Stan Kroenke takeover low-down | Guess who might be on his way back?

April 11, 2011

So one minute everything is looking pretty stable on the ownership front, the next, we hear via Sky News reporter Mark Kleinman that Arsenal are in advanced talks with Stan Kroenke to takeover greatest footballing business model on the planet. Exciting times? You bet…

Our educated well-informed guess says that Danny’s health has sadly taken a turn for the worse and he’s moving fast to make sure everything is put in place for a clean handover to his favourite moustached American billionaire. At the same time, there have also been negotiations for the remaining shares of Lady Nina. Only a few weeks ago I was told she was holding out for £15k a share. Well, if rumour is to be believed, she’s more likely to have received £12-13k a share… not bad business for a Lady I’m fully comfortable admitting I find quite attractive.

Megan Fox watch out…

Check out @JWTelegraph twitter page for news on her statement about her shareholding.

There are many questions you’ll all be wanting a bit of clarity around. Well, I can’t give you exact answers, there are blocks of coal more transparent than Silent Stan. What I can do is give you a few hints and tips as to what people far more in the know have told me… Pam will be jealous, she hasn’t had a say in any of this!

So… first of all, the AST have informed me that anyone with a Fanshare will get a vote on whether or not to sell up to Mr Kroenke. That also goes for all the more traditional full shareholders like Geoff. Their recommendation is going to be that people should opt not to sell out to Stan.

The feeling is that he doesn’t want to take absolute control straight away. What he’ll likely be looking for is a majority control which is anything past 50%. At the moment, he’s confirmed by the BBC on 62%. That’ll make him the overlord when it comes to decisions and it’ll give him the chance to do many wonderful transparent things that’ll make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Bring the new blood through: People like Tom Fox and Dick Laws will probably be given the opportunity to join Gazidis on the board. That will give them more say on how the club is run and more of a free rein when it comes to making decisions. I’ve heard from countless people who work around the club that these guys are absolutely top-notch and when the time comes, they’ll show their true worth.

Promote Fanshare: There are many concerns in my mind about the American. His lack of transparency scares me. What his intentions are and how he’s funding this being the pertinent concerns. By not taking the club private, he has the opportunity to promote Fanshare and the involvement of key stakeholders who will represent the voice of the fans through the AST. By doing this, we should be able to grow our involvement in the club we all love. Gazidis has been a staunch supporter of this initiative as have the Government. Do you think Ivan would have supported such an initiative had the man who bagged him the Arsenal CEOship not backed it? I think not…

Invite Red & White to the board: Stan may also involve Usmanov and Moshiri to the board. Whatever you think of Usmanov and his alleged background, he’s still a major player in the world of business and he’d still add plenty of value to our club. What a lot of people seem to forget is that Moshiri actually owns 50% of Red & White. He’s the guy talking to Gazidis and he’s apparently very, very switched on. Bring him along to the party and see what he has to offer. At the end of the day, you might not like Usmanov, but a shady Eastern European past hasn’t stopped him becoming the 35th richest man in world. He and his team are visionary in what they do, if you want to read more, why not read what I wrote a year ago here.

All round good guy: The AST have already met with Stan and on face value, they believe he’s a very genuine guy. He’s owned sport franchises around America, he’s very shrewd with how he operates them, he’s not afraid to splash the cash and he’s never sold a club. He’s also made assurances he won’t partake in a leveraged buy-out. I remain sceptical about the last point… so we’ll see. The Swiss ramble have an interesting post on him here.

Chairman: Giving Peter Hill-Wood the red card and a lifetime ban from being the Chairman would be a great move. No more PR bombshells, no more elitist comments and no more doddery old farts sitting on the board dragging the club down.

If you read the News of the World this weekend, you’ll have noticed that the club sided with the AST over the PHW comments. That is very telling. I’ve mentioned before that the top brass have worked hard to keep the Old Etonian motor mouth under control over the last year and in the main, have done a good job. They know he’s a liability, the new guy is coming in will also know that and he’ll have previous with him, remember, ‘we don’t want his sort’?

Well, I’m just putting it out there, but Red & White were brought on board by David Dein, Kroenke was given a way in by the same man. If that Chairmanship comes up for grabs, wouldn’t the biggest PR Coup of the century be to bring David Dein back as the club chairman?

I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about it…

So, all in all, I feel like this is an exciting announcement. I’ve generally been more pro Red & White Holdings over the past 2 years due to their superior cash flow and my worry about the previous failures of American investors in Premiership football. However, it has to be said that Danny Fiszman is probably one of the most important figures in Arsenal’s recent history. Geoff was right when he said he should have his own statue. Therefore, if he thinks Stan is the man to take this club forward, I’m going to roll with that. He’ done pretty well up until now and the very least he deserves through these very sad times is the absolute support of the fans he’s worked to hard to leave a legacy to!

Good luck Danny, good luck Stan… let’s see where this takes us!

Yeeee haaaaa!

View from a shareholder… (Geoff)

So if as expected we get a shiny new American owner today what can we hope for? Well I’m not sure why Stan would want to own a business that judges success by winning nothing other than qualification to a competition and gives gainful employment to a large percentage of the worlds talented young footballers. Especially at his age.

Not sure why someone that doesn’t speak at the AGM’s would want to be involved with a big English football club, though I’m sure Arsene has approved the deal or it wouldn’t be happening.

However, I sure hope he remembers the other stupid comment made by embarrassment and Brideshead revisited look-a-like Peter Hill-Wood, when he said we didn’t need his sort at Arsenal. I guess by that he meant he’d prefer his investors to come in with inherited wealth like he did. I also really hope that Stan brings back David Dein and David Dein kicks Peter off the board.

Now that would indeed be sweet, sweet Karma wouldn’t it!

I still can’t work out why he would invest a large chunk of his money into an English football club that he can’t possibly have the same passion for that he does with his American business interests, unless there’s a bigger picture, I can’t see him shoving huge amounts of cash in either, he’s not that rich and certainly isn’t in Usmanov’s league, and on that note I also cannot understand why Usmanov has dithered for so long, Nina’s had her shares up for sale since what, 2008?

Who knows, this may get Usmanov to show his hand, either way I would love it if Dein was coming home and really love it if he slung that elitist muppet off the board and made him pay for his ticket, I somehow suspect we wouldn’t see him again though would we!

Just a word about yesterday and the return of Jens Lehmann, how nice to see a proper keeper between the sticks commanding his area, did you notice the defence looked more confident, although someone needs to explain to Koscielny you aren’t allowed to kick people over inside the box that has a big white line painted around it.

