Stan borrowed all money to purchase us… gulp | United wage bill two £100k players a week more than us

October 11, 2011

So the pre-cursor to the Arsenal AGM was interesting, nothing earth shattering, but some good details regardless.

We had a special guest appearance from @Andersred who is the United equivalent of the Swiss Ramble. He came armed with a Powerpoint Presentation and a wealth of interesting graphs, facts and figures. Below is a mix of what he said and what the AST crowd said.

Please digest responsibly…

Facts and Figures

  • Our profit is solely derived from player sales and property… Gulp
  • Queensland will net us £25mill… The last of the property.
  • Our revenue is £225mill, United’s is £300mill… we’re doing great on that front.
  • Historic commercial deals are hampering us…
  • We blew £3mill on Slaughter &May un-tendered for ratifying the Kroenke deal.
  • Stan’s last game was Liverpool vs Arsenal in April.
  • If we miss out on Europe entirely, a fire sale of players Leeds-esque is not an option.
  • Our wages are £125mill… We should finish 4th if wages are an indicator of final league standing.
  • If we don’t finish 4th, that transfer surplus will bridge the finance gap for a year. Bugger…
  • United take all the profit on for kit sales as their shop is owned by Nike. No stock or risk is owned by them.
  • We can’t do a DHL deal, rumour has it that it was an anomaly in the contract that allowed a training kit sponsor deal to happen.
  • Gazidis earned a 60% of salary bonus last year, in line with United’s David Gil. How was he bonused? What was the criteria?
  • Wenger took nigh on £7mill. Again, just to reiterate, no bonus, pure cash. Why would a manager risk salary when he can get it all? The manager doesn’t like paying out the big dollar, but he likes earning it.
  • When you take out bonuses and the cost of MUTV, the wage bills between the two clubs are £9mill apart. United are 2 £100k a week players away from us in cost.
  • Our biggest problem is wage inefficiency. When we were dominating, we were further away from United in wage spend than we are now.
  • According to Red&White… Stan borrowed every penny to takeover Arsenal. He could put it on the club anytime he fancied.
  • United have 21 commercial deals, ten of them with foreign comms companies. If we could be successful on the pitch, we could match that.
  • We only made £2mill on the Asian tour, that could be worth £20mill in 3 years.
  • Stan would make £80mill clear profit of he sold to Usmanov for £14k a share
  • Arsenal marketing department and the medical crew will do a Q&A for AST Members. Tom Fox… we’re gunning for you and that comment you made about season tickets being too cheap. United don’t give their supporter groups access to anyone or any info.

Man City Challenges…

  • They have to lower amortisation.
  • Bring in real comm deals. The Abu Dhabi sweet shop sponsoring their coach wing mirrors for £40million a year won’t be able to sustain that type of continued investment. You’d have to hope the FFP will clamp down on that type of activity as well.
  • Bring through youth. They’ve got a multi-million pound training resort going in, but they’ll need to actually bring through some young talent to offset their massive investment in players.
  • Win on the pitch. Sounds simple, but the best way to improve revenues is to win. Success on the pitch breeds commercial success everywhere else.
  • Increase their match day income (£23mill). Being in the North West where there are so many fun things to do for corporates and fans alike hampers match day revenues and leads to shortfalls in ticket sales. Their match day revenues are embarrassingly low, these need to improve.

What Arsenal do to return as a powerhouse?

  • Become an elite mega brand. Liverpool and United are arguably the only two of those we have currently. We need to speculate to accumulate here if we want that type of status. Madrid did, not they’re on top commercial wise.
  • Can we perform? Again, no one wants to be your friend if you’re not winning. No one will buy your flags, cups and seat plaques if there are no trophies.
  • Can we sort wages? We need to get back to a meritocracy. If Diaby gets jealous and thinks he can earn more elsewhere, let him go. Bring back some pride and the concept of earning a contract.
  • There is a top 6 competing for 4 places. That can’t be sustained. Someone is going to have to wind their salaries in and let the new top 4 settle into life. If we drop out of Europe, that could be us if we don’t watch it. We need to be in that elite to survive at the top.
  • Hope FFP is enforced.

So there are the details, I’ll leave you to pick through them and decide which ones you believe to be important.

For me the highlights are that United’s wage bill is only two top quality signings away from us. That tells me two things, 1) The Stadium absolutely allows us to compete on salaries now, how badly we distribute it compared to the NW club is down to the manager 2) We’ll never be a City like powerhouse (unless Usmanov muscles in), but once the proper commercials roll in, we’ll be able to offer elite salaries and we’ll be able to use surplus cash to buy players.

Our biggest most important fight is about staying in the Champions League. Once that goes it’s a massive uphill battle to get back in. The longer we’re out, the harder it’ll be to fund the massive salaries you need to get there. All our future success off the pitch is about our current success on the pitch.

Whatever way you look at it, complacency has us where we are now. The assumption of the manager he could continue to compete without spending has finally caught up with him. We’ll see how that pans out over the year…

We had a good laugh in the bar after, I met up with people from all over blog world, the away hardcore, the BSM and some of the AST finance chaps. It’s always good to put face to avatars, people might have different points of view, but when you’re face to face and you see the passion people have for the club, you kind of hope Ivan Gazidis and co know how lucky they are to have us… regardless of how much we can be a pain in the ass.

If you want to join the Arsenal Supporters Trust, go to their new website and sign up, your two pound a month gets you far more value than Oxfam.

So… what do you think? Thoughts on a post card…

P.S. I saw the West Ham deal for the Olympic Stadium collapsed, the Government now want to rent it out instead of handing it over to a club. £2million rent a year! Jeez… we take more revenue per game!

326 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

Robin is moving… | Could a formation tweak give us edge? | Chamazing goal

October 10, 2011

When it’s a dead news day, it’s a dead news day. What have a I got fo you? Errr, Chamakh scored a 6 yrd header against the much lauded Tanzania. A goal is a goal though, I’m so glad he knows where it is, I’m seriously dreading the moment Robin pulls up sharply and signals to the bench it’s time for his 3 month mid season holiday.

