Some secret new Arsenal kit gossip!

April 30, 2011

So… Pam has been on a secondment to Nike of late and she’s only managed to sneak into the chief designers office and steal me some notes on the new kit!

The strange crest that we’ve seen floating about  the net (here) might not be far off the final design. It’s a special design for our 125th anniversary… why such a design though? Well, here is the goss…

  • It has 15 laurel leaves to the left side of the Club’s crest, reflecting the design detail on the reverse of the six pence pieces paid by 15 men to establish the Club – the laurel leaves also represent strength.
  • The 15 oak leaves to the right of the Club’s crest give a nod to the founders who would meet in the Royal Oak pub.
  • Underneath the crest is one of the first recorded mottos related to armament and battle – Forward.

Interesting that the founding fathers of the club met in the same entrance to club level I currently sit in! Can’t believe they could afford such expensive tickets way back when.

Make sure you tune in Monday… I might have a pic to show you, or you could just look at this version.

*I can also confirm 100% that next years away kit will be the reported blue triangle kit. You know, the one that looks like the Monaco kit of old.

I’ve managed to secure a season ticket next season sitting in the normal seats. I couldn’t justify £2600 and to be honest, with my new job situation, even the £1000 felt steep. Some people who don’t go make a judgement on a £1000, in the grand scheme of things it’s not a huge amount. What people forget is all the additional cost around it. £3 for a programme, a travel card, beer, food… salt beef bagel. It all adds up and it can mean sacrifices elsewhere in your life… like eating and stuff.

JD has been speaking to the Guardian in a very revealing interview. He talks about how he was the result of an affair between his dad and a lady from the Ivory Coast. It worked out quite nicely, JD’s dad’s partner based in Switzerland was infertile, so they adopted JD instead! How very sweet…

The interview follows much the same path as the Theo one. He cites hunger as being a problem… he struggles to articulate what they can do about it. It’s a tough question. He also talks about being a better team than United… something I struggle to comprehend really. They’re still in the Champions League and they’re on for the league, we might have a better paper starting 11, but when it comes down to the crunch, United are just driven in a different way.

Sometimes I feel Wenger instills a sense of entitlement in his players. Like they should expect a trophy to drop in their lap by virtue of the style they play. That’s not going to happen and I do think an injection of winnertivity into the squad could help remedy that.

We face a real challenge tomorrow. In my opinion, a victory against United will appease Arsenal fans to a certain extent and it’ll at least leave us far closer in the league than we’ve been in a long time. If we can beat United in a big game, it might shake the crunch game hoodoo that we seem to have acquired during project youth.
I’ll give a richer preview tomorrow…

P.S. Anthony has entered a competition that needs a bit of Gooner voting to help push him over the line. They’re in the final 3 of a competition that had 2000 applicants and they need you to vote for the Ivory FC here. Check out there promo video here, a warning, they’re where they are for being triers! Good luck to them!

Also, I have 2 club level spares for United going for cost at £150 and a single for £40… e-mail in if you’re interested, don’t try and haggle!

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Wenger thinks things will change with more of the same…?

April 29, 2011

So the press conference went off without a hissy fit yesterday. Arsene Wenger claimed Arsenal would not sell in the summer. People who work at the club told me last year that Wenger was adamant he wouldn’t sell Cesc unless the asking price is matched. I doubt Barcelona are going to want to fork out a fee as colossal as £60million this summer and I doubt Cesc is interested in moving to any other club outside Barca. As I see it, that one is a stalemate.

Rumours about Nasri clearing off also seem wide of the mark. He’s had a good year, he’s a top player but he’s not proved himself over a season yet and as far as I’m concerned he still has a long way to go before teams like Madrid and Barca come knocking.

Wenger also made comments that suggest he still thinks this team could win the league under different circumstances…

“There are some things when the team has lost a little bit of confidence, is a bit more nervous, is in a more difficult patch, that you pay for, but you do not necessary pay for every year,”

I’m not quite sure I like the science behind that statement. Ok, in different circumstances we might beat Bolton. However, with this team, you can bet your  bottom dollar if that happened, we’d lose to Stoke instead. This season can’t be looked at as a huge success. Our defence is on track to concede about 1 goal less than last season, our attack looks set to be 8 goals shy of last years total and our points total looks to have stayed static. (calculated using our averages so far)

We can’t bank on differing circumstances next year. The problems this year won’t disappear with a nice holiday. You don’t find attitude at the bottom of a cocktail, unless of course, you drink 8 of them. We’re not going to find the missing leadership from Thomas Vermaelen. He’s a great player but he was part of the problem the year before. The team needs an injection of new talent and the special talent we already have needs to be supplemented by hungry talent that is willing to fight. We need to move on the sulkers, bring in the young players who have done well and really have a good go next year.

If numbers can convince you that Denilson is the best thing since Diaby knocked out John Terry, then you’ll take solace from this season. If you use your eyes to watch the beautiful game, you’ll know our problems run far deeper than a ‘let’s just have another crack at more of the same’ next season. Arsene claims we’ve closed the gap on United, I think my numbers show that’s more because United have dropped their level this year and we’ve remained static.

Nothing to brag about…

The good news on the assistant manager front is that Dragan Stojkovic has dealt Arsenal a hammer blow by agreeing a new deal with Grampus 8. How do you feel Arsene, your mate used you to get a better deal? The good news is that should mean Wenger looks closer to home in his bid to sign an assistant. Giles Grimandi has put himself forward and has attended all the home games this season but for me, he’s too much of an AKB. Though I have heard he is meticulous about preparation etc…

Me? I’d prefer Paddy Vieira or Steve Bould. Recruit from within, challenge yourself and accept that there is more than one opinion that counts in the world of football.

