FUN GUY!
Well this week has been exciting so far. Cazorla is apparently in town for a medical today after being given absence of leave by Malaga yesterday. He’ll be coming over to us for about £16million on a £70,000 a week contract. That pretty much smashes our transfer record and the fact that the guy is 27 makes it all the more exciting. Creative midfielders come into their peak around this age and we’re hopefully about to witness a superb 4 years from an amazing talent.
That’s not us done though. Oh no. Next up will be Nuri Sahin on a season long loan. He was in and out of the Madrid line up last year so he’ll be using Arsenal to rekindle some form and to regain some fitness. I have no idea what the plan will be for the year after. Madrid tend to be over stocked with midfielders, so the might have him back or they might sell him off to us for a good price. You’d imagine we’ve worked out some sort of option to buy.
It’s always a bit of a double edge sword when you bring players in on loan. If they’re incredible, you tend not to get them back. I guess the hope for Arsenal is that even if he is amazing, we’ll have a fully fit Jack Wilshere if he does go. Our young player will also benefit immensely from a season with a top, top player.
Was Baptista the last player we loaned from Madrid?
My main focus is on what happens this year, and so far, our midfield and attacking options are looking extremely positive. We actually have a squad for once. You can’t deny that’s an exciting prospect. We’ve gone from being dependent on one person to having 3 players capable of over 20 goals a season. We’ve gone from being dependent on one man converting half chances, to having a midfielder who can create simple tap ins for multiple players.
Robin shouldn’t be thinking about leaving next season, he should be thinking about staying on without signing a deal. Cazorla is the man who could make him look even better this year. If Robin stays with us, and that back line gets sorted, we could find ourselves contending.
There were some exit rumblings yesterday and they weren’t related to Robin Van Persie. Alex Song was reported as an outcast in The Express and one of the Spanish newspapers reported Barca were interested in tying up a deal with Arsenal inside the next 48 hours. They cited Benayoun as his obvious replacement. Now, media cock ups aside, I’ve been telling you for a while that all is not well with Alex Song. He’s never been described as an outcast (because he’s not), but I’ve been told he doesn’t see his long term future with us. If he’s off, it’ll be a mutual decision for both parties. I’d be fine with it providing we brought in a like for like replacement.
When I say like for like, what I actually mean is we bring in someone who is better. For every Hollywood pass he makes, there are 4 others that go nowhere. When we’re looking at the 49 goals conceded figure, you’d be hard pushed to tell me he’s absolved of responsibility because of his 12 assists. We miss a Gilberto like figure in midfield. There needs to be at least one player in the side who doesn’t want 5 goals a season. Every team needs an anchor who loves to tackle and defend. Alex Song has proved year after year he’s not that man. If Barca want to play him in the Keita role, fantastic, maybe that’ll work out for him… however, I can’t help but think him going there has Alex Hleb written all over it.
We’ll see though!
On the loan front, it seems like Benik Afobe is being shuffled off to Bolton for a season. They’re basically the new Beveren. I like Owen Coyle. I admire his values. He gives our players a good bedding in. He shows them what it’s like on the other side of the game and he sticks loosely to our values of football. I don’t think it’s a graveyard move for Afobe, but one thing is clear to me… if he wants to become an Arsenal player, he needs to bang in at least 18 goals next season.
I did say at the start of the summer we were looking to bring in some proper players this transfer window and so far it looks like we’ve been working on that promise. The players coming in was based on us shifting on the deadwood. What will be interesting is whether we end the summer with a transfer surplus. Will we keep spending under £25million this year? There are still three major players that could go. Robin, Song or Walcott. We could also shift JD, Bendtner, Park and Squillaci. We’ve spent £40million so far. Our TPA was calculated at £54million, but I was told the budget was way less. Will that be true? Who knows… there’s still plenty of summer left to find out!
I’m enjoying what’s going on so far… you should be too!
[twitter-follow screen_name='LeGrove' show_count='yes']
See you in the comments.
OPG
la liga is in such a state? good!
i can’t wait for wankalona to go bust so we can raid them
Fuck me what a beasts we used to have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUZxnW2tAHk&playnext=1&list=PLE55D8354E6EADE8B&feature=results_video
What a shame Nasri, if you have stayed with us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Q1YxbEsVc&feature=related
handbrake
video like this makes me lose hope
did you see what we had in midfield?
vieira-edu-gilberto
are we gonna put the same fight with wilshere-arteta-cazorla?
we stop winning since wenger cut down the size of our midfield trying to copy barcelona.
well sam i still think afobe will not become out messiah like you are making him out to be anyway just because bartley has a first team number this season you really think he will play any games?? apart from a couple of carling cup games? come on buddy besides i thought this was the website to. besides i thought this was the website where “you can have an opinion not get one”
well eboue, your opinion makes you look like an idiot.
this is the team thats full of lame ducks. it tells you that arsene wenger don’t get rid of players that easily.