Still, though we’re yet to see much of Park Chu-young, the clips going around clearly show that he’s a poacher more than anything. He times his runs well and he sniffs out potential openings. Hopefully his movement sparks a bit of inspiration in the other forwards, since the Cesc supply line has dried up I’ve noticed a real lack of movement, probably due to the conclusion our players have drawn that no one will pass forwards. That’s a weak attitude, especially when the team needs everyone to be pulling together.

I still can’t understand why we don’t take it back to basics. Forget the 4-3-3, play a system more adept at coping with the personnel we have at our disposal. If we’re struggling for goals, why not go for two strikers. If we’re struggling to protect the back four, why not play with two centre mids in front of the back four like we did in 98, 02 and 04? Surely there has to be a system that can be built around our new players skill sets?

All of our success has come without a Cesc or a player of his ilk, why not repurpose an old format for a modern team? United don’t have a centre midfielder like Cesc or Sneijder… they seem to do ok?

Arsenal are yet again being linked with a move of Kalou. I can’t for the life of me understand what Wenger’s obsession is with the Ivorian. He’s an ok attacker who has never really made the grade at Chelsea, yet Wenger, like one of those American Highschool movies, sees there is some sort of makeover project involved where he can make the most of his averageness. Jeez… I mean, I appreciate he’d do a better job than Chamakh, but with £50mill in the bank is that as high as we should be aiming? He’s the Black Dirk Kuyt for me… except not as industrious.

I had a chat online with the chaps with the banner, nice blokes, I’m not sure if they’re going ahead with the unveiling now, looks like it’s on hold for a later date… probably a sound idea, especially when you consider the violence we saw at the end of last season in the ground, no one wants to even contemplate trouble like that again. I think the next 5 games are of key importance to any form of protest of banner waving… hopefully we can rescue some pride and launch a battle for 4th. Remember, this league is incredibly competitive now, like last season, as quick as you’re dead and buried, you’re right back in the mix fighting it out again. We weren’t good at all last season, nor was anyone else, hence us being in the mix for so long! It’s all to fight for… we’ve just got to string some performances together.

Finally, Robin Van Persie has put his house up for sale. He’s probably got about 10 of them, but he’s put one up for sale which means he’s going to leave any moment now. Not because he’s moving to a bigger or nicer house, no, it’s because he’s moving in June 2012, so to make extra sure it’ll sell, he’s put it up for purchase 8 months early.

There we have it, not much for you to chew on today! I’m at the AST Finance review tonight, I’ll be able to give you lowdown on what exactly those figures mean for our future strategy and probably some other interesting tidbits in the bar afterwards. Follow it all via the @LeGrove twitter feed.

P.S. Happy birthday Tony Adams, here’s a raised orange juice to one of my favourite Arsenal goals of all time!

495 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

Massive PROTEST banner in – Wenger for England – Kozzer to right back?

October 9, 2011

Hello and welcome to Le Grove, there’s some pretty hardcore topics to be dealing with this morning, not least the planned protest… that comes with a banner!

You’re lucky I didn’t roll with the headline ‘It’s banner time’.

I can’t help but marvel at the inflammatory nature of the beast. I mean, wow, I would not want to be rolling that into a stadium unless I was pretty sure I had the backing of most. It looks like it’s been put together by the embroidery arm of the Weakest Link production team!

As with any of these protests, it’s about timing. Wenger should have gone in the summer, but the bulk of fans won’t be ready to make a statement like that for a while. It’s all muffled, slightly awkward conversations about him going at the moment. From what I understand, the group behind it are called ArsenalAFCnotPLC, a Facebook (742 fans)/Twitter Group (1500 followers) with a name that slightly confuses me considering the fact it’s fully accepted we need to be a good business if we’re to catch United and co.

I digress…

Now I haven’t heard much from them, which is surprising considering what they’re planning on doing. Even more surprising considering the trouble the far more popularised BSM group have been having getting fan backing. I just hope this isn’t a bit of fame hunting for a university project. Getting a banner story into a paper isn’t tough, it’s newsworthy, getting backing through fan sites is where the effort should have been spent, because you have to take on many different points of view and criticism that you might not like.

The overriding concern is that this is happening at all. What a total mess we’re in to be in this situation. People can keep on bleating minority, minority, but it’s becoming ever more obvious that it’s not the minority who are gravely unhappy with the man in charge. Whether October is banner time is another question. I guess my biggest criticism is that if there’s no protest before the game, you’re literally holding up a banner as an individual. If you protest with a thousand people before the match, then go into the game and do it, at least you know you represented more than just yourself and a few mates on twitter.

Good luck to them though, we’re all entitled to an opinion, we’re all allowed to do what we like in this beautifully democratic society, and we can all do as we please in the ground… unless it’s standing up, waving a national flag, taking a plastic bottle in with a lid or carrying a 9 gauge shotgun.

Wenger Escape Route…

My guess is that despite the embarrassing backing Wenger received from Stan and Ivan, if it continues the way it’s going, there’s no way he’ll be allowed to continue. We’re a Robin injury away from total mediocrity.

The Mirror have linked Wenger heavily with England job this morning. They’ve also suggested he chooses a successor.

I do hope that isn’t allowed, he shouldn’t be given any control over who succeeds him, mainly because he has no idea what makes a great modern manager, takes one to know one and all that.

I hope it’s Guardiola, he’s looking for a new challenge, we are a massive one and he’d have money, infrastructure and a youth production line to play with. Very little pressure as well for a few years…

Pepe Reina…

Well I told you last year Pepe Reina was subject a massive bid from Arsenal and he confirmed it today, saying he wasn’t allowed to leave as he was integral to the sale of Liverpool. Bad times… But not so bad now we know we’re set with Chezzer.

Joey Barton…

The Newcastle mouth piece is in the news more than Harry Redknapp these days, I don’t know why he doesn’t set up a blog and call it ‘Ramblings of a cultured Scouser’ or something.