The manager had his say on the despicable chanting that is sent his way by the United fans and he was as usual, very fair about his expectations. I’ve no doubt the United fans will be at it again, if they are, swift action should be taken against the perpetrators. There is always a danger that this type of ‘respect’ campaign turns into a situation where people are losing their season tickets for calling someone a sausage… hopefully that won’t happen and we’ll eradicate disgusting chanting from the game.

It’ll be interesting to hear if the United Fans take notice considering the bleating they do about the Munich disaster songs City sing at them.

Enjoy the Royal Wedding, I’ll mostly be manning up and drinking some beer today, I suggest you do too… happy Friday everyone!

P.S. The AST has once again proved why if you’re going to back any supporters group this summer, it should be them. They’ve put together a letter that is articulate, credible and full of direction. They’ve specified their concerns (season ticket increases), they’ve outlined why they don’t think it should happen this year and they’ve asked the club to put of the price hike for a year. It’s a compelling case put forward by a body that is organised, accountable in the fullest and has 100% backing of the fan base… and you know what, they even managed to get my new best friend Jeremy Wilson to knock them out a spread in the Telegraph.

Wearing a snappy piece of clothing and doing something as dramatic as a march will always snare the attention of a journalist desperate for some content… it doesn’t mean there is fan consensus. For me, as a blogger of nearly 5 years, I can tell you that maintaining content, enthusiasm and effort in incredibly tough. It’s even harder to deal with constant criticism. threats and opposition to whatever you’re doing. That’s why I admire the AST. You know who you’re dealing with, you know what their agenda is, there is a hierarchical structure in place and you can challenge, attend and join the organisation and have a say.

Fair play to any group that wants to get together in the best interests of the fans, I just hope they know what they’re letting themselves in for and that they have a long-term plan.

In my opinion, all fringe movements have done is highlight how lucky we are to have such a professional body working on our behalf. I hope you all feel the same and give them your support and backing in the way of joining.

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La Liga stink out Europe | Sceptical about Vermaelen | Pat Rice news

April 28, 2011

Barca & Madrid Shame Spain

I’m sitting in a service station, 14 Japanese teenage tourists are playing on  a teddy picker screaming like Wayne Rooney had just walked into their dorm naked with a £200 pack of fags in his hand. Quite bizarre, quite irritating…

Anyway! Not as irritating as the disgrace that offended my eyes last night. Watching a Jose Mourinho set up with no strikers was amusing, watching him try and suck the joy out of the Bernebeu was not quite so amusing. Madrid have a heritage that is completely disrespected when he plays like that. If I was their President and I was paying out a £180million wage bill to watch that, I’d be pretty damn miffed. Ok, we all like to win, but jeez… it’s not like he’s working on a Stoke budget here!

The Spanish teams totally shamed themselves last night. The standard cheating that comes as part of the package in La Liga was on show for all to see. Sure, they might be more technically gifted than some of our mid table teams but they still have to cheat to gain an advantage. There is nothing more vulgar than watching grown men feign injury. There is nothing more cringe making than watching professionals roll about on the floor like they’ve just been slammed in the head with a bar stool.

For the honest man, there is nothing more boring than La Liga.

The World Cup Final was tarnished in the same way. European teams have no honour and I hate to watch it. The very fact that fans of other clubs are still highlighting Bobby P’s dive against Portsmouth when we were at Highbury tells you how good we have it over here. If that were two Premiership teams out there last night, there would have been uproar in our papers and possibly a UEFA inquest. Football in our League is about integrity, the fans don’t pay to see people out cheat each other. Sure it happens, it does in many sports, but it doesn’t often happen in such shameless fashion.

Last night over shadowed another great night from possibly the most amazing footballer who has ever graced the planet. This morning it’ll all be about Mourinho highlighting the conspiracy of UEFA. He paints a compelling case, it is amazing how many decisions go Barcelona’s way… we know first hand the power of the Camp Nou after watching Robin take a red card for a ridiculous decision. However, as a professional manager of one of the worlds most prestigious clubs, comments like that are outrageous and bring the game into total disrepute.

He should be banned for a long time for his statements… he’s out of control and his comments left a taste more disgusting than the one I had for the football match itself.

In other news, Fulham spanked Bolton 3-0 at home. Marvelous, Stoke turn them over 5-0 the week before us, then relegation fodder Fulham beat them the week after. We really need to address our play. We should be tanking teams like Bolton especially when there is so much riding on the match.

According to Youngguns website, Thomas Vermaelen could be pencilled in for a reserve team outing against United. If that goes well, we might just see a return to action in some capacity before the end of the season. We’ve kept you posted about his injury as best we can, the truth is, no one at the club has had a clue about his return for a while. I’m a bit sceptical about him coming back, I’d rather he was just taken out altogether and given a proper preseason. Wheeling him out in one of the final games would just be a nice PR stunt that would give Arsenal fans the assurance we don’t need another defender. We don’t know how he’s going to react to 5 games, this could be recurring just like it was for Rosicky. We need to go out and sign a quality centre back who can compete next season from the start.

I’d also like to pre-warn all of you about the traditional end of season tactics Arsene uses to convince us only one or two super signings are needed. If we’re out the hunt after Sunday, he’ll use the remaining games to play some of the exciting kids we have coming through, the average age of the team will fall to fourteen and a half, we’ll win our games and all of a sudden, we won’t need to worry about signing new players because we’ll have a crop that could possibly dominate world football next season.

Don’t fall for it… it’s the oldest trick in the ‘I believe in my squad’ handbook.

