Really?

So the AKB’s were out in force yesterday after Arsene Wenger claimed that it is imperative he makes £20million profit a year for the club… Presumably through player transfers… before he can purchase players like Eden Hazard. It’s a common problem with Wenger apologists, they jump on anything he says without looking at the facts surrounding his statements.

Now firstly, we know this comment bears some truth if we’re looking at the clubs finances. Without player sales, we break even. However, player sales have been rolling in since 2005. We don’t generate profit to pay off the stadium. We generate revenue to pay off the stadium. We don’t declare profits, then take that profit and pay the bank a years installment on our mortgage.

We know from the Alex Fynn interview and extensive AST analysis the manager has had a war chest since 2008. In fact, we’ve generated £140million in profit over that time and we’re still the lowest net spenders in the entire league. Yep, every club in the league has spent more money on their squad (net) than us. So whilst he might have had to generate profit to buy players (which he’s done a fantastic job of), let’s not pretend that hasn’t happened. He’s had £53mill available since the summer. We have a huge overdraft facility. We have £25mill coming in from the Queensland Rd property deal. We have money to invest. A lot of money to invest.

Arsene is having us over. He’s bending the truth to suit his agenda. Simple fact is, we don’t need to worry about money. We have two of the richest men in the world boasting joint ownership, one of them is about to see his shares in Facebook rise in value to $4.8billion. We turnover £93million a season in ticket revenue. We’re a couple of years away from possibly adding another £50mill to our bottom line a season in commercial revenue (providing we have a team worthy of those fees).

Wenger doesn’t need to fuss himself with the finances, that’s the job of the CEO. Wenger needs to reacquaint himself with the term ‘speculate to accumulate’… And that doesnt mean buying up 10 kids and hoping one comes good. That means Wenger utilising the knowledge of his scouting network and using his own experience to decide on whether a player is good enough. That means taking a calculated punt on a player who is of the right age and investing in them before you’ve wasted a scouts time by watching them play 900 times across 4 clubs.

I mean honestly, how often does dithering cost us? We were looking at Drogba when he was at his first professional club. We were looking at Koscielny before he made the top flight. We’ve been spying on Hazard for over three years! Here’s an idea… See a player, make a quick decision and see how it pans out. You’re not going to win them all, but you have a far better chance of making a player a superstar if they’re already doing great things in adult leagues than you do if you snap them up when they’re 15 from Gillingham.

Park Chu-Wrong

News hit the media yesterday that Park Chu-young is set to leave in the summer after failing to fulfill his potential that was never there. Did Arsenal really sign a second rate duffer of Korean origin just to shift memberships in the Far East? Did Wenger’s over enthusiasm for the commercial aspects of the club convince him to risk our chances? It was a terrible decision at the time and it looks like a terrible decision now. Thank god we lucked out with Robin’s fitness.

Daily Fail…

The Daily Mail has us down in a great story about Sturridge. Apparently, his people spoke to Rowley about joining up with us in the last window. A few reasons this story looks ridiculous…

1. He’s in talks for a new deal at Chelsea. He’s currently on about £60k. He’s looking for £90k, but lets be honest, if he smashes it at the Euro’s, he’ll be looking for £120k like the rest of them.
2. He’s at odds with Villas-boas because he wants to play centrally
3. How would he ever get a central role with us even if Robin went? He’s a midget. Not even a stocky midget.
4. Do Chelsea sell their top players to Arsenal?
5. With all the love I have for Arsenal, where would hedge your bets if you were to stake your house on a team investing to get back to the top again?

A player who is looking to leave is is Carlos Vela. He’s having loads of fun out in Spain and he never wants to come back. Interesting that he’s playing for a team that are 15th in La Liga and he’s managed 5 assists and 3 goals in 18 games. Theo, who wants £90k a week has managed 3 goals and 7 assists in 23 games (3 of those assists came at the weekend) playing with the hottest striker on the planet. Wenger’s vision of building a club where the young boys never want to leave is bombing quicker than the bin bag protest.

So far, I have Nik B, Denilson and Carlos who’d rather stay at their clubs than rejoin us. Amazing stuff. I always liked Carlos. He has a spark of magic not many have. His problem is that the manager never believed in him and he didn’t show enough when he played. A shame really… I always prayed that a perk of blogging about Arsenal would be getting an invite to one of his parties…

Theo Walcott has come out and said the players finally pulled their fingers out of their back passages because the boss was getting a lot of stick. Not because of personal pride, not because Spurs were ahead of them, not for the fans… no, because of Arsene! Nice one Theo.

If I worked for Arsenal, I’d bring in a real fan with a critical edge to help out with online content.

‘Who have we got for interview today guys?’