Today he digs out PHW for not knowing what’s going on at his club. Hardly making a point is he? PHW isn’t aware what decade he’s in or what he had for breakfast… the board probably haven’t told him Bergkamp signed!

Again, how low can one club go when the player himself admits the link is hardly that unbelievable considering the state we’re in!

Thomas Vermaelen…

The good news I’ll leave you on is the news we already knew, Thomas should be back after the international break, which is a giant fat relief to everyone. I’m not sure really what we’re pining for with Thomas. Is it the accountability and leadership, is it his pace and power that he puts into everything or is it a bit of quality and stability? He’s one of those players who has hero qualities.

Who does he go next to? In my mind it has to be Per Mertesacker… A little and large combo. Pace and aerial dominance. I’d also consider sticking Kozzer in at right back. Our backline needs all the strength it can get, he’s more than capable of filling in and he’s fully up to speed with Premiership life.

How is your defence lining up for the coming few months? Is Jenko ready? Can Coquelin slip in there? Is it right to move a centre back to full back?

Let us know on a banner! Sorry, I mean in a comment!

 

517 Comments | New Review | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

Park Chu-Young looking sharp in training – Oxo for England? Leave off!

October 8, 2011

Well good morning Grover friends, how are you today? Cold I’d imagine, how dare October throw a non-barbecue Saturday at us. Outrageous.

Yesterday was good fun hearing everyone throw their first Gooner heroes our way. I was actually amazed at the diversity of the players. There’s a tendency to think that everyone online is roughly within the same age category, when in fact, I’d say it seems more like the people online are actually 30+. I had plenty of Steve Williams, Frank Stapleton (followed by ‘Until he broke my heart’), Liam Brady (Until I met the moody bastard) and Champagne Charlie Nicholas (Until he drank my pint).

We had Malcolm McDonald, Kenny Samson and two for Dennis Evans who I confess, I had to google! The usual suspects of a modern era of Gooner were there, David Rocastle, the prolific Ian Wright, Ray Parlour, plenty of Merson love, Tony Adams, Anders Limpar… right through to the Rioch / Wenger crowd of Bergkamp, Thierry, Freddie, Kanu and Pires. Surprisingly, very few mentioned Paddy?

It just goes to show you, a hero is a hero, regardless of technical ability. It’s about that connection with the fans, you’ve either got it or you don’t. If you can work hard for the crowd, they’ll love you regardless. This current side needs a hero to step forward.

Robin Van Persie is already there, he battles, he fights, he can be sublime he can be petulant but he always has us on our feet… I’ve said before, I think half the problem at the Emirates is that we don’t have long enough to accustom ourselves to our players. I remember when we used to sing at Highbury, we’d have a song for Thierry, Paddy, Freddy, Bobby, Jens and Campbell. How many players do we have songs for now? Nasri left after we wasted a cracker on him, Cesc has gone… outside those two… I’m really struggling?

International Round up…

England qualified and that’s about as far as I’d like to go with that story. A durgy performance with one highlight which was an excellent crossed assist for Theo Walcott. He managed to find Ashley Young in a crowded box, a minor miracle you have to say, Young buried the header and that’s as much as I’d like to talk about. Cahill did poorly towards the end, cue every Arsenal fans on the web to say he’s not worth it… I really don’t think we can be gloating about a defensive mistake the state we’re in.

Wayne Rooney managed to get himself sent off, who cares, it’s Wayne, he’s beyond reproach, unlike his father who was nicked yesterday for betting irregularities. Hilarious stuff… surely Wayne put some sanctions on the pocket money he no doubt gives his Dad?

‘Luuuk Dad, noooo foooking scamming naaa I’m a prufessional for Younited’

Muppet…

I was out with a pal of Ashley Young recently, he was very keen for a move to Arsenal, shame we missed the boat there, the man is on fire.

Park Chu-Young…

I heard yesterday the reason Park Chu-Young had been omitted from recent games is that he had a bit of trouble acclimatising to the country, he was all over the place, new language, new house, new side of the road to drive on, higher level of fitness etc… word had it that he was looking very sharp in training, hence why he was preferred to Chamakh against Spurs. No sooner had I made that tweet, he’d banged in two goals against Poland. Both poachers goals, one with his right, one with his left. He’s certainly got a nose for goal and Poland aren’t total mugs when it comes to international football, though it was Flappy between the sticks…

Oxo..

No sooner has he had a few good games for the under 21′s, is he now being touted for a start against Spain. Bloody hell, can we at least let him get a run in the first team before we start putting him in the frame for the senior squad. There is nothing more boring in the world of football than the 5 or 6 days I go to work every morning and all I read about is England.

I really don’t think Oxo is ready to subjected to that pressure. Sure, he’s a top talent, he’s intelligent and he can score goals. Let’s not think that makes him world class, let’s not conclude that he’s ready to tear the Champions League a new one and let’s not pretend he doesn’t have flaws in his game that need ironing out before he’s thrown into a spotlight brighter than Arsenal.

Theo Walcott suffered this same issue. He was the future before his feet had stopped growing. No one took time to analyse his raw game and assess what he was actually good at… namely, running. He then spent 2 years getting over his England rejection, then he picked up 9 million injuries and only now are we starting to see any sort of player coming through (and he’ll probably leave).

17 is not the natural age to make a break through. We need to manage his fitness regardless of how many game he plays. Look at what Fergie does? His kids start playing first team around 20 and they work their core strength up from there… then they generally don’t spend their entire careers in the medical centre.

Favourite Old School Boots…

Right… today, as it’s a Saturday and most of you will be looking at Rugby, I’m interested to know what your favourite childhood football boots were? Mine were a pair of soft classic black and white Puma Kings, back when they were a good boot. I lost them to a training ground theft back in the ninties, my game never recovered, hence why I’m not on International duty now… Rumour has it, Geoff had a pair of white boots in the seventies… playing on the killer fields of East London… I’ll let him shed more light on that!