We have Manchester United coming up on Sunday. I’m not really sure what to expect. On paper, we have what it takes to turn them over, in the players heads… well, who knows what goes on there! I’d love to think the players are really motivated to at least upset United’s run for the Premiership, I’m just not sure they are. I’d guess many of them are more interested in their holidays, or setting up a twitter account like Abou Diaby did yesterday.

Still, at least Eboue has been wheeled out to speak the press. Nothing quite like a rousing piece in the Independent to stir all the Arsenal fans and players into believing again! Honestly, I do wonder what the PR department at Arsenal are thinking about letting our worst fringe players loose on the press? Why can’t we have Robin or Cesc in the press rallying the troops? Why is it always Nik B, Eboue or Denilson?

The Daily Mail have an interesting story about Pat Rice retiring at the end of the season due to a chronic knee injury. A story I have to say is about as believable as an Almunia wrist injury! Dear oh dear… what will they think of next?

Anyway, that’s your lot for today, see you in the comments!

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Cesc could be on his way to loaded Barca…

April 27, 2011

So I had my say on any potential protest yesterday, I engaged a little with a few of the people running it and I’ll stick by my guns when I say I’m still not sure the anonymous organsisers or many of the followers are clear on what they’re walking in the name of. Really, if they wanted 100% backing, it should have been in the name of season ticket price increases, as it’s a broad selection of everything, I’m not sure it’ll quite receive the same support.

We’ll see though, from experience, I know what people say online and what they actually do in real life are two different things. I’ve read countless people tell me they’d sacrifice their two arms and a new-born puppy for the opportunity of a ticket. Yet I have times during a season when I can’t shift 2 half price club level tickets to a Chelsea game. I still have two spare club level season tickets ready to go that no one is interested in!

So my advice to any movement is take a ‘like’ or a ‘follow’ with a massive pinch of salt… it’s probably the most effortless thing you can do online with regards to a protest.

In other news…

The whole Cesc / Barcelona thing is well and truly back on the cards. Xavi is 31 now and Cesc is a younger version of him except he has goals to boot. Obviously Barcelona are going to be interested in taking our captain back to Spain. The only trouble is, there is the small matter of a lengthy contract and a hefty fee. Last season Wenger fought to keep his Captain on, this season, unless he makes a statement early on with some signings of intent, I’d be very surprised if it was quite so easy to keep him.

Whether Barcelona have the cash has never been a problem in the past. Last year, according the their marketing director, they very nearly had to sell Lionel Messi to pay off their monster debts. Arab money flew in and allowed them to pay off a huge chunk of their debt and restructure the remaining shortfall into bite size chunks with an Ocean Finance consolidation deal.

Word on Finance Street last year was they had £40million spare from that deal they could use to sign players, they didn’t spend it, so this years prize money will go on top of that so you’d imagine if the Cesc asking price was £60million, they could afford it. If they wanted to throw in a player like Mascharano to sweeten the deal, they could definitely afford it.

Is this summer a good time to change things around? For all Cesc’s greatness, building a team around him has hardly proved successful? Do we need to create more power around our smaller players going forward?  Do we need to add more pace out wide and give Theo an opportunity more centrally? Do Samir Nasri’s physical attributes make more sense in the middle in the Premier League? I think Cesc leaving could actually work out better than many may think. If he went, we’d have to make sure we signed top quality replacements. You’d need to sign two players to make up for his goals and assists alone… not to mention build up team morale again.

It’s interesting that we’ve had another poor season defensively but at the same time, it’s the most satisfied we’ve been with a starting back four in ages. Ok, Clichy has been up and down and he drops the occasional clanger, but he’s a pretty good left back. Sagna is probably the best right back in the league, Kos and JD have formed a formidable partnership at the back and we have Thomas Vermaelen coming back into the fold next year. If we can make the 4th choice defender young and hungry, we’d have a very good compliment of defenders especially with the emergence of Chezzer in goal.

The teams problem this year has come from collective responsibility and attitude. Theo Walcott gave a very frank interview with my best friends over at the Telegraph…

“Hopefully we will learn from it. We have to. If we want to win trophies we need to learn straight away. We can’t be using the excuse of being young players. We’re experienced, we’ve played in the Champions League. We need to stand up for ourselves and take responsibility at times, and I’m not sure we are always doing that.”

How true is that last comment? Would it be fair to say that a manager who doesn’t dish out accountability may be responsible for allowing that attitude to creep into the squad? If it’s always the referee, the pitch or the fact Stoke don’t come and play football at the Emirates… does that give the players a get out of jail free card? Does the fact Wenger rarely punishes inept performances with bench time mean players don’t worry about how they play?

“In the Tottenham game we showed a lot of spirit and fight. That’s what the fans want to see more of. We’ve got to do that every week. We’ve been hot and cold, doing it some weeks. Instead of making things happen we have been waiting for things to happen.”

Absolutely spot on again from Theo. I’ve said countless times this season, I can accept it when our team loses or picks up a bad result as long as I can see fight on the pitch. In fact, I think almost every football fan in the world can accept a bad result as long as the players are out there fighting 100% until the end.

I don’t think we’ve had that this season. I think we’ve been out hungered many times by many teams that aren’t fit to lace our boots. We have spoilt brat syndrome at the club. It’s like some of the people you meet in business who are Oxbridge educated. They’ve had it all, the world-class education, the huge allowance all the way through, never working a stroke… it all counts for nothing when they get into the big bad world of working and common sense and hard work prevail.

Our players live in an incredible bubble of opulence. I have pals who work around football and apparently Arsenal look after their players better than any other club in the country. Ultimately pampered. Does that spoilt attitude creep onto the pitch when the chips are down? I believe so… that’s why signing British grit from Bolton might work out. That’s why bringing in players who are refugees of  European football is a good idea… because they know what it’s like to feel rejected and they’re hungry to prove that their last clubs were wrong.