It was interesting to hear how Wenger never doubted Jens ability as he was a good keeper, true he is a good keeper, and far better than the clown that replaced him, so the question I have for you Arsene, if he’s good enough now, why wasn’t he good enough 3 years ago? Hmmm, still Wenger says Chezzer isn’t far away so stick with Lehmann until he is please.

Pedro is heading down to the AST AGM this evening, he’ll be back tomorrow with a full review of the goings on and maybe Lady Nina’s mobile phone number… who knows! Stay tuned to his twitter throughout the evening @LeGrove for all the goss and give @TimPayton a follow as he’ll be drip feeding news about the takeover as the day progresses.

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Posted by Geoff

Arsenal Beating Blackpool: Standard, right?

April 11, 2011

Since taking myself off the market in my personal life on February 4th, it’s been a pretty rough ride Arsenal wise. We drew against Newcastle 4-4 and from there on in, it’s been mostly down hill. We’ve exited 3 competitions and our league form has stuttered worse than King George VI trying to explain to the Queen Mother why he’s got someone elses red lipstick on his shirt collar.

I’ve got to admit, for a moment, I thought I was going to have to can my girlfriend for the good of Arsenal.

Well, yesterday, I shelved that plan for finally we turned over a team in the bottom half of the table and landed a victory.

The big news before the game was that Almunia picked up another injury… this time to his knee. Let’s be honest, the Spaniard has had more fake injuries on his CV than a ‘no win, no fee’ lawyer has on his case book. I didn’t want it to come to this, I love Jens, he’s always been a legend in my eyes, I didn’t want that reputation soured because of poor Arsene Wenger planning. However, I tweeted before the game that I’d rather see a hungry 40-year-old on the pitch over a 33-year-old who’d rather be giving himself a back, sack and crack with a pair of pliers.

The game kicked off at terrific pace. One thing you’ll never find with an Ian Holloway team is a lack of effort. They spray the ball around nicely and they were looking to hit the flanks and whip crosses into the box. This tactic would probably have been formulated based around the assumption we were playing a keeper who couldn’t catch.

Bad luck Blackpool.

The Tangerines had most of the opening possession in the way of corners, but we had the best chances. Arshavin slicing horrendously wide after a kamikaze Kingston clearance. It was notable that our keeper was doing something quite alien in the box… he was organising his backline. Mad eh?

Our opener came when Diaby won the ball in the midfield, laid it onto Cesc, the Spaniard picked out Robin beautifully out wide, he controlled the ball well, slid it across the box where Diaby had made up the ground the slot it past Kingston. We were 1 up against the run of play.

Arsenal were showboating a little too much for my liking. I felt that we were trying to out do anything Blackpool were throwing at us. There were a few too many chipped passes into the box and a far too many silly attempts at goal.

Our 2nd came on twenty minutes when Jack Wilshere and Eboue played a one two, the Ivorian broke into the box and smashed home into the top corner. A lovely goal, a muted celebration from Eboue.

Diaby was playing well… he still managed to bumble an open goal by taking one cut back too many. Arsene Wenger fumed on the touchline, Pat Rice followed suit when he realised he was allowed to match his bosses anger.

Robin had a goal disallowed for offside before half time, things really weren’t dropping for the Dutchman but he was playing well!

It didn’t take long for our advantage to halve. Puncheon slid through DJ Campbell, Eboue completely failed to track his very blatant run, Lehmann flew out and clattered him but Lee Mason waved play on, Fletcher latched onto the ball and slotted home for his deserved goal. Amongst the melee, the ref forgot to book or send off Jens. Good stuff…

Arsenal fell to pieces after that, we totally lost our heads and allowed Blackpool to have a real go at us. It was a typical defensive display and you just felt it needed someone to take the lead and calm everyone down. However, after a month like we’ve had, it was understandable that nerves would jangle.

Kozzer was lucky not to conced a penalty with a lunge in the box. Eboue lost his attacker a few more times to really cement his inability to defend in the mindset of most Gooners.

Diaby then showed his class after picking up the ball from a Squillaci slide tackle he worked his way out of some Blackpool pressure, launched a ball up field, Cesc nodded it onto Theo who bounded into the box, cut it across for Robin who buried it.

Game over. An attack that took 16 seconds.

There was still time for a Clichy to have a Senderos moment when he allowed Blackpool a chance on goal, this time, Jens was there to snuff out the threat.

Conclusion…

We beat Blackpool. A team who are one point above the drop zone. We made hard work of it at times but when you’ve been dining off bread crumbs for 3 weeks, you’ll jump at the chance to wolf down a rivita bar when offered.

Jens Lehmann was a calming influence on the defence. He’s assured, confident, he has safe hands and he’s dominant in his box. You do wonder why we were so hasty to bin him all those years ago? There are many players we’ve sold too early who could have given us a few extra years of service. I think lessons should be learned going forward.

I have to send some praise Diaby’s way. He was superb, he worked hard and he showed off some of that abundant talent. My problem with him? Even if he can consistently show that, what is the point if he can only manage 20 games a season? His fitness needs addressing as it’s holding us back from buying a player who can manage the required 40 games a year for us to sustain a title challenge till the end.

I’m still not sure about our Premiership winning credentials. Our back 4 were opened up by Blackpool on numerous occasions yesterday and I’m just not sure the boys have the nerve to see this one through.

Let’s take the Premiership one game at a time, not jump too ahead of ourselves and cross our fingers for that miracle Danny Fiszman so deserves…

Give it half an hour and the second post will be landing on your doorstep… you know… the one about takeover type stuff!

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Posted by Pedro

Disgraceful Peter Hill-Wood comments enrage Arsenal fans globally

April 10, 2011

Let’s not beat around the bush here, the last few weeks at Arsenal have been nothing short of a PR disaster. We’ve dropped out of 3 competitions, our ownership problems look like they’re tragically now being forced onto the agenda, Arsene Wenger looks to have totally lost touch with reality and yesterday, it looked as though the outspoken granddad of the Arsenal set up had once again dropped a huge, possibly sherry induced Rohan Rickett to none other than his favourite mouth piece… the Daily Star (shockingly bad website to navigate).

One of the main reporters there has a direct line through to his mobile phone. Peter Hill-Wood isn’t used to mobile communications devices, so when he answers, often he thinks the voice coming out of the plastic light box is super-natural. That’s why he’s so liberal with his tongue… if you thought God was talking to you, the last thing you’d be worried about saying is,

‘God, this is off the record, but the…’

Just to get some clarity on what he said…

‘I simply cannot believe he will react to these stupid comments from these silly people. They are supposed to be supporters, but, in fact, they do quite a lot of damage.