See you in the comments… COME ON ENGLAND!

279 Comments | New Review | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

First Gooner hero? | Ox in the box | Wenger for England? | Gazidis says wages not an issue?

October 7, 2011

Morning Grovers, much to power through today… you might want to take this in two parts!

Robin not so reliant?

So the Robin Van Persie saga has begun to pick up pace, lines like, ‘you never know in football’ and ‘I just want to focus on my game’ are rearing their ugly head from the Dutch training camp. It’s all a bit miserable in the Arsenal news-sphere, which is a shame, but really, it’s a product of Wenger’s reluctance to sign what he needed when we needed it. If Robin goes in the summer, I wish him all the best, we do have to remember though, he hardly ever played for us and that’s cost us dearly over the years. Replacing him with Benzema like pedigree is what has to happen next summer because as far as I can see, there are no careers we could kill by bringing in someone next  year.

Recruitment Consultant…

I read Sven Goran Eriksson talk about Wenger for the England job, if a manager was ever more suited to an International role than Wenger, I haven’t seen them. He’s help put a decent infrastructure in place, he’d come with unanimous respect from all fans and I’m pretty sure he’d do a great job. If he was wavering by the end of the season, could you blame him?

Ox in the box…

Ox in the box...

Our new wing wizard continued his impressive form for the u21′s last night tearing the Icelandic’s a new one, citing their high interest loan scams as inspiration.

I watched the game and although the opposition was poor, you couldn’t help by enjoy the silky skills of the Ox. He’s more in the mould of Adam Johnson than Theo. He’s not lightening but he has a footballing brain. He has vision, his dribbling is creative and he does have a poachers instinct.

A few people cited a comment I gave to The Mirror in the summer where I said,

‘I’m sure Oxlade-Chamberlain is going to be a good player, but it leaves you wondering: ‘Where are Arsenal’s priorities?’

I stand by that and being 15th having conceded 16 in 7 is testament to that comment.

People need to give him a chance to grow. Don’t over burden him with saving our club like we’ve done with so many youth players over the past 5 years and remember, he’s not coming into a squad like Cesc did… It’s a totally different situation.

It’s interesting how many people are desperate for him to displace Theo. Imagine that scenario come the summer when Capello has some tough choices to make. Hopefully the emergence of competition will push Theo on to bring a bit more devastation to his game. I feel an exciting tussle for a start brewing…

Defensive issues…

Per Mertesacker said that communication issues and a lack of familiarity have led to ‘inevitable’ mistakes at the back this season. He’s right, Wenger gave the back 4 no chance signing up players so late.

I was chatting to the guy from Arsenal Column last night about how our back line could be improved, we agreed playing as a unit was key, 4 average players can work together to form an amazing unit. Look at what Fulham consistently do. The question that lingered was whether we had the coaching staff to implement such a tactic? You know… Pull the defence to one side to work on their weaknesses? I still think we need to force accountability on players, we need to use video analysis to its fullest. It’s my understanding that this doesn’t currently happen. Fine when you’re dealing with the invincibles, not so fine when you’re dealing with lower calibre players.

Jack Wilshere…

A little turd on twitter made some very nasty taunts to Jack online the other day about his child and sadly, the Sun has flagged it in today’s paper. Giving a racist thug notoriety like that will only fuel his ego. The less press web warriors get the better in my opinion… the hypocrisy that I’ve mentioned it is not lost on me.

Gazidis and Sponsorships…

Ivan reckons we’ll be in a healthy position if we miss out on Europe for a year. Now if Europe is with £40mill, and we make £15mill profit year, all I can see is a heavy loss. Unless we use the Queensland road money as our safety net… or worse still… the TPA of £53mill… or heaven forbid, selling more players.

The very fact we’re talking about this is worrying. Excuses in the pipeline. I guess the biggest fear would be no Europe at all, the way we’re playing, we’re an annual Robin injury away from that being a reality.

According to the BBC, we’ve opened negotiations to extend the shirt deal. We’re so far behind on that front, even Spurs have doubled our takings. I guess the big problem is selling us in… We’re on a downward plane… Success on the pitch affects sponsorship deals. If we’re not in Europe, we’re not getting a monster deal.

“Arsenal don’t have a salary ceiling. I don’t know where that story comes from.”

The above comment was funny, I’ve been saying the same all summer, Wenger is on a monster wage, we paid Thierry £10mill in his last season and Cesc was taking £3mill summer bonuses on top of being the highest paid at the club. If an unsackable manager suggests we pay someone £140k a week, do people honestly think the board would say no?

Now, I’d never want to stir, but Gazidis said there were substantial funds available to Wenger a few weeks ago (AKB Myth 1 busted), now he’s just stated there is no wage ceiling (AKB Myth 2 busted)… I’m pretty sure Gazidis put the summer debacle on Arsene?

For more enlightenment on Finance, check out the Swiss Ramble. Who by the way raised the issue of our poor scouting network. Now, I’ve heard that the club are reviewing the way we operate in that department as they too have noticed we’re not churning out the gems we used to. When no one was scouting properly, it was easy for Wenger to take the rich pickings, now everyone has taken his ideas and improved on them. Time for a rethink…

Alex Fynn Podcast…

I haven’t listened to it yet, but Alex is a man with great Arsenal insight, his books are great and his tweets are worth a read. (Podcast)

1st Gooner Hero…

Last international break we talked about your most memorable transfer target. Mine was Patrick Kluivert in 98, I was glued to ’140′ on ITV’s teletext all summer only to be gutted when he eventually went to Barcelona… and bombed.

Today, we’ll be mostly asking who your first hero was at Arsenal. Was it a striker famous for banging in 30 goals, was it a midfielder renowned for dominating the park or was it a centre back revered for putting his head in the line?

My first hero of Arsenal was a toss up between Paul Merson and Ray Parlour. I’ve gone for Merson. He was our right midfielder who burst onto the scene in 1989, his penchant for the spectacular long range effort and his mazy dribbling skills made him a fan favourite in the early nineties. He bagged 99 goals for us during his chequered career at the club, his trophy haul was pretty incredible as well, bagging 7 trophies during his stint with us.

