Le Grove – Arsenal blog featuring Arsenal news

Now I know I ran a post this week on not signing someone called Kevin but honestly, he would be no good for us as he shoots too much and doesn’t like to pass the ball into the net. I like him, I think he looks sharp as I do Falcao, but…

Falcao is another short striker but more a sniffer, the fox in the box type that Eduardo was, they both have their good points but let’s not forget they are both playing in weak leagues. So what would happen if they played in the Premiership?

Just like Chamakh and Koscielny did eh, so if I had a choice I think I would prefer a EPL quality striker, but to be honest I can’t think who, and it now looks like Benzema is staying put so we have to widen the net.

I thought the Online Gooner wrote a fantastic spoof piece yesterday but I wonder how many muppets from other places didn’t see the irony in it, hats off to them for saying what we all feel and I often say!

The mail says we have offered £8 mil for Samba and I can believe that, why would Wenger need to spend decent money on a player if teams like Blackburn give their top players away for nothing. If it were true that we offered £7mil for Benzema, you can see where next season is going, then the mad one would say next February, ‘I bid for Benzema and Samba but we couldn’t make it happen so I went back into the French league, I have to admit I heard a nasty rumour someone was speaking to Jack and Theo in English, and it wasn’t Gibbs, so I decided to act’

Other hot rumours are Hazard and Gervinho from Lille in a double bubble swoop, now Hazard I know, but Gervinho is from the Ivory coast, same place as Eboue, Wenger wouldn’t be stupid enough to sign an African in ACN year though would he?… Yeah, actually he would!

No offence to our African readers but we can’t afford to lose 3 players at the business end of the season, that is madness!

So several options there and most of them involve buying from the French league again, has he learned? Doesn’t look like it does it? But In Arsene we must trust because we have no choice.

I hate reading that we must sell Arshavin to fund signing anyone, why don’t they just stop this nonsense, we have tons of money, spend it Arsenal or risk another season of nothing.

A last word must go to Barca and how they managed to pass backwards and forwards to the same people and yet mesmerise so called great footballers, the big difference though is at the end, they sling it in to the forwards and shoot, do that enough and a few will go in, the best bit was watching fat boy bitch about everything and Giggs appealing for a penalty as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

Wasn’t it also great to see Messi play with a smile on his face?

And I bet the Camp Nou isn’t a shrine to Guardiola, I wouldn’t say no if he came knocking though, nice guy, always looks like he enjoys it, very humble and ruthless, I’d have him in a heartbeat!

Have a great day Grovers, tomorrow you get Pedro back!

We are being understandably linked with anyone that has a pair of boots and is better than Denilson, which as you can imagine is quite a lot of people right now.

I know who I would like and that list includes Hazard, Benzema and Cahill but realistically we won’t get who we want but I would settle on Young, Falcao and Samba, so there are lots of options for our manager to get stuck into out there.

Today though, I want to concentrate on the deadwood, and by that I don’t want to slag anyone off, I want to be brutally honest and look at players that either haven’t a hope in hell of becoming an Arsenal regular or just are not good enough period, we need Arsene Wenger to become ruthless once again, like he was when he broke up the invincibles and began project youth.

Young guns like Hoyte, Eastmond, Randall and Murphy, they will never become first teamers and as with Jay Simpson before them I think it is cruel to keep them hanging around and going out on loan, when he has no intention of ever using them.

Older players like Eboue, Bendtner, Denilson and Diaby who although have some undoubted talent, have had too many opportunities in this team and failed miserably, time to go.

And players like Almunia and Squillaci who are just rubbish and should be let go with immediate effect.

Then we have the up and coming players like Miquel and Bartley who in my book should join the squad but players like JET who have failed to impress be let go, I mean this is the kid that has a hugely expensive car in a Maclaren so at his age, what has he got to prove? He had a chance this season but hasn’t taken it, do we want a guy with an attitude like that or do we want a scrapper, you know like a Keown, Parlour or Adams.

I know what I would prefer, so for me the first thing Wenger should do is have a massive, massive clear out, be honest and get rid of the kids that will never happen.

Players like Vela who I feel have never been given a chance should be allowed to leave, what’s the point in keeping them if we have no intentions of playing them, and this was after 3 years on loan, how come the Mancs get Hernandez and he goes straight into the team?

Anyway, whilst the Mancs are concentrating on getting hammered by Barca, we should be out there shopping, get our chequebook out Arsene, get rid of the no hopers and save a fortune.

Have a great day grovers, enjoy the golf, there’s nothing else on, unless of course you like F1!