Now Mr Hill-Wood, these silly people are the same people who have worked their way into a position secure enough to sustain a living so opulent they can afford to purchase the most expensive season ticket in world football. The same people who account for a minimum of £90million a year in season ticket revenue. They are the reason you receive £40million from Sky. They are the reason you can put prices up 6.5% and the reason you can bring out two new strips every season.

Insulting paying supporters and threatening the AST verges on gross misconduct…

I’m not sure what your retainer is, but  I think it’s safe to say that your yearly booze allowance is almost entirely funded by our extortionate footballing tax. What makes your comment even more disgusting is that the position of power you enjoy at the moment was not one you earned, it was one you attained by birth right. No doubt you received similar help along the way in your business career.

The fact is, the silly customers making the silly comments pay your way and actually, the only damaging thing going on at Arsenal at the moment is that the board point-blank refuse to listen to the fans at all. The manager has lost touch with reality and the Chairman, who lost touch many years ago, has once again dropped a PR bombshell on the club.

I’m pretty certain the age limit for a chairman of a Football club is 70, I think PHW is about 75 and he’s clearly demonstrated on many occasions that he’s not fit to have a say on anything Arsenal. Ok, he’s pretty amusing when he’s hosting the AGM, but from what I understand, he potentially renders many of them illegal when he misses pages and fails to read through the various resolutions correctly. He’s a laughing-stock and he’s representing a club who want to move into the 21st century. We shouldn’t have a Chairman on board who has a well documented derisory opinion of the regular folk who fund the future.

During the much maligned reign of Hicks and Gillett, Tom Hicks Junior had to resign from the board for insulting fans by calling them idiots (along with some other pretty unsavoury comments). Now, PHW’s quotes weren’t as serious, but for me, they’re just as insulting. If we didn’t think the club was being run like  a dictatorship before, after hearing we’re stupid for questioning what’s going on… I feel we’ve got plenty of evidence to back that stance now.

Arsenal issued a statement via the BBC Website…

“Emotions can run high in football many times throughout a season. It’s because we all care about our club.

“Our fans are at the heart of what we do, and that will always be the case.”

Fair play to Gazidis for putting something out there but for me, it doesn’t go far enough. Ivan is a smart guy, for me, he should know that nothing short of a public apology will do in the wake of what PHW said to the Daily Star. If he can’t be man enough to own up to his mistake, I certainly don’t want him at our club. His only use is nostalgia of a bygone era.

In the land of Sugar Daddy-less club, the fan is king… never forget that Peter.

My views on yesterday’s Arsene Wenger debacle are similar to those Geoff put forward. I wouldn’t sacrifice an FA Cup for a Champions League place, but I absolutely agree with everything else he put forward yesterday. The fan angst isn’t about our position in the league taken as an individual incident. It’s about all the fluff around it.

If you’d offered me 2nd at the start of the year, I’d have taken it without a doubt. My problem is that we aren’t hitting the heights because we’re a far better team, we’re where we are because the quality has dropped at the top and improved below us. If we’d gone out and bought Schwarzer for £4million in July, we’d be top of the league now. Simple as that. No one cares about the average age of the team that he mis-calculated (I forget he didn’t take a maths degree). The average age of the side is dictated by the manager and no one gives you any additional points in the league for having a crop of crap young players with no bottle (not all of them, obviously).

Arsene Wenger is the millionaire seeking approval from his wife for saving £12.80 on his weekly shop. Sure you’ve landed great value, but you didn’t need to rummage for your ingredients in ALDI. You could have just rolled over to Waitrose and forked out for a few choice cuts of quality meat and had a far more memorable evening.

Wenger is seeking credit for achieving on his own enforced restrictions.

What upsets the silly fans is that the balance he’s not striking has been so clear, nearly every football pundit, blogger and journalist has pointed out the impending issues well in advance of the eventual collapse.

We’re not football managers, we’re not paid £7million a year, yet we can all see what’s going to happen?

Wenger said this squad is the best he’s ever had. If you make ridiculous statements like that, don’t come crying to us when they’re not backed by reality… we never believed you in the first place.

I’ve been asked on numerous occasions whether I’d like to see the coach sacked. Absolutely not is my response, I’d just like to see some accountability. I’d like to see him manage like he doesn’t have a job for life. I’d like to see him shake up the backroom staff. I’d like to see him ship out the deadwood and buy in some players who will give a crap about the shirt. I’d like him to go back to being ruthless.

If he can’t do all those things, perhaps he shouldn’t be sacked, perhaps he should just be the big man and admit that he can’t change and take a job upstairs.

The game today…

Whatever you think about our season so far, the simple fact is that it’s been a bit of a mad one. We’re still mathematically in with a shout and as you know, anything can happen in football!

Almunia

Sagna Kozzer Squillaci Clichy

Cesc Wilshere Rambo

Arshavin RVP Nasri

Now that side really should be enough to take on a very flat Blackpool. They’ll leave gaps all over the park for us so we really do need our shooting boots on. We also need to have our urgency juice at the ready. The midfield trio should be a dream to watch. The question will be around whether it can maintain the discipline to cover the back 4. Personally, I think Jack and Rambo combined could muck in to split the defensive work load in Song’s absence. There has to be a lot of communication to ensure that happens.

Blackpool are a threat from Charlie Adams set pieces and they have a lot of pace in their side. We really shouldn’t find this a problem today and I’m hoping that if a title challenge isn’t enough to motivate Wenger’s babies… the thought of the man who dishes out the golden contracts leaving is enough to stir them into a frenzy.

As a team, all we can do now is win all our game until the rest of the season and hope for the best. Where there are mathematical possibilities, there are miracles… let’s pray for one, we deserve it for being stupid!

Have a great day and remember, suntan lotion is for girls!

I’m going to play you out of this post in cheesy commercial radio fashion…

This has been LG Easy Sundays… this final request goes out to the Arsenal boys heading up north for a date with destiny… take it away guys… and be good to each other…

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Posted by Pedro

What is success? It’s to do the best you can with what you’ve got.

April 9, 2011

Sorry Arsene, it’s not, that’s a massive kop out, in football, success is winning and landing trophies, just the answer you got from a reporter at the press conference, the one you chose to ignore.