When he came out and admitted that he had a booze and cocaine problem, I can remember being truly gutted. Obviously being 9, I tried to source some cocaine for myself to be like my hero, but the prohibitive expense of the substance far outweighed my £2.50 a week pocket money. Jokes aside, even as a child, I felt the magnitude of what he’d owned up to.

He was one of the first relatively big names to get shown the back door when Wenger came in, a bold move by the manager, but he had big plans for the club and I think he wanted to remove the booze culture that was so prominent in the dressing room. I think the last great goal I remember him scoring for us was against Borussia Monchengladbach.

The reason his memory stands out for me is that he signed a poster for me when he bumped into my old man in a Hornchurch pub. Story goes he was absolutely smashed hanging out with Tony Adams but he was more than happy to address it to me. I still have the poster to this day!

Since going into punditry, he’s lost a little bit of sparkle with some of the fans, but at least you know he only says what he thinks, he’s probably not sharp enough to be agendarised! I’ll always love him regardless…

Who was your first Gooner hero? Let us know in the comments!

P.S. A big shout out to Steve Jobs, Geoff got me onto Mac years ago and I’ve never looked back since. His vision brings you Le Grove every morning via a mobile phone. An artistic genius who knew the value of quality… He’d have made a great Arsenal manager, no doubt.

It’s funny, I watched his Mac World 97 come back, he spoke about the reshuffle of the board, he said,

“We’d like to do more in software, so we thought bringing a software expert to the board was a good idea”

Logical, shame our board don’t see the value in a football equivalent.

Have a great day!

396 Comments | New Review | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

Wojciech Szczesny lines up Barcelona but Jack’s happy to stay, for the moment anyway.

October 6, 2011

Nice one, we just lost Cesc and Samir, Cesc of course to Barca and we start to worry about the players on the edge, like Robin, Andre and Theo, then along comes our new keeper, who only just got in our team and says this…

‘I can’t declare that I will spend my entire career here, but if I leave I will have a very important reason or I will go to Barcelona’, the 21-year-old told the Polskatimes.

Then Jack comes out and brands Wenger criticism a joke but adds he is happy at Arsenal, for the minute! He says…

‘All I think about is playing at the highest level and in the top competitions so I can measure myself against the best in the world’

Which is great until we aren’t playing Champions League football, then what? And people, we are more likely not to be playing ECL football than we are right now, so which ever side of the fence you are on, think about that! Worrying or what?

I just wrote a post and lost the lot, so this is my second attempt, forgive me if it seems a bit hurried. Blooming technology!

So Chezzer just gets in the team and he is already taking the piss out of journo’s and hoodwinking the blogs, well not the smart ones like Le Grove! Top man Chezzer.

Jack says the criticism of Wenger is madness because we have had a slow start and we can still make the top four, well that statement is wrong because if you add our poor start to our poor finish last season, we are a team in crisis, in fact we are crap and playing relegation football, and targeting a top four place in October really shows the confidence in this team, …I think not.

So we were originally worried about our fringe contract players like Robin, Theo and Andre, now we have to add Jack and Chezzer to that list as well, who next? Happy days!

Wenger says that the reason Kaka can’t get in the Madrid side is because Ozil is keeping him out, really? You mean the player we were begging you to sign when he was on show in the under 21′s all those years ago, so when people ask me if I could do a better job, on that basis I think the answer is yes, I could.

Not long to go and we get to see our team play a team that is worse than us, Sunderland, yes I know we said the same thing about Blackburn but our team has played a bit together since and look like they mean business.

I’m guessing Jenkinson will be our right back for the next 3 months so we have that to look forward to and when Sagna returns it will be like having a new signing, talking of which I wonder if we’ll get to see Ryo or Park anytime soon, perhaps even against Sunderlland?

Not a lot of news out there Grovers so that’s it for today, Pedro is back tomorrow so have a good’un!

465 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Geoff

The Arsenal song was national TV disgust, but the broken leg didn’t get a mention, get a grip twitchy.

October 5, 2011

I remember watching West ham when Harry was playing for them, I also remember Clyde Best and Ade Coker getting bananas thrown at them , bought from Mason’s the greengrocers at the Boleyn, you know what was funny about that? (funny peculiar, not ha, ha) They were thrown by the West Ham fans, at their own players. I was so appalled I slipped out, no room for that in football I thought as a forward thinking 8 year old.

Now I don’t remember Harry coming out and saying he was disgusted by that and he was in that team, I also don’t remember Harry being disgusted by the appalling challenge that broke Sagna’s leg and the scumbag spuds hanging over him spitting their foul mouth abuse at the poor bloke. Of course none of that was shown on the news, was it?

No, all that twitchy was concerned about was the song some of our fans were singing about Saint Ade. The song was nasty, but all fans sing nasty songs, it’s football, the previous week the Mancs and Leeds fans were at each other with Munich and Turkey songs.

I am not in anyway saying banana throwing is okay, of course it isn’t, I’m just telling you what happened and the fact the twitchy has a selective memory. In some countries opposing factions cut each others limbs off, so please, get a perspective. Listen to some of M&M’s lyrics.

I’ll leave that one alone and move on to our hopeless board and our hapless manager.

October the 3rd and Wenger concedes the title, wow, that has to be a record, we are now trying for fourth, unbelievable! And he get’s paid £7mil a season for that, give it back Wenger.

We said in July with the signings he made we would win nothing, when we sold our best players in August, I said we wouldn’t finish in the top four and what atrocious management it was to sell them then. Ask Pedro, he and I have a £50 bet on whether we finish in Europe next season.

Then we panic bought, dreadfully, buying Park who hasn’t played yet (save a Carling Cup half), a good 17 year old from Southampton’s academy, a chav has-been, a 29 year old midfielder (who is good) and a tall German (who is also good). The good ones should have been bought in May though.