Sneijder, RvDV and Milito all spring to mind from the recent past. How about Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars from Arsenal’s distant past? All players who were past it or of failed potential… all went onto great things. Those are the types Arsenal need to be looking at this summer. Those are they types that will bring the winning attitude back to Arsenal and perhaps pass on a bit of their wisdom to players not pulling their weight currently.

Right, that’s your lot for the day… how about a cool video not related to football to pass about 2 minutes if you’re at work? Or how about your read Suga from the comments super translation of an interview with young upstart Chezzer? Or how about you read a post about some new Arsenal songs here?

P.S. If anyone is looking to sell a season ticket next year or split one, contact me via the contact form!

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Posted by Pedro

So Arsenal fans… are you going to protest?

April 26, 2011

You can’t hide from it, people are talking about it all over the web, in comment sections, on twitter… it’s the planned demonstration planned by Where has our Arsenal gone (WHOAG). It’s happening at 1430 on the 15th of May before the Aston Villa game. At the moment, rumours are that 200 or so Arsenal fans are going to meet, don black scarves and wander up to the ground to make a statement of dissatisfaction against the club.

I recently wrote that I’m not a fan of protest and pop up action groups. I still stand by that but what I am a fan of is people who actually want to do something. I’m a fan of supporters joining together to do something they see as for the better of the club and I’m a fan of giving everyone the choice to make a rational decision on whether they want to join.

From what I can gather, they are in the main marching against the increase in season ticket pricing. The group are not a collection of post 1996 Arsenal fans, they are in fact the opposite. Many of them have been season ticket holders since the 70′s, they’ve seen the dark days of Arsenal football club, they’re members of the AST and AISA but they want to take things into their own hands to let the club know they’re not happy about the way things are going.

Some of their ideas are very fair. They want the club to recognise that increasing the cost of season tickets is hitting fans hard, they want to offer the chance for fans to downgrade their seats, they want the club to allow fans the chance to have a season ticket holiday for a year, they want the away fans to be moved into the upper tier into the more expensive areas so there are more affordable seats for the faithful.

A protest about season ticket pricing makes absolute sense to me and that is a cause I’d absolutely back.

The trouble from where I’m sitting is the press release about the march lacks direction and clear objectives. They veer off into areas like commercial activity, corporate fan slagging, the manager’s lack of spending and sacking the Chairman. All debatable points on their own, but all they do for me is add confusion to the situation and they muddy the water.

A protest needs goals and objectives. If no one is exactly sure about what they’re protesting about, you allow the rest of the web to make snap assumptions. Many people are calling it a ‘Wenger out’ protest. Le Grove has dealt with people who make assumptions about our site without reading it and I fear that what is essentially a good willed movement is being tarnished by the very vocal and aggressive AKB.

This is the problem with new groups, it’s very hard to create an organisation when no one is fronting the group. I tried to contact them via their twitter account last night for a few words and I’ve heard nothing. That’s why my preference is go through more official channels like the AST. You know every statement made by them is carefully researched and rational. The AST wrote an e-mail to Ivan Gazidis the day after they found out about the potential hike in season ticket prices way back in February. Do you think it’s a coincidence the club has waited so long to announce regular season ticket increases?

I don’t like the factions that have been created at Arsenal this season, it’s really sad that we can’t all get along. It’s sad that fans are tearing lumps out of each other in the ground and it’s sad that groups like WHOAG have to set up in the first place. I won’t be joining any protest until there is more clarity around exactly what the goal of it is supposed to be but I do admire that a group of Arsenal fans are willing to take their grievances to the street and make a public point to the club.

What I’ve done is join the AST. I’ll be filling out the end of season questionnaire which goes directly to the board. I’ll then be attending the AST Ivan Gazidis meeting (June 13th) where he’ll take questions uncensored for an hour and a half from anyone who is a member. For all the criticism the club receives, there aren’t many CEO’s that would put themselves through such an ordeal.

We may have lost out way on the pitch this season but I strongly believe the club tries its best to involve the fans every step of the way. Globalisation of football is inevitable… if you want tradition, you’ll have to find another sport. For all the eulogizing about the game way back when… you did get what you paid for. Terracing was fun, but football violence wasn’t. Paying a tuppence for a ticket was value for money, seeing people throw bananas at black players was not. Knowing that you were likely to see your favourite players down the local after was nice… but seeing the power, pace and skill we have now is far more enjoyable.

Hopefully when Ivan Gazidis takes his hot seat in June, he’ll have snapped up a decent player and the fans will feel somewhat appeased. At the core of it, we all want what’s best for the club, we all want to be optimistic and we all want to feel our club is trying its hardest to be the best that it can be.

This summer is the chance for the club to unite the fans again, I just hope Stan understands that sentiment.

So… will you be protesting? Let us know in the comments!

P.S. If you get the chance, could you vote for Tatty Designer Darrell’s design in a competition? (CLICK HERE!)

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Bolton flatline an Arsenal season on life support. Project Youth fails again…

April 24, 2011

Sorry sir, your season didn't make it the full 9 months...

So there we have it. The 5 year plan is up. Arsene Wenger’s team of expensively assembled children flunked out of their 4th trophy of the year. Project Youth was left crying into a muddy puddle of failure somewhere on the outskirts of Bolton. Arsenal went into the game with a season on life support, they finished it flatlining… the theme tune to casualty playing them out down the tunnel.