Well I looked up Success in several dictionaries and couldn’t find your definition in any of them, maybe it means something different in France, the closest I could get was this - a favourable result, wished-for ending, good fortune.

It’s Ok to say to do the best with what you have but you seem to forget, what you have is what you bought, and frankly you bought badly, and that Mr Wenger isn’t success, that’s the opposite.

You mentioned Cesc and Nasri, but Cesc wasn’t free and Nasri was what £12million? Both fantastic talents, what about Squillaci, Denilson and Almunia, you bought them as well and they are rubbish.

The thing is Arsene you run this team with no backchat, no one is allowed to question you and if they do, like the reporter who told you success was judged by winning trophies, you ignore them, that just isn’t healthy. Come on here and let me ask you a few questions, that’s not your style though, you just won’t be questioned, you are an autocrat.

Champions league football is nice, but we’ll never win it because our players are simply not good enough and that’s why Cesc wants to leave, winning the FA cup is unimportant to you and I suspect that’s because you aren’t English, it’s important to me but yesterday you let this little gem out of the bag.

‘Trophies are one way to judge a club. They’re not overrated as it allows you to say you have won a trophy, but would you swap winning the FA Cup for playing in the Champions League? Is it a trophy or not to be in the Champions League? Is it more important to win the FA Cup?

No Arsene being in the Champions league is NOT A TROPHY and yes I would swap being in it for the FA Cup, no question, but of course no one at your press conferences are allowed to answer your questions.

You have to stop this unhealthy obsession you have with the age of the players, we don’t care and as I’ve said before there are no prizes for being young, all that seems to happen when you play them so young is they pick up a lot of injuries because their bodies haven’t developed and they aren’t strong enough.

Maybe your press conferences should be about how you intend to beat Blackpool rather that acting like a girl about how your team is so young, then I wouldn’t have to keep writing posts explaining to you how the fans are really only interested in winning stuff.

The thing that bothers me the most about this week is the fans were fighting each other over you and your policies and you haven’t said a word, now that I find amazing.

As I have said many times before, had you added the right players to the squad I believe we would have had success with this young squad and that’s what is so painful, you are being criticised because you refuse to admit you have screwed up, you can still fix it, but unfortunately not until next season, then it remains to be seen how much you want to change.

Almunia, Denilson, Diaby and Squillaci need to go, simple. Bendtner will one day be a top player but he needs to learn how to become a regular goalscorer and I think he’s a few years off, so maybe cash in on him. Chamakh, well we now know why he was free. Nice bloke and can head a ball but he’s no prolific goal scorer and that’s what this team needs. Keep one of these two but not both.

If you fixed that little lot Arsene you could be talking about winning the Champions League and not just qualifying, it’s all we need and it wouldn’t be expensive, in fact I think it would almost be self funding.

As for the importance of winning trophies I suggest you ask your captain, he seems to think it’s important and I suspect he’ll ask to leave for a team this summer that wins them regularly.

Finally I really hate this thing where some people think you can only have a worthwhile opinion if you were a top level player or have been a manager. Cobblers to that, I would love to manage a top football team, the thing with football is nepotism, same with golf, it’s all toys for the boys, hey and not to mention the crazy money you all get.

How many EPL managers work again after they get sacked, how many go down the dole office? I suspect none. They all get paid off and that’s it for life. I met a manager of football club in Essex recently, he played in the same Man City team as Rocky, he picked me up from Heathrow last year, he’s a cabby as well to pay his mortgage, EPL managers really don’t realise how lucky they and their players are, they don’t live in the real world.

I played at a high level when I kicked a ball and I am a profession fan, Alf Ramsey won the World Cup for England and I don’t think he played at a high level, and Liam Brady was a top footballer but not such a great manager.

If Gary Neville can be a commentator then anyone with a knowledge of football can manage, there are way too many dimwits in football management for them to be considered special, you are lucky to manage the Arsenal Mr Wenger so I suggest you start making the fans happy and try and win the league, starting tomorrow would be good.

Have a great day grovers, tomorrow we find out if we are still in with a shout of our last chance of a trophy.

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Posted by Geoff

We need to win them all now if we stand any chance, if we don’t we may only finish 4th

April 8, 2011

That’s the reality folks, if we want to win the league, we have to win all the remaining games starting with Blackpool on Sunday.

I don’t think we will do worse than 4th but who knows? The spuds look like they are about to exit the Champions league never to return but if results go their way we may have to concentrate a bit harder. 9 points behind is losing what, 3 games? Well we have to play Liverpool and ManU at home and the spuds away so it’s possible.

On the other hand if we win all our remaining games and the Mancs lose 2 we could still win the league, so there is still all to play for.

There’s talk that if we beat Blackpool at the weekend then Ian Holloway will get sacked, now that’s what I call daft, he has a team that has over-achieved and faces the sack, managers should only get sacked if they under achieve, you know, a bit like us.

If Ian Holloway gets the sack it should be for his Worzel Gummidge accent, not because his team lose to Arsenal.

So I wonder who he’ll play up front this weekend? Maybe it’s time to try out some of the younger players that are loaned out, maybe it’s time to bring them back, or maybe he’ll surprise us and play Lehmann and Aliadiere against a team from the North West, last time he did that didn’t Aliadiere score against Liverpool?

I jest of course but with our current line up we seem incapable of scoring against anyone, a shot would be nice, the last time we played Blackpool we scored six, so we know we can!

Pedro said he’d have Ade back, I have to admit Ade against Chamakh or Bendtner is a no brainer at this point, and I never thought I’d miss him, but right now I”d take anyone over those two, whenever I watch other teams play they seem to have forwards that can score at a drop of a hat, we have two that don’t even shoot, I wonder what happens in training? It would explain why our keepers are so bad, they never get any shooting practice!

We are being linked with so many players it’s daft, it’s not even the end of the season so we can’t talk to players, I hope that when we do though we do it early, let them get bedded in and used to their surroundings, I’m more interested in who goes though, if the ones I want out stay I will be more upset than if we buy no one.

However, this is Arsene Wenger and he only does what he wants and selling the chaff will be an admission that he was wrong, and we all know he doesn’t ever admit when he’s wrong, so don’t hold your breath.

That’s it then, a big win or it’s all curtains, get the shooting practice in boys, only two days to go!

Have a good’un Grovers, the sun is out and tomorrow the weekend begins with the chance to see Arsenal score again.

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Posted by Geoff

A message to Danny Fizman, all the very best from Le Grove.