Add that to the second best player at Lille and a Charlton 19 year old who played just 8 games for them and I would say they were the actions of a shocking manager, I still say that because they were.

When I saw we were bringing on Yossi at Spurs on Sunday I cringed, what happened to the days when we’d bring on Freddie, Dennis or Pires, my God what depths has this man taken us to. It was the same fear I had when I saw Glen Helder warming up.

Moving on to project youth, why have we spent a record amount of money on Oxo? Not that he’s not a top prospect, but given that we scout the world for top young talent at the expense of silverware, why have we spent £24mil on 3 players from someone else’s youth set up? Walcott, Oxo and Jenkinson? I thought that’s why we had an academy?

If we were so good at finding them, how come we have to raid other people’s academies to find them? And pay so much. You could add Cesc and Robin to that too but I won’t, surely his plan was to build the best academy and grow our own, so far all I have seen is Jack, one player in 15 years, way to go boss.

Gibbs was bought from Wimbledon, Chezzer was playing for Legia Warsaw (I think) and even Coquelin was playing for some other team in France before we bought him.

Anyway today I got the interim report and accounts from Arsenal, PHW says the main objective, and I quote ‘is to sustain our long term success on the field’ really, when was that then, I must have blinked?

Then Gazidas goes on to brag (yes I kid you not, he really is pleased with himself) that although we made a massive investment in new staff and swanky offices he is pleased to announce that after only 2 years the income we are now generating exceeds our investment in staff.

Goodness me, 2 years and we are only now paying for them, these people must live on the planet Zog, if they were in the real world they would have been sacked by now, in fact if the were at Man United they would have been sacked by now.

You are probably thinking why have I nothing positive to say? Well that’s because there is nothing, we have had injuries like this for years, we must be doing something wrong, we have had a whole footballing generation to make project youth work, it hasn’t, we go out and play the spuds and for the first time in EPL history (Ladbrokes said, not me) and we were the underdogs, that’s not progress, that’s regression and until this manager and this board go, nothing will change.

This team will win nothing, and now at least Wenger has told us 8 months early we won’t win the league, shame he didn’t say that at season ticket renewal before he conned the fans once again. You watch the attendance now.

Me I want a manager that wants to win the league and builds a team that can win the league. And starts in May, not the second week in August, I also want Usmanov and not Kroenke to take over.

This is just my opinion and not the same shared by Pedro, but after Sunday I can’t see this manager has given us anything to look forward to save a lucky run in one of the cups.

No wonder Nasri and Cesc left, Ade’s been through 3 teams since he went and is still on the winning side, what on earth does that tell you?

Have a great day Grovers, at least we are still in the Rugby world cup.

606 Comments | New Review | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Geoff

Nasty, wicked, society damaging chants | Best player injured | Arsenal power shift?

October 4, 2011

Many things to thrash through today, first on the agenda is ghastly songs sung at the ground on Sunday. Now whilst not wanting to condone them, we have to accept that football fans aren’t always the sharpest and pack mentality can make even the most civilised behave badly.

They sang a mean song about Wenger, we sang a mean song about Ade. They sang a another mean song. We reciprocated. Isn’t this childish? If this were school kids, you’d be embarrassed listening to it.

Ask yourself this though, did anyone die? Is anyone going to have their life altered by a bunch of silly people acting up for 90minutes in a heated derby? Unlikely…

Like it or loathe it, sport is about gaining an advantage by hook or crook. If fans think they can get under opposition skin, they’ll sing whatever they can. It’s war out there.

Calling for Police action is a ridiculous waste of Government money. Haringey Council resource is better spent dealing with the massive drug problems they have, or exposing the disgusting rioters who burnt down innocent people’s livelihoods in the name of greed.

Sick chants are nothing new, they’ll never go away and if we clamp down where does it stop? How much more sterile do we want to make the game?

If Spurs are serious about taking action, we’ll see people losing their seats. That’s how you hurt football fans. Do businesses do that to thousands of paying customers? Of course they don’t… Would Arsenal ban all the away fans who spend a massive portion of their income supporting their club round the world during a recession? Of course they wouldn’t… It’s not practical.

Sport is sport, you lose yourself for 90 minutes in the stands, sometimes the humour in the songs is near the edge, sometimes it goes too far… but honestly, there are worse things in life to contend with. I’m sure Ade and Arsene don’t shed any tears… plenty of people earning far less deal with far worse… police and paramedics to name but a few.

I fully accept that racism should be punished and I totally deplore the disgusting Arsene Wenger chant. But come on, ‘You should have burned in the riots’ and ‘It should have been you’ to Adebayor? Jeez… it wouldn’t even get a laugh in a comedy club most of the outraged would pay to visit and hear far worse (Yeah, people love to be outraged online. Most are massive hypocrites).

As for ‘Arry wondering what songs like that could do for society, well, I think he needs to open his eyes, there are far worse things the youth of today could be doing than going to a football match with their parents and hearing a few bad words. Part of the fun when I was a youth was having that, ‘Don’t tell mum you heard Dad call the referee a w*nker’ secret. It was all part of the male bonding process and on reflection, I’ve turned out ok.

Fu&king, sh*t, c**t, b0l*ocks.

Power shift…

Talk of a power shift between the north London clubs is a touch premature. Spurs have some good players, but their ability to play as a team didn’t really shine through at the weekend. Just on Spurs fans, my god, what are they putting in the water down there? I couldn’t let most of their comments on yesterday due to their utter disregard for the English language. So much use of teenage text, words like ‘mega lolz’ don’t make it through people.

Sagna…

Bacman underwent surgery yesterday on his broken leg, that puts him out for three months hut hopefully because it wasn’t an ankle injury, or something more complex, he should be back bang on schedule.

Chezzer…

How refreshing is it to hear a player come out and admit a mistake? The player of the season so far admitted he let Walker’s shot slip under his arm and that he was disappointed. Good for him, shame he has a back injury. The last thing our defence needs right now is Flappy between the sticks.