Arsenal managed to display the same lack of mental strength and belief that has dogged their season in a highly important game against a team that was beaten by Stoke 5-0 last week in a cup semi final. Cesc threw in the white towel when he spoke to Don Balon last week, the team followed suit today. If your leader doesn’t want to lead anymore, why act surprised when you see an uninspired performance on the pitch?

Arsenal went one down after Alex Song forgot to track his runner from a corner. Clichy had to lose Sturridge to challenge, Cahill’s header crossed the line, the ball was hooked out and Sturridge was quickest to the second to make sure goal line technology wasn’t the hot topic this morning.

Arsenal were second best when it came to attitude and they were second best when it came to creating chances. Bolton wanted that win and they were out fighting us all over the pitch.

Cesc managed to clip the post, but other than that, we rarely troubled Jussi in the Bolton goal.

The second half started off pretty badly, Sturridge dived over JD and won a penalty. Chezzer managed to keep out Kevin Davies tame effort and something of a resurgence was on the cards. We went up the other end and after Cesc and Robin interchanged neatly, the Dutchman levelled us up.

We went on to dominate possession to the tune of 75%, we threw on Andrey and Chamakh, but to no avail. We couldn’t take our chances… in fact, we could barely register a shot on target in the second half. As the game drew to a close, you felt we might nick it. Bolton won a corner, once again we didn’t track the runners and Cohen nipped in front of Chamkh after it looked like Jack missed timed his header and scored what would be the winner. Shambolic marking all round, what was Samir Nasri doing on the near post?

A terrible result but befitting of the second half of the season.

Our team of young upstarts may have an average age of 23, but in the world of reality, that doesn’t count as a trophy.

Conclusion…

I can’t keep mulling over the same old problems. They were there at the start of the season and they’re still there now. The most worrying element going forward is that Arsene Wenger now appears to be our biggest problem. He doesn’t think we need to make changes, he believes that youth is 100% the way forward and by the sound of it… the board totally agree that Wenger is right and the stupid fans are wrong.

What can you do about a legendary manager who is blinded by arrogance?

We can’t keep saying he knows the problems because that’s what we’ve said for the past 3 years. Sure he’s said it’s his fault but he wasn’t saying that yesterday.

Our season didn’t have to be like this. We could have made the relevant purchases to add solid foundations to some of our sublime materials, but we didn’t and here we are… potless after 6 years.

Like Cesc said, the club need to work out what they want to be going forward. A club that indulges a manager who used to be dynamic, or a club that values winning trophies.

We’ll never be the biggest brand name in world football without trophies. The longer we go without, the less appealing we become. How bad do things have to get before someone pulls Wenger to one side to have a word about the way he’s operating? Who is qualified on the board to talk football with Arsene Wenger? How can you encourage a man as controlling as Arsene to seek advice from those who might just know better? Trouble is you’re asking your granddad to sign up to Facebook and embrace being liberal, you’re trying to convince a Nun to join you at Glastonbury and take some magic mushrooms… you’re asking a dictator to become a democrat.

Something has to budge at Arsenal because the fans who pay week in week out will not tolerate another summer of inaction. Wenger’s ridiculous comments and press conferences are only serving to drive a further wedge between the club and the fans… his goals are not aligned to those of the supporters, he’s out of touch and it almost comes across like he’s had enough of the people who have given him 6 years of freedom to pursue his ambition of winning it on the cheap.

I don’t want him to leave the club. However, I can’t tolerate having an invincible manager at the club, regardless of how many water bottles he kicks or tantrums he throws on the touchline.

There has to be accountability for possibly achieving the lowest points total in his Arsenal career to date…at the moment, we’re not seeing any.

Wenger can blame the players all he likes but he put them there (he alluded to this yesterday). He is responsible for who starts and the attitude they take onto the pitch. He is responsible for whether they’re drilled in defence, whether they play the same way regardless of the score and what position they take up. He is responsible for the numbers and how they’re trained.

You can’t be a dictator then look to collective blame when it all goes wrong.

Judge me in May? Well that’s 5 days away but I can already tell you that it’s a big fat ‘not good enough’ from Le Grove.

Everyone who wrote you off at the start of the season was right…again. Only one person can sort this out now and that’s Stan Kroenke. My advice to him?

Shake up the board…

Shake up the team…

Shake up the backroom staff…

… and shake up the manager, remind him of what he’s here to do and make him fight for trophies like his job depended on it.

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Posted by Pedro

Wenger loves buying players | Bolton away – not as scary as the old days!

April 24, 2011

Damn straight I do...

Good morning all! So I hear people have been moaning about my spreadsheets? Jealousy is a strange thing, I knew if I showcased my number crunching skills online it might get a few people’s backs up… good job I didn’t drop a pivot table or a vlookup in there… it could have been carnage.

Anyway, just for a bit of clarity on Wednesdays post. Dross in the squad costs money. Lots of money. I’m not asking for a mass exodus of key players, I’m asking for the players who aren’t cutting it to move on. I’m highlighting that if we want to fund a summer that could take us to the next level, we can do it by selling on players and freeing up large chunks of salary.

People say it’s unrealistic to expect mass departures, well, can I refer those people to what happened in 2008? From January to August we lost Lassana Diarra, Matty Flamini, Alex Hleb, Gilberto and Jens Lehmann. That’s 5 top players in the space of 8 months, 3 of which were in the same position. Now I struggle to remember who left from the periphery of the squad, but I imagine there were a few.

Now, if Wenger is capable of losing that many players in 2008, I see no reason why he can’t again. In fact, if you look at who’s coming through, he’s going to have to free up some space. Where do people see Lansbury, Coquelin and Frimpong fitting in if we’re keeping Denilson and Rosicky? Why buy in Jenkinson if we’re keeping an already unhappy Eboue? Why keep Nik B if you’re going to play him as a winger… here’s an idea, sell him and buy a winger (or bring back Miyachi if he’s ready). If Chamakh has lost his head and can’t maintain his fitness at 27, why wouldn’t you take £15million if it was offered by Marseille?