April 7, 2011

Ok let’s deal with these board room rumours, first of all my best wishes to Danny Fizman and his battle with cancer, that puts winning the league and boardroom shuffles into perspective, good luck Danny, I hope you get through this. What you have done for Arsenal is truly immense, if any statues are handed out then you are the one that should have one.

The only news we think will happen is that Usmanov and Red and White will get a seat on the board, but that doesn’t mean Dein will be back as he doesn’t work for them any more, I personally would love him to come back and deal with the monster he created but somehow can’t see the board suggesting that would be their good news.

Doctor Frankenstein didn’t get his practice back in that little Bavarian village once his creations problems were dealt with did he?

So as long as Peter Hill Wood is still around don’t expect us to bring back the only person capable of sorting out project youth. It won’t happen. I would love it to, can you imagine Gazidas and his enormous back room staff? All getting their marching orders? Ha, ha that would be a picture, imagine what that would save us on the wage bill!

Still if we have a manager that doesn’t win trophies, why should we expect a marketing team to get fantastic sponsorship deals? Unless there are deals we are doing that I haven’t heard about that don’t include ripping your own fans off with another WM club or a season ticket hike.

We hear that Vermaelen is back in training and that puts paid to the career ending rumours that have been flying about, but we have to put an end to having players that have a year off with injuries, by that I mean buy replacements should it happen again.

In recent times we’ve had RVP, Eduardo and Ramsey out for almost a year and Rosicky, Djourou, Diaby, Frimpong and Vermaelen out for a whole year. And the last five are from our current playing squad.

If we get long term injuries again, we need to replace the player and worry about what happens when they come back, when and if they come back. We have insurance, we don’t have to worry about their wages, or at least we should have. IVAN?

We also need to identify players that are becoming crocks and get rid of them, players like Song and Diaby need to be moved on, Eboue, Rosicky and Almunia likewise and then have a good look at our reserves and move on all those players we will never ever see in the first team.

I believe we could cut the wage bill in half easily. Get shot of what we should sell and we could buy a half decent team, Scott Parker has been mentioned but he is 31 and I fear too old, but if we bought Cahill we have plenty of DM options in our squad, I have often mentioned Vermaelen and been laughed at, but I was laughed at when I gave you my views on Song.

He has the bite that we lack and the pace and vision too. I also like Coquelin and Frimpong but we need some nasty stuff in there not another baby right now.

I’m not saying TV for the DM role, I’m saying as an option, for me he’s still our number one CB.

In other news Pedro tells me we are touring China and Malaysia in the pre season so there’s another source of revenue for the team.

I can’t believe the Mancs have appealed against that feral chav Rooney and his outburst to the cameras, how can you defend that unless you have had 16 pints of lager, he may have looked like he had whilst chewing on a wasp nest, but he hadn’t, so I now hope the FA add more games to his silly two match slap, cowards, just like that fat pikey granny shagger. If he did that on Hackney Marshes on a Sunday, he’d get he’s ugly head kicked in.

A final word about the state of affairs at Arsenal, whatever happens we will make changes next season, let’s just hope we still have Danny with us, he has done an awful lot for this football club and no one deserves what he has, get well soon Mr Fizman from all of us at Le Grove.

Have a great day Grovers only 3 to go until we get to show what we are capable of, again.

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Posted by Geoff

Adebayor: I’d have him back | Spurs exposed as poor | Pressure Wenger

April 6, 2011

How does that feel Spurs fans?

Ex-Arsenal donkey puts two past you in the Champions League… for Real Madrid. That’s like finding out you Mrs has left you for the domino’s sandwich board man.

'Pizza is expensive babe...'

A highly enjoyable game to say the least, in fact, it was so enjoyable, I ended up going to the pub for a celebration beer. Sad times? Absolutely. Who cares though, Spurs were completely outclassed all over the park and I loved it. This was the first really tough game they’ve faced and they found themselves in all sorts of amusing trouble. Peter Crouch was sent off after 15 minutes for two dopey challenges and the rest is history.

Not sure why Bale didn’t start. His name was on the team sheet and everything. He’ll start the next leg and it’ll be a different story. They’ll win 5-0.

On the subject of Adebyor, is it bad that I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately? You know, in retrospect, he wasn’t that bad. Sure he treated us badly sometimes, but you know what, he did score some goals… he said he’s sorry and I’m thinking I’d take him back if he promised to treat us the way he did before he got that big pay rise.

Who’s with me?

Battered house wife story telling aside. The guy is a beast. When his head is on the game, he’s one of the most effective battering rams in the land. He’s fast, he can finish(ish) and I’m pretty sure he’d come back to Arsenal with his ego beaten into check.

I’m not sure if I’ve got the equivalent of footballing office syndrome. You know what office syndrome is right? When you’re in an office full of ugly people you’d never go near normally, then after a while, they start looking good… come the Christmas party… well… you know the rest.

I think I have the football equivalent. I’ve been looking at Bendtner and Chamakh for a while and they’re so poor, I’m glancing over at Adebayor fantasising about what it would be like to have a proper 6ft5 player who could head the ball and score a few goals. Obviously I’d rather Benzema but I think I’ve got more chance of Wenger joining me on my mates stag do in Magaluf than I have of that happening.

Adebayor will be available, we know he’s got goals in him, he’s scored 10 in 10 against Spurs and everyone loves a player who talks about themselves in the third person. What do you think?

… and yes, I did say Magaluf. Can you believe people do that past the age of 16? I’d rather party in a forest fire.

It didn’t take long for Wenger to utter the usual tantalising lines that will make us all believe that, finally, he has accepted he needs to make some changes this summer… via Independent.

Supporters have wondered for some time whether Wenger has overestimated the qualities of some of his players. Now, perhaps, he is doing the same – certainly he did not dismiss suggestions that he had taken this group of under-achievers as far as he can.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I want to finish the season and then we’ll see. But at the moment of course we are more concerned about the short term, to get this team to respond in a convincing way.”

For me, even if we do win the Premiership, I think changes will be needed. We’ve made tough work of this season. The frightening thing is that we still have a resurgent Liverpool side to face, we have United and we have Spurs away. There are 4 points between us and Chelsea and should we win our game in hand, City will be 6 points behind us. Don’t take 2nd for granted, we’re on a terrible run that shows no sign of abating. If we don’t rectify this, we could be staring down the barrel of 4th position and a Champions League qualifier.

