world cup, his stock will go up, if he gets injured the reverse will happen, I would take him, but now.

We also need to show Cesc the direction we are taking so I would also buy Gourcuff, Cesc if he stays will get injured, and Gourcuff will offer us some height and trickery we haven’t had since Hleb went. And, by all accounts he wants to come.

Maybe now is the time to make a bid for Pepe Reina, that would please Cesc and I’m sure it would please the fans, whoever goes in there will needs funds, they are already £30mil down with no ECL plus the Rafa pay off of £6mil.

I don’t think we are far away from world domination but we do need to act soon as the Northern chavs and the spuds will buy, Liverpool will have the impetus of a new manager and no doubt some funds.

Gerrard is too old and too injury prone, so not for me, Torres is too injury prone as well, maybe Ireland would be a good bet, but I want some height in there so Gourcuff is my choice, plus a DM, a centre back and a keeper, another forward would just be a bonus.

One last word on Cesc, if he went he would have two games a year than count for anything, the rest would be like playing Carling Cup matches, if he stays and we promise him a move next season, that would be a massive cop out, if he stays, he should be around for at least 4 years, if not, then let him go, but let him go for the £35mil plus at least 2 players, maybe Assulin and that big old centre back that can’t get a game, I sure don’t want anyone else, Bojan is a little on the short side.

As far as YaYa is concerned, I don’t want him, I only want people that want us. Arsenal, time to step up to the plate, the players deserve better, the fans deserve better, and if you let Cesc go, then the flood gates will open and Robin will be next, or God forbid, Denilson and Almunia, it’s time to act like a big team, because we are.

YES, I WAS BEING SARCASTIC!

Barcelona are a big team in a small insignificant league in a country about to go tits up, Arsenal are a big team in the worlds biggest, best and richest capital, it’s time to start acting like that.

Oh and by the way, it’s free if you wear it at the Banana bar near the canals, the gimp suit that is!

Have a great day Grovers, it’s Friday and maybe today we’ll see some movement.

Yesterday saw a lot of debate on Le Grove about who we are linked with and the why or why they would or wouldn’t be great signings.

Maureen was installed as Madrid coach yesterday and says he will only be signing 2 or 3 players, after all they bought last term! That’s the spirit, maybe our manager will take note.

It seems to me that most people wanted Gourcuff as a Cesc replacement, most people would have Joe Cole as a Rosicky replacement, the jury is out on defenders, nearly everyone thinks Theo is rubbish (except me) and everyone thinks our keepers need replacing, so here’s a list Mr Wenger and a reason for the list.

Keepers – Fabianski and Almunia are not what we need, too error prone and we can’t afford that again.

Contenders, Hart and Buffon, me I’d take Hart.

Full backs – Sagna is a poor crosser but a good defender, Eboue has had his moments and he is wanted by others, he isn’t the future, so we should sell him whilst we can rake in some cash. Let go out and buy Van Der Weil.

Centre back is a tough one, Cahill, Giorgio Chiellini, Hangeland, the list goes on, I would get Cahill as he has EPL experience, if not then Chiellini as he is a beast, ask Robin! I would keep Campbell as well, if not then we need two centre backs.

Defensive midfield – Song is not enough and Eastmond is still a little young, Melo and Toulalon are contenders, I like Toulalon, but maybe we could swap Eboue plus cash and get a good deal on Melo.

Midfield – Gourcuff has always been a player I admire, he is talented but a few have said he goes missing in games, so does Cesc, say no more, I would buy Gourcuff and keep Cesc.

Wingers – We definitely need a winger, one that can cross the ball otherwise why buy Chamakh? Eden Hazard would fit the bill and maybe sign Joe Cole on a free, I doubt he would go to the Spuds if he had a choice, but I would keep Rosicky and bring Wilshere back. So Hazard for me and if possible bring Cole in, him and Rosicky can take it in turns to be injured.

Up top – for me Bendtner and Eduardo need replacing, Bendtner because he has got a big mouth and he isn’t that great, Eduardo though I love him, he has lost a bit and sentiment shouldn’t come into football, I would bring in a goalscorer, Dzeko would be ideal, but he would cost, I believe the Rodallega rumour could be true and to be honest, after watching Nikki struggle last year and to hear his comments, I would have a punt. Even if the comments aren’t true I don’t think Bendtner’s touch is that great, at the same age RVP was oozing talent and confidence.

So there you have it, my list for Arsene to ponder over. Unless of course the wheels are already in motion, and I suspect they are.

• Joe Hart
• Van Der Weill
• Cahill or Chiellini
• Hazard
• Melo or Toulalon
• Cole
• Gourcuff
• Dzeko or Rodallega

Pick the bones out of that, I’m not saying sign them all, but they are my contenders.

We could sell Eboue, Almunia, Fabianski, Bendtner, Traore, Vela, Eduardo, Denilson as well as a shed load from the reserves that will never make it. Add that to our big budget and we don’t have to sell Cesc, if however Cesc won’t be staying until at least the end of his contract, then sell him and make that forward Dzeko.

What do you think eh? Too much to ask for. Have a hopeful day grovers, today the games begin!

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