Video Refs…

A lot of people have gone online to blame referees for our woeful start to the year. Standard excuses really, we know we haven’t had the rub of the green, but I’m afraid our problems go far beyond just plain old bad reffing.

I watched rugball at the weekend and noted how long it took the video panel to make a decision, sometimes three minutes. What would football fans prefer, a few minutes wait and the right decision or no wait, maybe a ruckus followed by a terrible decision?

Give me the right one all day… and that’s both ways. I’d always prefer to beat a rival the right way, it gives them less manoeuvrability on the excuse front.

Have a great day Grovers!

432 Comments | New Review | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

Arsenal beaten by an incredibly average Spurs side. What does that tell you?

October 3, 2011

A tough post to open, mainly because I’m in danger of sounding as repetitive as an Arsene Wenger post match interview. I’ve said most of this a thousand times before, that’s why this week, Geoff and I haven’t really let up because all the positivity in the world doesn’t change the fact that the club have wilfully let the manager pursue a path that sees us watching an average team that is so far removed from the teams of yesteryear, it’s hardly recognisable.

Spurs lined up with a better starting 11 than us, anyone who told you otherwise was kidding themselves. A club without Champions League football and the benefit of £55million extra a year in wages has a squad with at least 5 players who’d walk into our strongest squad.

Our fortunes have sunk so low that we had to field a complete novice in a central position, who as it turned out was on of the few shining lights in a storm of sloppy averageness.

The game didn’t really begin with the fire and fury I’d hoped. Both teams tentatively tested the water. Aaron Ramsey was immediately flagged as a problem with his sluggish passing and thoughtless distribution.

Parker had the first solid chance of the afternoon, breezing into our penalty box but shooting into the large frame of Chesney (Parker proved he wasn’t worth a punt eh?).

Coquelin was spraying the ball around very nicely, he looked far more composed than Frimpong in the middle and held his position relatively well.

Theo was the only Arsenal player interested in testing their goal having three speculative shots.

Our biggest problem seemed to be the almost total lack of movement. Whether attack doesn’t trust midfield to find their runs or attack is just too lazy to make runs is open for debate.

Our defence was struggling, Spurs runs weren’t being tracked and Gibbs was so badly out of position Song turned into a make shift left back for large parts of the half, this ruined the shape of a backline that would struggle with Ashley Cole in it.

The opener came from Ade who floated a ball over the top, RvDV controlled it with his hand and buried it with no challenge. Mertesacker was guilty, as was Gibbs who was nowhere to be seen. The goal was unlucky on our part, but that’s the way the game goes, you can’t blame the ref for not seeing something most of us only picked up on after 6 replays.

The second half started with Bale blazing narrowly over from a tight angle. Then our opener came, Song picked up the ball from outside the area, took it wide, cut back into the box where Rambo was on hand to finish. A vital lifeline which at the time, I felt was deserved.

Adebayor had the chance to give Spurs the lead when he waltzed in on goal through the middle, only to be denied by a spectacular Chesney save.

Gibbs lost Kaboul down the other end, his cross was intercepted well by Mertesacker. Then their match winner came, the ball cleared to the edge of the box, bang, Kyle Walker had a speculative dig, Chesney didn’t follow the trajectory and let it slip tamely under his arm. A soft goal and the 3rd or 4th time I can remember us being taken down by a Spurs long-range effort.

The same old story occurred after we went a goal down, we gave up. The bench had nothing to offer. Sagna went off injured and calamity Jenks came on and showed why you shouldn’t shop in League 2. Benayoun was thrown into the mix to little effect. The total lack of urgency from our boys was epitomised by our sluggish passing around the backline after 90mins had past. Did they even know there was a game to chase I wondered?

No creativity, no spark, no win. Against a Spurs side that were there for the taking.

We’ve lost 4 out of our opening 7 which is an absolute disaster, even worse when you consider what went before it.

Conclusion…

My hope was that Wenger would by now be under some intense boardroom pressure. Sadly, we’ve got a club owner more interested in what Billy Beane has to say about his manager than the fans who pay to watch his team do.

We’re a mess. We’ll be lucky to finish in the top 7 with a squad as poor as ours. This all happened under Wenger’s watch. Who cares though, the board don’t. The manager is an invincible. Forget the fact any club worth its salt would have had him out the door after the United game.

We can’t defend, we don’t know how to attack. What a combo eh? Robin Van Persie is our superstar striker with no supply line. Theo Walcott is impotent without balls over the top and Gervinho seems to be regressing at quite a pace.

At the back we’ve got our best DM as a centre back and distributing like a muppet. Mertesacker runs around the pitch like he’s being pelted by imaginary dodge-balls and Kieran Gibbs is a total disgrace of a left back. Does he even know where left back is? Our only defensive player worth anything now finds himself crocked for 3 months. Who did the bargain basement king think could cover a world class right back? Carl ’8 games in League 2′ Jenkinson. You couldn’t make it up.

As for our midfield… Jeez, what can you say? Aaron Ramsey looks totally lost. I like him, I really do but if there was ever a player in need of a loan move to Wigan, it was him. He’s not in form yet he’s being relentlessly played. It’s verging on unfair. His passing and all round play was awful yesterday, it wasn’t Premiership standard. Would he be getting first team game time at United? No way. He’d be on loan at Sunderland.

Arteta can only be described as a flop. He’s added steal to our midfield but nothing creatively. He barely plays an advanced pass. He also gives possession away excessively. Coquelin impressed yesterday, but again, not in a world class way, more in a, ‘well, he’s done ok for a kid’ way.

This is it though… That team yesterday isn’t missing too much. Jack will come back, brilliant, I love him, but don’t convince yourself he’s coming back armed with 20 assists and 20 goals. TV should be fit soon, again, I love him, but he oversaw a defence that leaked 42 goals next to the better Gallas. We’re really struggling… this isn’t doom, this is the reality of what happens when a manager has a spectacular fall from grace. This is what happens when checks and balances are ignored or aren’t in place at all, this is what happens when the culture of the club is more geared towards celebrating financial results than proper silverware.