That really would leave us quaffing down a large pint of crap season…

I’m hoping that Wenger is warned this summer. I told you last year that light pressure was placed on him to sign players. He refused. I wonder if the pressure will be so light this year? The last thing Arsenal need going into the next season is the possibility of losing out on Champions League qualification because the board didn’t take note of the warning signs. That really would be a nightmare scenario, you know why, I’ll tell you why… because that would mean we’d have to negotiate our new commercial deals off the back of Europa League football.

Imagine that. Thursday nights in for a season followed by a replica shirt with ‘Cost Cutter’ emblazoned across the front. More embarrassing than the time a new employee at my work sneezed and his tooth flew across my desk. It wasn’t even a nice tooth…

So, up tonight is the Champions League grudge match  between United and Chelsea. I’m hoping for a weak referee who allows some really nasty challenges to go unpunished hopefully resulting in a few strategic injuries. It’d be nice if someone took out Rooney’s mouth… filthy ******* animal.

P.S. For those who say Mourinho isn’t a good manager, did anyone see Schalke beat Inter 5-2 last night? Also, thanks to Steve for sending over the below photoshop!

Have a great day!

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Funny...

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Posted by Pedro

Arsenal fans: Top 4 or trophies? | Shocking Charity letter… | Standing section update

April 5, 2011

So I said yesterday that Alex Song was complaining about his knee and now he looks set to miss the next month of the season. There have been questions about his committment going off in the background and now we look to have surrendered the league, it seems he probably won’t show his face too many times again this season. I’m not saying he’s faking his injury, I just wonder if he’s as injured as he’s making out? Would John Terry or Wayne Rooney be out for a month with the same injury? I’m not so sure…

It’s a sad fact with modern-day professional footballers. We’d all love to think they’re 100% focused and motivate for the game, the sad fact is they aren’t. Diaby is another player whose heart is clearly not with the club. If he’s not talking about Barcelona, he’s taking three weeks out for every single niggle. Certain players can’t cut it at the very top on the mental side. Both will always carve out good careers, I just wonder if it weren’t for Arsenal what they’d be doing?

Not playing for a team as prestigious as ours… that’s for sure.

One of my Liverpool supporting mates asked me yesterday if I’d take top four every year for the last 7 years and no trophies or whether I’d prefer to win the Champions League, lose a final, win a league cup beating United in the final and win the FA Cup… with some instability in the league.

Forget the off the pitch shenanigans. Purely on a footballing level, what would float your boat more?

If I was making a life comparison, I’d compare it to relationships. You can either go out and get hooked up with a person from your home town, settle down young, get a mortgage by 24 and live your life… or you can take the bull by the horns, live your life a little, have a real mixed bag of relationships… get judged by your friends, but ultimately have more memories when you get older.

Does the latter sound familiar to some Arsenal fans when talking about their rivals?

‘Oh my, look at how vulgar they are spending all that money, they’ll have to pay it back some day’

‘I’d prefer to live within my means’

‘They’re just paying for the name there, you can get exactly the same quality if you have a rummage. Even better, why not just make one yourself?’

At the moment, Arsenal are that stable couple saving the pennies for that rainy day that will probably never come. Sure, they’re having a nice time, they’ll get to see some places, but it’s a little boring. Would you exchange some of the boring for a bit of the exciting? Would you like it if Arsenal cut the purse strings, took a few risks and went of a trophy in the ruthless fashion? I’m not asking for the manager to bankrupt us, but wouldn’t it be nice if he just said…

‘You know what, that extra £2million they’re asking is a little too much… but I’m here to win trophies. No one will look back in 50 years time and talk about that profit I turned in quarter 3 2011, I’m going to buy him!’

Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancellotti, Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola all take big risks because the rewards are worth it. Sure, Wenger might make a mistake with a big name signing but I’d say it’s better to have tried and lost than to have sat on a big fat £40million cash surplus and not tried at all.

Someone is going to need to have a word with Wenger this summer, the simple fact is you can’t have fans fighting each other in the stadium because of his flawed policies and let’s get this straight right now… they absolutely were fighting over them. I wrote that after the cup final I was nearly involved in a tear up for being a Wenger apologist, people are angry. The manager is in serious danger of ruining his legacy. I don’t want to see him go, though I will say, if he doesn’t change his policies and start acting like manager with a budget, I see no other choice.

As fans, we can’t go into this summer saying the same old, ‘well, you know what, I’m pretty sure he knows what to do this year’, because guess what? We’ve said that for the past 3 years! We know that unless he is told, he won’t go out any buy the necessary players, we know he has no interest in equipping his squad to compete for a whole season.

He’d rather promote the talent of next years up and coming loanees. The last game of the season will see the kids, we’ll all whack skippy over Fimpong, JET and Wellington and that’ll be enough to appease us for another season… then the same process will happen again.

That said, a few people from within the Colney walls have told me they think he’s finally lost patience this time. That’s nothing more than gut feeling though, I’ve heard nothing about transfer plans as I’m pretty sure they’re not even being considered right now.

Anyway, lets put it to the vote…

In other news, Lukas, a German Grover sent me over this some information about standing in Germany. Apparently Bayern Munich have just installed the space for 12,000 standing fans at their 60,000 capacity stadium. Now, that is pretty exciting stuff in itself, but get this… a season ticket for the German double winners and Champions League finalists in the standing section goes for 120 Euros! Imagine that, getting a season ticket for a oner, that’s how much it would cost for you to have 2.5 seat plaques engraved for you at Arsenal.

A standing area really would be giving something back to the fans and Arsenal should take note especially in the current climate… I’m not sure they’ll go for it though, that sanitised feeling you get in stadium isn’t an accident, it’s by design, it’s called a ‘family environment. I’d ask Gazidis to come and sit with my family on a Sunday afternoon to see what a real family environment is like… it’s spicier than Arsenal v WBA at the Emirates, that’s for sure.

I had this letter drawn to my attention yesterday via twitter. Basically, Arsenal refused to sign a home shirt for a life long season ticket holder who is running the marathon for charity. Now, I can sympathise with the club from the point of view that they must have to deal with thousands of requests. I can imagine that plenty of merchandisers lie about Charitable events to wangle shirt signings. However, when you read through the letter, some very valid points are raised. If Arsenal can sign a shirt for Ladbrokes, have one signed to induce people to their away day screening events and sign one for a ticketing complaint, surely they can muster the effort to have one signed for a charity for a life long season ticket holder?

If there are problems with dishonest people, then the Charity should be sent the signed shirt direct to auction on behalf of whoever is raising money. All that needs to be put in place is a bit of process. Everyone’s a winner. If it’s about aggravating players, f*ck em’. I hate to use language like that, but seriously, for the amount of hours footballers put into a working week, the last thing they should be complaining about is putting ink to a few shirts.