Do I even need to explain why shipping out Squillaci and Almunia makes sense? Is there even a shadow of doubt that we’re going to sell Traore and Vela?

The simple fact of the matter is we have far too many average players in our squad on fantastic money. That fantastic money they’re collecting each week can’t be used to acquire better players and is used by Wenger as an excuse not to buy. We have far too many young player coming through the youth ranks who won’t have the opportunity to play if we keep the deadwood. What would we rather, another season of Denilson or would we like to see a player who is demonstrating passion by the bucket load at Norwich given the chance?

The values I put up might not be 100% accurate but the premise of the post was. It’s easy to sit there and say everything is unrealistic, that buying players is an impossible task and that we’re third in the league so we must have done a fantastic job. For me, this year, no one has taken the chance to storm the league. Should we bank on the quality of the top teams next year being as poor? Can we bank on a year so poor the player of the year wins with 7 goals and 1 assist? Doubtful, Spurs will buy, City will buy, United will buy, Chelsea will buy and Liverpool will buy.

This whole ‘I’ll bring in no more than 3 players a summer as it’ll upset the balance of the squad’ is another Arsene Wenger pearler people have taken to without question. Wenger signed 7 players in the summer of 1997 and let 4 go plus a further 3 during the season. He also went on a transfer splurge again signing 5 players for big money in 2001. The fact is, all Wenger’s success comes off the back of signing top ‘now’ talent sprinkled with a bit of youth.

Can Arsenal afford to go into next year with the same group of chokers who have been given ample opportunity to showcase their talent over the years? Should a season be risked on the hope of players developing at the pace of Jack Wilshere or should we assess current capabilities and take it from there? Maybe it’s time to take a different approach?

In my current job, if I can’t prove tangible improvements inside 6 months, I don’t get the deal, pretty much a standard in most industry sectors at the moment. Is it right that Wenger has had 6 seasons to prove an ideology that’s failing and we’re still going along with it?

Anyway, I hope that’s covered off any spreadsheet concerns you may have had. It’s tough to create content daily, luckily for us, we’ve always had enough in the locker to avoid picking holes in others work.

Spreadsheet haters, worse than racists.

The game…

Away at Bolton certainly doesn’t come with the same fear factor it used to. They’ve mellowed under Owen Coyle, taken a ‘good football’ pill and they’ve lost some of that nastiness that used to come as standard.

This season they’ve performed well but now their position in the league is safe, I’m not sure we’ll see much of a resistance, especially playing us off the back of a semi final humiliation against Stoke. They’ll be low on confidence and there for the taking.

Not that a super performance by us is in any way guaranteed! Out of 45 ties in the North West in the past 5 years, we’ve only won 18. This area of the country is not a happy hunting ground for us, the taste of cheating scum is still firmly on the taste buds of most Gooner’s from the 2003 draw that cost us the title. No amount of pretty football Listerine will wash that out. They are 8th in the league for a reason and if they win their 2 games in hand, they’ll be sitting comfortably above Everton.

We’ll be without Abou Diaby today who has completed his monthly quota of games so I’d expect Jack Wilshere to take his place. It has to be noted that Owen Coyle and Bolton gave Jack his chance last year and he came through it a better player. It was touch and go whether he’d stay with us this season, he did and his progression has been superb. Jack’s career path should be the benchmark for all our kids. Send them out on loan with a Premiership club and if they’re good enough to hold their own, bring them back and play them with us. That’d save us all the pain of watching them make mistakes at our first teams expense.

At the back I envisage no changes, so the best back 5 we have. Up top, I’d love to see Nasri, RVP and Theo given another run. Hopefully they’ll chalk up a few early goals so I can sink a few relaxing Peroni’s during the second half!

Chezzer

Sagna Kozzer JD Clichy

Cesc Song Jack

Nasri Robin Theo

United beat Everton, their little Mexican rat up front scored another poachers goal. I feel a bit stiffed on that front, they pick up this £6million nobody and he’s pushing them onto the title. We pick up a player who ripped Real Madrid a new one when he was 11 and now he’s more famous for his party arranging skills / close friendships with transsexuals.

Still, all we can do now is win today, hope Chelsea beat United and hope we also beat them. Then we could be in for a crazy ‘level points/goal difference wins the league’ scenario. That would be pretty mega (<- 1982 called and asked for their word back).

Still, 3 points at a time… Bolton up first!

See you in the comments spreadsheet lovers!

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Posted by Pedro

Arsene Wenger ready to serve up another quiet summer

April 23, 2011

Good times

Good morning and welcome to this morning’s slightly hungover post.

First up, I was in a pub in Enfield yesterday recording a podcast with the boys from the Football Rascal. Surprisingly the area was swimming with Spurs fans. The barman came over to our table and started talking about the game the other night and he said something along the lines of…

‘Your keeper, what a cheeky ba*tard. When he came over to pick up his water bottle, he leant over, started kissing his badge at us and gave us the two finger sign’

I thought that was pretty amusing, the Spurs fan continued,

‘I love it though, it shows passion for the game and we need more of that from the players’

That there my friends is exactly what we need to see more of in the modern game. That is exactly why having someone like Chezzer in the squad is great news because he’s going to grow into that character. He’s already embracing the Arsenal culture, he’s taken on board the history and the fans feel they have a connection with him.

Football is all about connection for me. In our current set up there are too many players I feel don’t care. Perhaps that’s why we’re more unforgiving towards certain players? I know that from a personal point of view, if someone tries hard on the pitch I am far more lenient with my assessment, even after a bad game.