This isn’t a blip, this is a sustained loss of form stretching back over 20 games. This is October, we’ve conceded 16 goals in 7 games and we’ve scored 7 points putting us 15th in the league. This is a full on crisis and the guy running our club reckons Wenger leaves when he fancies it? What an absolute embarrassment of statement, but one that totally sums up how much footballing nous Stan has. What can we do though? Nothing will change. We’re sat here, like lemons, just watching the club we love slip down the drain of mediocrity. Come the end of the season, we’ll be watching our best players leave, we won’t be in the Champions League and half the fan base will be blaming referees and injuries than coincidentally have plagued us for 5 years.

It’s time for Stan to wake up and smell the coffee, the problem is Wenger and the longer he stays, the worse the wreckage is going to be at the end of the season. I’m sure he’ll get round to sorting out the club eventually, the basket ball, NFL and Ice Hockey leagues have to finish at some point right?

Player Ratings

Chezzer: A few Gooners said to me before the game, ‘if it weren’t for Chezzer, we’d be getting relegated’, how right they are. He pulled off some blinding saves, but has to be disappointed he let the Kyle Walker shot evade him. 7.5

Gibbs: Generally. If you’re looking for this man on the pitch and the opposition is in attack, he’ll usually be on the right or 40 yards behind play. He needs to be pulled to one side and shown over an hour just how bad he was yesterday. 3

Song: Didn’t do badly considering he was covering 2 positions and playing next to the jittery Mertesacker. His passing was very poor in the main but he did land and assist. 6

Mertesacker: What a mess eh? He’s very immobile and he’s very nervous. He let Adebayor run riot at times yesterday and he generally had a very poor game. 4

Sagna: Our best defender, sadly not out for 3 months. 6.5

Arteta: Not dominating the midfield they way a player of his age and experience should be. He’s really disappointed so far. He’s like a less irritating Denilson. 5

Ramsey: Very shoddy performance from a player who no doubt has the talent to make it big. He landed a goal, but that didn’t make up for his bad game. 3.5

Coquelin: The young Frenchman played really well considering his age and experience. He made som great tackles, didn’t shirk responsibility and put Frimpongs passing in the shade. He’s still very raw, but the signs are good. 7

Robin: How can you score if no one passes to you? Isolated in the main and totally ineffective. 6

Gervinwho: Can’t remember him do anything other than running up blind alleys and giving the ball away. 4.5

Theo: Had a few shots early one, but faded as the game wore on. He doesn’t look interested at times, why would he, he knows King Kenny has a £7million contract waiting for him in Scouse Land. 5

741 Comments | New Review | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

Arsenal / Spurs is here… Buckle up!

October 2, 2011

So here we are, North London derby day, in a few hours we’ll know how hard we’re going to have to fight to take 4th spot. We’ll have a good idea of how good the squad is and hopefully, we’ll have full bragging rights for the office on Monday morning.

One thing is for sure, it wont be boring. The last 2 games have seen 11 goals. We can’t keep clean sheets, nor can Spurs. If the excitement of watching 2 decent attacks taking on 2 weak defences wasn’t enough… There are also grudge matches galore.

Adebayor, a marmite player during his Arsenal days went the whole hog and has now become a bonafied hate figure amongst the Arsenal faithful. The players won’t be fans either, he cleared out the changing room of their boots on the last game of the 09 season. Then there is the grudge with Robin after he raked his face with his boots. So plenty of passion there.

There’s also Scott Parker who was desperate to join Arsenal but was shunned as a career killer.

So where are the big battles tomorrow? The first is the middle of the park. Frimpong versus the experience of RvDV and Modric could be embarrassing. That’s why I’d be very tempted to opt for Coquelin. It’s a shame either those two are under consideration, we should have bought a back up in the summer. The Arsenal first team is not where you serve apprenticeships.

The other battle we’ll face is Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon. They’ll no doubt be switching wings all afternoon. Against Sagna no problem, he’s the best in the business for me. Against Santos or Gibbs… Well, that could spell trouble. Discipline is going to be key here… Will Wenger prep them? Will he urge caution? Who knows, if United was a tactical barometer to go by… No.

In goal we’re settled. He needs to dominate that box like Wenger dominates Pat Rice. If he gives Ade a sniff he’s feeling nervous we’re in trouble.

In attack, we’re looking seriously dangerous if Gervinho, Robin and Theo are fit. We’ll get chances, we just need to be ruthless taking them. We need to be direct when it’s needed and pass when someone is in a better position. All basic stuff, but ignored at cost recently.

Gut instinct tells me this is going to be a rough afternoon… Still, how many times over the last few years has form mattered? If we can nick a goal early and play like we did in the first half against Blackburn, we have a chance.

Tommy V…

Our Belgian beast came out to defend rumours he’d suffered a set back to say he was on track for a swift return via Twitter.

Where did the incorrect rumour come from? Arsene Wenger… what a laugh eh! I guess it must be a force of habit telling the Press Vermaelen has suffered a set back.

Anyway, good news… We need his spirit in the side big time.

Finances…

I’ll leave the detail to the Swiss Ramble, but some key points of note that won’t be new to you are…

Our wage bill shades Liverpools and we’ll have the 4th highest bill in the country.

Match revenue sits at £93mill… No club profits from its season ticket holders like Arsenal do. Congrats everyone.

Commercial revenue sits £70mill short of United. If we want to catch them, we need trophies and to renew our commercials on a high. According to Tim Payton of the AST, if we could have market value on those deals now, we could easily afford a wage bill higher than United.

Ivan Gazidis and his talk of ‘keeping our powder dry’ on the transfer front is nonsense. If we’re out of the Champions League, our revenue loses £40mill. We should be going all out to ensure we’re in that competition next year. Going out would cripple us.

Back onto the game.

COME ON YOU REDS!

1,257 Comments | Match Preview | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Pedro

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 553 other followers