*Update*

We did get a response from Comms Director Mark Gonnella on the subject. Apparently Arsenal will only sign one shirt per charity per year. I’m not really sure why you’d need to be so strict with something like charitable donations. Arsenal do a huge amount for them in general and that can’t be forgotten, it just seems like an odd policy for a club as big as ours considering how little effort goes into the action of getting it done. Apparently even the classless lot from West London will sign things if you ask. It’s a bit of a petulant rule if you ask me… but there you have it, at least you all know now.

I wonder if Ladbrokes are given one shirt per year as part of their sponsorship quota?

To finish on a lighter note, Tony Cascarino reckons Arsene’s biggest mistake in the January transfer window was not signing Kevin Phillips. Yep, he said it and it wasn’t a joke. Possibly the most retarded statement you’ve ever heard come from a pundits mouth? It’s gotta be close…

On an even lighter note, Eboue is rumoured to be considering following William Gallas over to White Hart Lane. Now, I don’t like to see players leaving Arsenal for Spurs, but I know that the Ivorian has been sulking about his lack of first team opportunities, so the chances of him being here next year are slim. What would be funny is if a player with the moral compass of a taxman upped and left for our biggest rivals… I’ve always disliked him, I’ve always hated the cult of Eboue… if he left for Spurs, my oh my would I chortle!

Have a great day Grovers, good luck to Madrid later, I hope they can over come a Spurs side with God almighty strapped into a pair size 11′s tearing up and down their left-wing!

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Posted by Pedro

Civil War in the stands | How to free up £80million | Arsenal Injury updates

April 4, 2011

So I had a ring around some of the people I know who work with or closely round the club just to pick up the vibe around the club.

First is the good news that JD’s tweet about him being back for the Liverpool game is still well on track, there might also be good news on the Chezzer front, I’ve heard that he could be around in 2-3 weeks time so we won’t have to suffer the incompetence of Almunia much longer.

It was interesting that people who work with the club are all thinking the same things we are. Why was Andrey taken of yesterday was as perplexing to the backroom staff and the players as it was to the rest of us. One poor back heel by the Russian and he was removed. He’s one of the biggest threats on the pitch and he was playing pretty well. Why take off a direct player who will have a shot? Why not be bold and take Alex Song off who was absolutely dire again. Has he got the right attitude to be playing at Arsenal? He was heard moaning about his knee after the game, could this be the last we see of him this year? It wouldn’t surprise me.

Is he good enough for Arsenal? Is he really that technically superior? Do we really think he compares to other players we’ve had in his position, or do we convince ourselves that becuase he wears an Arsenal shirt he’s the best technical thing since french toast? In my opinion his sloppy passing, ill-diciplined positioning and his lack of mobility really weigh against him. Look at United, they have players like Fletcher who isn’t that talented, but he wears his heart on his sleeve and does a good job. Wouldn’t we be better off just flogging the Cameroonian for £20million and investing in a player who cares?

Here’s a little snippet for you, according to what I’ve heard a certain Brazillian turned up late to preseason after an extended stay in his homeland, shortly after returning to training he picked up an injury. Abou Diaby returned to preseason and also picked up an ‘injury’. Alex Song played a couple of game and also picked up an ‘injury’.

Now, is it a surprise that three players who have disappointed this season on many levels all picked up injuries during preseason. It’s not for me. Their hearts aren’t in it and there lies your problem.

Something I was actually corrected on yesterday was my observation about paying young kids loads of money. That’s not the problem, a player like Miquel earns around £5k a week, not quite as high as I thought. The problem is that we pay average players more than their market worth. When Arsene Wenger started out, he got the best out of the old guard, brought in super talent and rescued top talent that had a point to prove. Now he’s just fattening up average players pay packets to ensure loyalty and dressing room balance.

Why are these players earning such huge sums of money when we could be paying top players who want to impress the same and getting more out of them?

Here is some staggering maths for you.

Salary Value
Diaby £ 3,120,000.00 £ 11,000,000.00
Denilson £ 2,080,000.00 £ 8,000,000.00
Bendtner £ 2,600,000.00 £ 15,000,000.00
Rosicky £ 3,120,000.00 £ 4,000,000.00
Eboue £ 2,080,000.00 £ 8,000,000.00
Song £ 3,120,000.00 £ 20,000,000.00
Total £ 16,120,000.00 £ 66,000,000.00
Transfer Budget £ 82,120,000.00

Factor in that Arsene Wenger already has a reported £40million at his disposal and we could potentially have an April Fools war chest at our disposal. We could go out and sign Cahill, Muntari and a Benzema type striker without batting an eye lid. We could seriously consider signing an Eden Hazard or perhaps look at Ashley Young who won’t go for £20million as he’s entering the final year of his contract. There are a number of options we could exploit just by shifting out the players who clearly don’t have Arsenal in their hearts.

Interesting that John Jensen was in the cab with @dangerous_tlc on Saturday night. He’s working with Blackburn Rovers and he confirmed that Arsenal did bid for Jones during the January window (Jensen believes he is top top talent). He also believes Hoilett is the real deal and he wouldn’t be surprised if Arsenal come sniffing in the summer. Apparently a very genuine guy, just with less hair!

Finally, before I go, Vermaelen’s career is not under threat, 100% guaranteed or the transfer fee back.

All the above was written by Pedro, that may surprise you, this next bit is on me so enjoy!

Arsene has finally done what no amount of provocation from opposing fans, shite referees and nasty bastardos like Wayne Rooney ever could, he has Arsenal fans fighting themselves, no I don’t mean disagreeing, I mean fighting and drawing blood, Arsene, I hope you are proud of yourself, another first to put in your fresh air trophy cabinet, you and your mentally ill policies have finally turned fare paying Arsenal customers against each other.

I warned you last season and the season before that your nutty project youth policy would destroy your legacy, so change, or go, well this season you added shocking tactics and dreadful in-action in the transfer market to that and it’s got your own fans taking lumps out of each other, and in all my years of supporting Arsenal, that’s a first.

You could have got a top keeper, a decent centre back, a proper DM and someone who could score goals, what did you do? You got Chamakh on a free, kept faith in Bendtner, Rosicky, Diaby, Denilson, Song and Almunia, got the worst centre back since Stepanovs for £5mil and rewarded all the crap players with extended contracts, you bought another bunch of 16 year olds and you loaned out 18 players.