I thought it was amazing to read the comments made by young Jack Wilshere and the advice he is giving to the Mancs about the CL final.

He says you have to defend or you won’t get near them and you have to get in their faces and shut them down, now when I said that in my post the day we played Barcelona, a few people asked me if I played football manager, and did I know more than Wenger, well Jack seems to agree with me, in fact I would say play that way against West Brom as well, all the great teams do which is strange that our manager, who is a real manager (not one that plays like I do) doesn’t see that.

Oh well, we aren’t in the final so it doesn’t matter, Jack said had we not had RVP sent off that was it, well he obviously couldn’t say ‘oh and the Bendtner miss’ as well but hey ho, such is life.

I would like to thank the two observant bloggers yesterday that pointed out to me that French Kevin doesn’t in fact play for Leyton Orient, but plays for a team in France with a similar name, thanks chaps, that would explain why I didn’t see him when we played them twice in the FA Cup, what a silly Billy I am!

I got to thinking yesterday what happens if we don’t sign Benzema for £7mil? Can you believe that story! What should we do, well Chamakh if he stays will be a better player, well he can’t be worse can he? So if we get rid of Bendtner we will have some money so I would get someone to play right wing, and I mean a real winger, and buy a Young or a Hazard and play them wide left and put Theo up front with Robin or Chamakh and go back to playing 4-4-2.

I think it’s time to try Theo up front, he isn’t a winger and if we got a winger we could open up defences more often.

Back to jack’s point about defending, it’s quite funny when your own star player is saying we are crap at defending isn’t it, so we have him telling Wenger that, Denilson saying he wants out because we win nothing and he came to Arsenal to win, Nasri and Clichy refusing to sign contracts, Cesc wanting to play for Barcelona, Wenger really does have a happy team spirit going on there doesn’t he, I wonder if he’ll take note from any of them?

DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH GROVERS!

So with Pat Evra telling Nasri that he should join the Mancs as they are guaranteed a title every year and he’s lost count of how many he has won, Arsene Wenger strikes back with the signings of Jon Toral and Hector Bellerin, way to go Arsene two 16 year olds!

That’ll make Samir Nasri’s mind up won’t it!

Has he learned nothing? We sign two Barca graduates who we will persevere with for 8 years and when they get to being good they suddenly discover they have Barca DNA and want to leave, so we take the pain and they get the gain, no wonder we get them so easily, we are a nursery for Barcelona, they must be laughing themselves silly, we train them and give them plenty of playing time whilst watching them cost us the odd point, then if they are any good they scoop them up ready made, if not they go to Athletico Madrid, what a twit you are Mr Wenger.

Einstein said something about making the same mistake over didn’t he?

I just read that we may be losing Lansbury because Wenger won’t give him assurances he’ll feature next season, I bet he gave Song, Denilson, Bendtner and all his foreign boys assurances though didn’t he!

Have a great day grovers, maybe today we’ll get some good news!

Yesterday was a post born out of years of frustration, today is one born more from hope and expectation. Rumours that we are back in to Leyton Orient for Kevin Gameiro and some freebie have to be wide of the mark, even our manager wouldn’t be so daft as to not learn from his bargain basement failure buys from the French leagues, surely not?

However the Karim Benzema stories will not go away, getting him would be perfect, he is just what we need, another Thierry henry for me and at a good price.

If we sell some of the deadwood I mentioned yesterday we could pay for him with what we raise, smart business, add to that a centreback and a solid DM with wingers Hazard or Young and I think we could win the league.

As we could have this season had he done this last!

Someone suggested I was crying out for Chezzer yesteday and moaned when he and Koscielny screwed up at Wembley, true I did, but I was crying out for Chezzer as opposed to playing either of the other two, I still like him a lot, what this guy failed to mention is I said I would sooner watch Chezzer making mistakes than Almunia or Fabianski, the same holds true now, but you can’t get away from the fact he did screw up at the cup final, me, I would keep him in goal because I beleive he will become the best keeper of his generation, so I’m not looking for a keeper. Keep Chezzer between the sticks.

What is clear is we do need players in the above spots and if Clichy is holding back then sell him and get in a left back that can defend, in the Winterburn and Sansom mould, not in the flying Clichy one, let’s get back to defending.

Verthongen would be another useful signing but I still believe we need a monster at the back to partner Vermaelen, with Kozzer and Djourou as back ups.

Another rumour is we are looking to bring back Paddy as a coach, perfect Arsene if it’s true, he is a leader and would make sure this team went out like warriors.