As long as benik afobe keep saying yes boss he will end up in the first team. wenger doesn’t like anyone to challenge his decision.
bartley is 21 and thats pretty young age for a CB i am sure he doesn’t expect to be picked ahead of vermaelen and koscielny.
your prediction sucks and its purely out of hatred and ignorance.
the boy is only 19 years arsenal striker not rotherham, meaning they are 3 strikers ahead of him. he has to go on loan, if he was rubbish no one will come for him. why didn’t bolton ask for chamakh?
sam i am sure it was because of his wages thats why =)besides you take this site far 2 serioulsy you should try a new hobby its kinda sad how serious you are taking this discussion. goodnight grovers.
in case you didn’t know, all our loanees are on our payroll so taking chamakh won’t cost them much.
i think afobe will become a good player. just needs to get some playing time and keep developing. you miss a couple chances you get written off. you score a couple your a hero. thats why cunts like us all come onto le grove shouting lets sign lorik cana . were clueless lol
we can say what we want about wenger but both french and english fa trust him. what did chamberlain do to earn a place in the euro? just kick a ball in arsenal shirt you are in. i predict coquelin to play for france next season. in 2 or 3 year we will have bartley, yennaris, wilshere, walcott, chamberlain and possibly afobe and aneke as full england internationals. maybe those who accuse him of killing english football will shut up or find something else to moan about.
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/265469/RVP-raises-Arsene-Wenger-s-hopes/?
can an arsenal summer be that good? highly doubt it. but i am probably a tiny bit more optimistic about him staying for 1 year.
Kripakur
You ae a good Guy who always makes decent points.
Just finished work ( night shift in London) and off to bed but saw you was the last one to post.
I like writing on Le Grove when I get time but aprt from a few people it is so very negative. Most of the posters are really good decent people but I cant suffer that Gambon bloke.
He is definately a Manc lover even if he doesnt support them and for me praising them cheating bastards is not on. He also slags everyone off who doesntshare his opinion. He has a terrible problem it seems but he sees everyone else as the problem.
I cant write when the twat is on here as its just not worth discussing our great Club when all he does is try to destroy it.
You keep wrotng though fella as you make a lot of sense in what you think and you also describe things very well.
Sorry I spelt your name wrong Kripakar.
Appologies Pal.
I have so much excitement for the upcoming season. It seems project youth is dead and buried. Replaced with buying bargain stars in entering their prime. I feel we will see a far more consistent team.
I fully expect big seasons from gervinho, Rambo and even theo.
Added to cazorla, a player that can unlock defenses with passing and trickery. Hopefully we see him centrally at times, with gerv on one side and Theo on the other. That is a scary trio for any defense.
The directness and shooting ability of Poldi and giroud will stretch defenses too. Too often teams can sit deep without fear of long range shots.
Sahin will add incredible passing and technical ability.
If rvp stays, he will get way more open looks from distance. I saw nearly every rvp last season, and from memory, he only scored very few from outside. He got closed down by two or three players every time he took possession.
Now we have an amazingly versatile squad, full of trickery, pace, some power, fk ability, and distance shooting.
If only we could get a first team LB and a reserve RB.
Nevertheless, surely we are a chance to win a cup and stay in the top 4. That didn’t look likely at the end of the season.
AW has my belief again.
Btw, just got onto twitter. Follow @puchalski_r if you love arsenal, philadelphia 76ers, AFL, cricket or ps3
Am i the only one who thinks Carl Jenkinson could do with a loan move?
Good morning BTW
Still no cazorla news on our website?
Sell Song to Barca and get M’Villa. May not be a bad deal.
Song is slow and error prone. He looked good because of Arteta covering up for him many a times when Song ventured ahead to be caught out of position.
Sell Bendtner, Chamakh and get one decent striker. Darren Bent is a great option.
Morning you new found optimists!
Dzeko saying he’s not happy at City coming off the bench!
“I never imagined that things would turn out the way they have.
“I am too good for the bench. If I continue to sit matches out, then anything is possible.”