How can any team in the world justify loaning out 18 players? It’s madness, especially when maybe only 2 will probably ever see first team football. You have really messed up this time.

We drew with Sunderland and City spanked them 5nil, we drew with 10 man Blackburn and showed all the fire and mental strength I would expect from your team of overpaid chokers, which was none. Now it appears it’s the fixture list’s fault!

You have surrounded yourself with yes men, you have the stadium adorned with pictures and words about yourself, you won’t allow your backroom staff to let rip at the players inept performances, you have your voice on the phone answering systems, you think this is your club, it’s not Arsene, it’s ours.

I’ll have money that all those brave men at Arsenal that suck up to you all talk behind your back and laugh at you, beware the ides of March, or in this case, April!

We will end the season with jack shite again, which makes 7 years without a title and 8 years before we have the chance to win one again, and that would be Ok if you weren’t earning £7mil a year, the players wage bill wasn’t the 4th highest in the EPL and we weren’t paying more than any other fans in world football, and to top it all we have a civil war going on in our shiny new ground.

David Dein, if you’re reading, come back, get Usmanov to buy up Nina’s shares and save us from the mess you created, your football club needs you.

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Posted by Pedro

Time for a change at Arsenal…

April 3, 2011

Well, there we have it. Another season, another predictable disappointment.

You know what made it sadder? This was the first game since the ten-year anniversary of David Rocastle’s death and the players couldn’t motivate themselves to do the great man proud.

It’s hard writing these match reports because I’ve said everything so many times already. Since our Carling Cup loss in late February we’ve beaten Orient in a replay, lost in the FA Cup to United and drawn 3 games on the bounce. That’s three games against teams currently sitting 11th, 12th and 14th in the league table.

Sure we can make excuses. That’s the easiest thing in the world to do. We can talk about goalkeepers always doing well against us… for me, that’s like jailed burglars complaining that the police are too good for them. The simple and hard to stomach fact of the matter is that Arsenal are simply not good enough to win the league. Wenger has assembled a team of chokers who don’t know how to win. Looking at the performance yesterday, I wondered if they even wanted to win?

Almunia shouldn’t be on the pitch. He looks like he’s been told he must play or shameful pictures of his yorkshire terrier will be leaked to the Daily Mail. Sure we didn’t lose yesterday, but I think it’s worth pointing out that Arsene Wenger knew a player wasn’t fit to the wear the Jersey in August, yet somehow, he’s our number one for the crunch run in.

That tells me we have a coach who has lost his touch. He puts his personal affections for players over winning and for me, that’s half the problem with his management style these days. If he’s not buying in the cream of the crap from the bargain bins of Europe, he’s fattening up average players with huge contracts for extended loyalty. Wenger is the over lord at Arsenal and the group of players he’s been fostering for 5 years have totally let him down again.

I’ve said on numerous occasions that achieving in life is all about the fight. If everything is handed to you on plate, why would you work for it? There’s got to be some sort of incentive as a player. That’s the problem with Arsenal football club these days. We’re paying 16 year olds 35 times what they’d get at Barcelona as youth players. We’re giving them everything they want before they’ve even had the chance to show their value and then we’re scratching our heads as to why they don’t show the needed desire on the pitch.

I mean seriously, look at our youth policy. If we’ve been stealing the best teenagers from around Europe for the past 8 years, why aren’t we getting a far superior hit rate to other clubs bringing through players? I think it’s two-fold. Number 1, these kids know they’ll get a chance regardless and I think it’s because money corrupts. I mean look at United. They keep a player out on loan until they’re ready to play in the first team. If they’re not good enough, they’re pulled and replaced. Danny Wellbeck looks a top player, he’s an England international and he’s still out on loan at Sunderland. If he was at Arsenal, he’d have been in the first team struggling away for the past 3 years…

That is the difference…

We had plenty of chances out there yesterday to win the game but we didn’t take them. We were kept out of the game by a goalkeeper who did his job properly, our strikers were kept quiet by a defender many in the blogosphere stated was average. If he’s so average, how come a team as good as Arsenal couldn’t work out a way around him? How could a Blackburn defender who everyone stated wasn’t good enough to play football also give us problems going forward?!

Why are our options up front so blunt? Did Wenger really think bringing on the Ego and Chamakh was going to change things for the better? How many times do those two prove that we blundered by not signing top class back up. Why did he take Andrey Arshavin off when he’s one of the few who can produce something out of nothing? Why take Theo off who is the only example of proper pace we have in the team?

How flat were we out on the pitch again? Where was out leader in such an important game? Who was out there driving the team forward? Who was out there saying, ‘Boys, stop cutting the ball back and have a f*cking rip!’, who was out there saying, ‘boys, this is the f*cking Premiership we’re playing for, show some urgency!’

No one as far as I could see. We opened well, and we finished well… did very little in between. A familiar pattern this year.

It’s sad. I’ve watched our manager put out team after team over the past few years that can’t defend, can’t pick themselves up when the chips are down and can’t get over a set back. In the last three years, I’ve watched the manager ignore huge transfer budgets, fail to address glaring deficiencies in the squad and worst of all… fail to motivate players.

We’ve been saying for a while the dead wood needs clearing out, I guess the question hot on everyone’s lips will be whether the manager comes under that category. His poor squad planning, his inept tactics and weak substitutions combined with his lack of achievement lately all leave me wondering if he’s as dynamic as he used to be?

He’s 6 years into a project that has failed all the major tests. He’s worked hard to create a culture of utopic friendliness that doesn’t equate to results on the pitch. His idea of getting players to love the club by indoctrinating them young has bombed and he’s shown time and time again he’s incapable of changing his ways, so I wonder where we go from here? He won’t leave, he won’t be pushed… so what does the future hold?

I’m not one for booing… but that chorus from the fans at the end told you everything you need to know how the fans are feeling at the moment. Some people who don’t pay to attend will speak out, claiming it’s outrageous, but the simple fact is, you’re not facing a 6.5% price increase to watch crap like that… if you do speak to someone who has a pop about it stating they’d do anything to get a season ticket and that the home fans are a disgrace, call their bluff, ask them to drop me an e-mail, send me £5k and they can have mine and Geoff’s… we’ll be downgrading to normal seats next year and we’d be happy to sell them ours.

You know what though? None of the online big shots will take them… they’re full of more excuses than Wenger.

I’ll leave you on this… David Rocastle once said,

‘Remember who you are, what you are and who you represent’

Who thinks the current crop are paying attention?

I don’t…

See you in the comments.

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Posted by Pedro

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