Usmanov buying up shares is about as useful as a Ryan Giggs injunction, what’s the point? However, I do like the fact that the message he’s sending out is Kroenke won’t have it all his own way, well done that man!

I was thinking about our young DM’s and who could fill that spot if we don’t buy Mascerano (yes my choice), we have Coquelin and Frimpong, both I rate but Coquelin is more the Makelele type for me, we also have Ramsey and Lansbury, now I’m not sure whether or not they are DM’s but they would both battle more than what we have and both are more talented, so maybe we could get away with them for competition to Song, allowing us to spend big on a winger, a centre back and Benzema, what is key though is we keep Nasri.

If Cesc wants out then let him go but replace him with the money, maybe a German Sweinsteiger, Ozil or even bald Wesley from Milan, and talking of him we could do a swap for Song. (I know they don’t play in the same positions)

If we had some of the above they would be young, keeping in with Wenger’s obsession, ball players and mobile so we would still have the bits that the manager demands, with the bits the fans demand, and someone like Paddy to kick their arses into shape, who knows, I may even get my season tickets back!

Have a great day Grovers, I have a feeling we’ll be doing some early doors horse trading, and this time we can really take steps to improve our team for the first time since 2004.

About £7 million a year, because I said that without signing decent players and buying cheap unproven French players instead, that’s what would happen. And I was right, so when people ask me if I could manage Arsenal better, the answer is well I couldn’t do worse could I?

Thing is this whole project youth thing he’s been on is a compulsive, obsessive and frankly stupid trip from start to finish, 2 seasons ago after he cynically subbed the sub, Eboue, and I say cynical because the crowd were about to get on his back, so he sacrificed the sub, by subbing him and allowing him to do footballs longest walk, he got him booed and saved himself. That is a fact.

Then the day after I wrote a post about the Emperors clothes, something that I have to say has been used by several national newspapers many times since, when I said it though it upset many people. What? How can you say that about the man that made Arsenal what it is today.

Since the debacle that has been this season, I am no longer in the minority, am I glad though? Am I hell, I am an Arsenal fan and I hate to see my team play like they are right now. We used to be called the best footballing side in the EPL, not any longer, now we are the laughing stock of the EPL. Not for our football and our recent results, but for our leaders bizarre comments.

Our manager got us drawn against Barca because he fielded weakened sides in our group, then guess what? We got knocked out, then we lost the Carling Cup, why? Because we had a kid in goal and a cheap import in defence, now we are fighting to hold on to our best players, why? Is that my fault?

No, it’s because ambitious players want to win silverware and if I were Cesc or Nasri, I would have been horrified when we signed Chamakh on a free, Squillaci from Seville and Koscielny from a French club I have never seen and nor I suspect had Wenger. I bet Grimandi recommended and Wenger bought on that recommendation.

He said mid season this was his best ever squad, what a ridiculous comment! I think he was great when he spent proper money, now he’s lost it and I have had it, I want my team back.

I hear rumours about Downing and Parker, Parker was a player we should have signed years ago, now he’s the wrong age and probably injury prone, Downing was never good enough and never will be, but compared to say Hazard or Young represents another cheap option, has this man learned nothing?

Arsene if you are reading, go out and buy some decent players, choose from Hazard, Young, Samba, Sackho, Cahill plus a world class DM and a goalscorer, that’s what we need, you don’t need to spend £50 mil on a player that is a stupid thing to say, you won’t even get that for your love child.

Time to wise up and get your cheque book out or time to go somewhere else. Time to put the fans first and your project in the bin, it hasn’t worked, one more season with these players will do nothing, you can’t improve pace, intelligence or guts.

That twit Denilson has played over 160 Premiership games for us and is useless, you have continued to play him even though everyone else thinks he’s crap, now even he has turned on you, open your eyes. It’s beyond stubborn now, it’s become odd, very, very odd.

Here’s a list of players that need to go, if they are as great as you say they are we would raise some serious cash. Almunia, Eboue, Clichy, Denilson, Rosicky, Squillaci, Denilson, Bendtner and at least 80% the kids you have out on loan, they’ll never make it. And stick Song, Koscielny and Chamakh on notice.

Gone are the days when we can let a player bed in the EPL for a year, good players rarely need that.

That’s it, have a great day Grovers, in a few days the window will open, lets just hope that this team is strengthened properly, we’ve waited long enough and Arsene, you have run out of excuses, because of you we are now the laughing stock, the team all the other fans laugh at, you seem to be able to screw up year in, year out and account to no one, but you know what? You account to us and one day you’ll be found out and moved on, don’t ruin your legacy, change now, project youth is dead.