If RVP does end up at City I’d have him as part of any deal. He hasn’t shown what he has got at City and most Gooners probably don’t know how good he actually is because he has been playing second fiddle to Aguerro, Tevez etc up there. But I’ve watched this guy many times in the flesh and he’s a powerful finisher. Not as technical,as RVP, no doubt, but direct and has an eye for where the goal is.
He’d be an excellent replacement for Bendtner or Park even if RVP does stay but then would he be happy as a back up at Arsenal? Probably not. He’s used to being the main man at Wolfsburg and with the BIH national squad. In fact he’s a national institution in Bosnia and is bigger than Jesus there so maybe there’s a little ego issue!
things are starting to look very good.
Definitely we need strengthening on the flanks at the back and at CB cover, and we need to get rid of some of the dross (cant be good for morale to see those cunts sitting around on 60k per week having never played well for us).
However, the signings so far have shown ambition. Song can go for M’Villa in. Makes sense. Then we can cover Arteta and not have to rush back Wilshire. Coquelin and Gerv will start showing what they can do this season and become key players.
Hope we dont get an injury to Chezzer and that he has learned from his overconfidence in the past and at the Euros.
All n all though, I am feeling good about the team we have.
well, well, well…
I have to say that I like the new, reasonably optimistic LG!
bang, there goes the ‘place of mindless doom’ tag
Handbrake
Those were legends, all of them
Blimey we used to go & get our results at any pitch
We hustled VN in his so called fortress
What a bunch of fighters we had
What a bunch of wankers we have had for the last couple of seasons
Hopefully this all will be redeemed this summer
Kempster
I think you’re being delusional about the difference between the clubs isn’t that big gulf as you imagine
So Scousers truly blew the last summer away but they made a great business bringing in Alonso & Torres & selling both for massive profit & being able to keep their star man while we’re losing our top players each year
I’,m not being negative, that’s being realist. We’ve done some great deals indeed, but we had some truly shameful ones as well as some player being in our pay roll for too long without contributing a bit of positives to the club
So humility & realism should tell us not to take the piss out of them. we’re not that better of them.
Song is not the fastest but I laugh at the way grovers write him off. Please name one player in Arsenal as strong as this guy? The guy is our best tackler. Problem with him is that Wenger has allowed him the freedom he ought not to have. Song can put on a shift as a DM and as a CB. He does make wayward passes, yes but which player doesn’t? These players are mainly thick. Few are very intelligent- you got to think of the likes of messi, Ronaldo, Xavi, Iniesta, Bosquets, … they are not many. While Song is not in that first tier, he is not far off.
If we get a fast terrier of a DM, I would like to alternate both of them. Now that we are getting creative players, we should be shifting guys like Ramsey, jenkinson, Chamakh, etc, from the first team squad- either on loan or outright sale
My in my opinion to this Article is poor assessment of the matter.
loss of song nearly as bad as losing Nasri. let take a look at he matches song was not in the team. Man-u Vs Arsenal 8:2. with song out even when we had Fab4 and Nasri we Struggled defensively. There is no player who can stop a good atact
individual
one more thing sale of Song may sow luck of ambition to VanP. Remember that they had chemistry together. They single handily won some of our games.
We were exposed on many occasions by our fullbacks. The 49 goals should not be placed on one player as many of the writers have gone around doing. Song is so good but he can work alone. he will need all the defense departments to also be as good as he is.
Thomas, it’s up for grabs now..August 3, 2012 13:15:22
I know what you are saying however AFC don’t work the accounts out like that.
They do the amortisation over the duration of the contract for accounting purposes to satisfy annual reports (manly tax related) however the reality is that the club also operate a separate accounting system for budgeting. This is one where they look at the balance sheet and take out the entire cost of recruiting a player: transfer fee and wages for the entire duration of contract. This is coming out of the pot (£200 Million) you mentioned and soon adds up. The positive side is when a player is sold, the transfer fee and their future wages which have not yet been paid go back into the pot.
re : Thomas, it’s up for grabs now..August 3, 2012 13:15:22
I know what you are saying however AFC don’t work the accounts out like that.
They do the amortisation over the duration of the contract for accounting purposes to satisfy annual reports (manly tax related) however the reality is that the club also operate a separate accounting system for budgeting. This is one where they look at the balance sheet and take out the entire cost of recruiting a player: transfer fee and wages for the entire duration of contract. This is coming out of the pot (£200 Million) you mentioned and soon adds up. The positive side is when a player is sold, the transfer fee and their future wages which have not yet been paid go back into the pot.