Take Nik B for example, he’s turned his reputation around recently and that’s down to hard work. People still don’t rate him, but the groans of two seasons ago are few and far between. On the flip side, we have Andrey Arshavin. A player I adore, but one many fans can’t stand… why? Because he’s perceived as lazy…

Injury news…

The only injury news I can report on is that Abou Diaby is out for the Bolton trip and possibly the Manchester United game. There we have it… he manages to string 3 reasonable games together, then he’s out for 2 games. What is the point in having a player like that in your squad? How many more seasons are we going to kill the career of a healthy centre midfielder because we’re hoping and praying that one day he’ll man up?

Tactics…

Arsene spoke of tactics, in particular the problem of losing leads…

“There are a lot of things you need [to keep leads], first of all experience and calm. Our defenders are under pressure because they are criticised for not holding on for results. That makes the problem a little bit worse. I feel what is important is to continue to play whatever the score is. I feel we need to keep our nerves more and communicate better”

Now, I find it maddening to read that Wenger thinks we should keep playing the same way regardless of the score. It proves he isn’t into tactics. He knows his team have the mental stability of Charlie Sheen yet he’s not teaching them how to shut out a game. How can you ever improve if the coach can’t recognise the problems everyone else can see?

Who in the backroom team is taking him to task on comments like that? Does Steve Bould read quotes like that and agree? Does Neil Banfield subscribe to the same footballing ethos? Who is going to question the great one?

Season ticket renewal time…

I’m not sure whether it’s public knowledge, but Arsenal FC have a handbook they use to run the club for the year. That’s why everything at Arsenal is so predictable. You know, like wheeling Denilson out after we lose a game to talk about belief. Arsene Wenger’s ‘mental strength and spirit’ press conferences etc…

If you skip the section titled  ’How to hook season ticket holders in for another year’ you’ll find a piece that states the manager must flirt with the idea of spending big in the summer .

Last year he said that we had the funds to compete with Chelsea. The season before he was interested in signing super, super class players and the season before that he told he was going to the Euro’s with his cheque book.

This year this was reported on the main site…

It was reported on Friday morning that Wenger had as much as £40 million at his disposal should he require it. At his press conference later that day, the manager did not confirm the figure but did suggest he had what he needed.
 
“Is [that] available? Frankly I don’t know,” he said. “We have not completely checked out our financial position. The only thing I can say is that the Club is in a healthy financial situation and, if needed, we can make a big transfer.”

Something that wasn’t in the hand book was the following quote…

“No I don’t [expect a busy summer] at all,” he said. “The team is 23 years-old [on average] so why should we expect to have a huge turnover at the end of the season?”

Does that sound like the comment of a man who is going to change the way he operates? Or does that sound like the comments of a petulant manager who won’t be told how to run his empire?

Season ticket holders still haven’t had their renewals through but believe me when I tell you they’re coming through and they’re coming through with a 6.5% increase. How are you going to feel signing up to another season, putting yourself possibly in a financial predicament knowing that your manager probably is going to serve you up more of the same?

I feel pretty angry about that. He’s accountable to no one and I almost feel like he enjoys saying things like that. He’s a masochist. If he’s going to fail, it’s ok, because he failed in the right way and he turned in a profit. He forgets that those profits and unspent transfer fees do nothing for the fans. We’re still paying through the nose to indulge his crusade against the mega rich clubs.

Who cares about the average age of your squad? Since when did that dictate a transfer policy? Surely it’s about quality? I thought Arsene was the manager who didn’t look at passports when he signed players? He might not look at nationality but he’s certainly looking at the date of birth.

He should be looking at what’s happening on the pitch, he should be listening to the audio of Cesc Fabregas on the Don Balon site, he should be demanding his team of back room staff speak up and tell them what they genuinely think about the squad.

Arsene Wenger lives in his own little bubble and someone needs to pop it before it all goes horribly wrong. We have a great chance to progress this summer, we won’t if the manager is obsessing over the average age of the squad.

Bolton tomorrow, I’ll be back with a 0930 post then!

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Posted by Pedro

Cesc Tape scandal blows up | How to cope with the Spaniards departure

April 22, 2011

So a few things to power through this morning!

Firstly, I thought the whole ‘Cesc tape’ thing yesterday was very interesting. Arsenal contacted me to tell me the tweet about them signing off the interview was false. They didn’t sign off the interview at all.

I asked if the problem was with the process not being adhered to or was it an argument about the content?

The Press Officer said the content of the quotes was being disputed on the basis of tone and understanding. Clearly Arsene Wenger believed that Cesc was telling the truth when he claimed his words were twisted as he said this…

“Not only did the author not respect the agreement, but also he did twist completely the article and we are really upset about it.

“In no way was it an attack on me. I know Cesc well enough and I don’t think I need to say much more.”

Now, from a defence like that you’d assume Wenger had been in on the interview. I mean, to say Cesc said the ‘total opposite’ is pretty categoric. I put up a retraction regarding Arsenal signing off but I also made note that it’d be nice to know what was actually said.

Well, low and behold, Don Balon published the audio file under the headline,

‘Don Balon do not twist words Mr Wenger’

According to the Independent, the audio file shows that the paper were true to their quotes. Like I said two days ago, it really is rare for a newspaper to make up entire quotes. This is a highly embarrassing moment for Arsene Wenger. The poster child of project youth has lied to his father in front of the whole world.

Does Wenger have an angry slipper at the ready?

We all know what has traditionally happened to players who speak out against the manager… ask Jens Lehmann, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry.

On a personal note, I thought the article was thoughtful and actually very positive. The captain is just saying what most of us have thought for the past 3 years. He’s asking whether the club want to develop players or compete, he’s asking whether it’s logical that he and 100 PL games Robin should be the elder statesmen of the team and he’s inviting Arsene Wenger to change his ways and keep him in the summer.

If Wenger matches Cesc’s ambition this summer, he’ll stay. I honestly believe that.

… but what happens if the worst happens?

If the worst happens this summer and Barcelona somehow manage to raise the £60million neccessary  to take our captain off our hands, how will we cope?

Well, firstly, we’ve all accepted that there has to be a shake up of the squad. Regardless of what happens in the league, what we’ve seen in the cups and in many games we should have won is that certain players aren’t cutting the mustard.

So, being pretty realistic and fair, I’ve put together a list of the players I expect to leave along with their salaries.

Cesc Stays

As you can see, with very little effort at all, we can free up quite a hefty amount of cash. Traore is playing well for Juve breaking into the French first team squad, Bendtner is the great white hope of Danish football, Eboue was once in the Champions League team of the year and Chamakh is tried and tested in Ligue One and has Marseille sniffing around. I think the wages are pretty fair as well and remember, Wenger lumps wages into the transfer budget.

Now, things really start getting interesting if the worst happens and we sell Cesc for the reported fee we’re after.

Cesc Leaves

All of a sudden, the picture looks very impressive. We’d be armed with a total transfer surplus budget of £125million and £25million worth of yearly salary to play with.

Lets break that down further. Transfer kitty is the stated transfer surplus we currently have available according to the AST number crunchers.

If Cesc stays, we could afford to bring 5 players in on £75k a week. If he leaves, we could afford to bring in 6 players on £80k a week.

If Cesc Stays, we could afford to bring in 5 players at £20million each. If he leaves, we could afford to bring in 6 players at £26million each.

All without moving from where we are currently.

Now, I know that’s very unlikely to happen. I’m not suggesting we do that. All I’m saying is that by selling the right players we could have a summer that could sustain us for 2 years until our commercial deals are up and we can really start making a splash in the transfer market.

* Did you see that Liverpool are on the verge of signing a £25million a year kit deal?

If we sell Cesc Fabregas, it’ll be time to change the way we play football. We’ve lacked some serious pace in our starting 11 for some years now. My suggestion would be to opt for 2 wingers again, similar to the way the 2002 team played. We could buy in Ashley Young for £12million as he’s in the last year of his contract. We could bring back Ryo Miyachi as an understudy and we could certainly afford to entertain the idea of Eden Hazard should the cheaper option of the Englishman not work out.

If we did that, all of a sudden, we’d have pace in the side.

We could then go out and sign up 2 top-notch strikers to compete with Robin Van Persie. Cavani is banging them in for Napoli, he looks a top player… and I’d be surprised if Benzema doesn’t find himself on the market this summer. With the sort of money we’ll have available, neither are out of our league.

In defence, we could afford the £15-20million PSG or Bolton would be asking for Sakho or Cahill. If we signed either of those two, we’d have 4 very capable centre backs who have it all to prove. Sagna will have Jenkins as his understudy and Kieron Gibbs could continue to work his way into the first team under the guidance of Clichy (gulp!).

In goal, we’re set. Fabianski isn’t my favourite keeper but he’s done more than enough this season to tell me that if called upon, he can do a job for us. I’m not really fussed who the 3rd choice is. I wouldn’t even care if it was Jen Lehmann. At least the youngsters would be training with a legend who wouldn’t let their standards drop.

In midfield, I think I probably have to accept that Alex Song and Diaby will stay on. Both could benefit from competition and I’d love to see a big name come in and battle it out with them week in week out. If we sold Cesc, I’d really love us to try for Bastian Schweinsteiger again. We could opt to go with two holding midfielders and push Samir Nasri into the hole just ahead. That way, we’d have pace on the wings, pace in the hole and pace up front. Counter attacking would be more free-flowing and we’d have two power houses guarding the back 4.

We could finish the summer with a massive transfer surplus at the same time as bolstering our mentally flat squad. The numbers I’ve put up aren’t fantasy and there are plenty of clubs who could find a use for some of the dross we currently have. Who knows, they might even be able to squeeze more out of them than Wenger!

This summer is about being ruthless, it’s about making big decisions and it’s about taking some big risks. Get it right and we won’t need to worry about low profits for the next two-year. Get it wrong and go with more of the same… well, I fear for our Thursday nights in 2012 because I’ll tell you one thing for free… our competition is not going to sit back this summer and hope everyone else allows their level to drop.

This summer is as important as any other but more so as the rumblings of discontent are now coming from superstar players… not just the fans.

Let me know what you think in the comments section!

P.S. Le Grove was asked to write a feature article in the Times today, buy a copy and turn to page 100 to have a read. Alternatively you can find it if you pay a pound through the Times website!

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Posted by Pedro

Arsenal contact Le Grove Re: The Cesc Interview

April 21, 2011

So the Arsenal communication team have been in touch.

The tweet I referred to this morning about Arsenal signing off the interview was incorrect.

They never signed off the interview because they were never given the opportunity to see the final written article by the publication before it went to print.

As I understand it, the newspaper in question (Don Balon) has issued an apology to Arsenal for not following the process put in place.

Cesc Fabregas believes the tone and the interpretation of his words have been misrepresented, sadly, I doubt we’ll ever know exactly what was ‘twisted’. The interview clearly wasn’t a total fabrication but elements have upset Cesc and Arsene Wenger.

I hope that brings some clarity, I’m off out now to solve another mystery with Scoob and the gang, you can rejoin the comments from the match report here.

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