‘Arsene sent over Johann and Theo’

‘For f**ks sake, send them back and tell JD to stop smiling. I’ll have Chamberlain, Robin and Koscielny. Oh, and Andrey, just for a laugh. I want his opinion on the women running for president in Mexico’

Then I’d ask them some real questions. Make the site a little less corporate. I don’t mean slag off the manager, I just mean get a little more honesty. Why should I have to buy The Times to hear the honest opinion of a player? Why should I have to google translate L’Equipe to hear what Wenger really thinks about England?

It’s a nonsense. Give me the reins… we’ll have a great time!

Anyway, that’s all I have for you. It’s been fantastic. I’ll see you in the comments.

Short back-lift demonstrated

Good morning one and all! It’s nice rolling into work on a Monday morning with your chin firmly up! I think most Gooner fans have the wherewithal to know that Blackburn are a terrible side and that the score line doesn’t indicate we’re about to destroy all competition put before us for years to come. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the result. It doesn’t mean anyone else has matched that result this season against Blackburn. It also doesn’t mean the league can take away the 3 points and the 6+ goals we earned.

The weekend was good to us on many levels. However, we’ve been here before with false dawns. Turning the Villa game around in 45 minutes was supposed to be a new start, then we dropped two points against Bolton. This weekend we take a trip to the North East. Home of my late Grandfather. He’s not dead, he was just always late. Just kidding, he really is dead. Sorry, I thought that was funny. Anyway, Sunderland are a force to be reckoned with this year (I know, it pains me to say things like that, but welcome to Arsenal 2012). If Liverpool win their game in hand, Sunderland will be one place behind us. That’s kind of embarrassing, but it does make it a game we can’t take lightly.

Hopefully the attacking form of the weekend is back for real. Teams are playing a far more open game against us of late which needs to stop. I miss people parking the bus. If we can get Theo and Chamberlain playing to their potential then Robin could find himself with the easiest job in football! Those two getting in behind full backs and feeding Robin is an exciting prospect. In fact, those two in form might even see a goal scoring return for Chamakh (Double LOLz as the kids would say).

It is going to be interesting watching how Theo transforms his game over the coming months. We know he’ll be desperate to go to the Euros and we know he can see the major threat of that not happening playing on the opposite flank. Chamberlain is a special talent, one that looks special enough to ignore the hype and deliver on the big stage. He plays with the hand brake off and looks totally at home in our first team. He’s a one off, like Jack Wilshere or Wayne Rooney. Wenger made things difficult for him by giving the new boy the highest praise possible…

“I feel he could play central midfield, he could [also] play second striker because he has something that is exceptional – he has a short back-lift and so when he has a shot on goal it’s difficult to block,”

You know when Wenger busts out the short back lift observation, he has a mind hard-on for a player. It’s literally the highest accolade he can award. Robin, the scorer of more goals than Dennis Bergkamp in about half the games also had high praise for the young winger…

“He is a fantastic player already, he’s only 18 and is so young. He’s good on the ball, he has everything.

“Alex is quick, has movement and technique. He can score a goal, give an assist. He has a great future.

“In the future (he can make the England team), definitely. He’s a big prospect. Everyone is enjoying watching him, I do, you do and he brings something extra to the game and people just love it.

Even Arsenal blogger Geoff couldn’t resist but praise the new boy…

‘Oxo reminds me of Rooney when he burst onto the scene, except nicer, less prone to obesity and with brains.’

Gervinho will also return to the mixer shortly, which leaves Arsene with something we know he hates… a selection headache.

I’d imagine he’ll likely drop Gervinho. Wenger did the same when Gilberto dared to be Brazilian. He doesn’t take kindly to international tournaments mid season and with good reason… our players often come back totally broken.

One winger you do feel might opt for the easy route out for the club is Arshavin. The Russian transfer window doesn’t close until mid-Feb. He might opt for the mega roubles and industrial town of Anzhi while he still has a chance…

Chelsea…

So it was amusing to see Villas-Boas share a tactical master class that could have been scripted by Wenger. 3-0 up after 50minutes, then back to 3-3 with a gut wrenching thud. Very amusing. Totally deserved as well considering his pathetic defence of his captain and his failure to cut out the powerful old guard at Chelsea. I like him before he went to Chelsea, now I find him irritating in a Gary Linekar kind of way…

United did have the help of Howard ‘I love to award Fergie a helping hand’ Webb, a Premiership standard these days. But all in all, another poor result for Chelsea that throws 4th wide open again. We’re all as bad as each other. How the chasing pack play against the top 7 will determine the outcome in my opinion. Let’s hope we can turn it on and finish well.

Wenger…

Rumour has it that the French FA are looking to poach Arsene Wenger this summer. Blanc is at odds with the Chairman of the French FA. They all love Arsene… A match made in heaven if Wenger wants to answer his families call for a return home. Into his mid-sixties, you’d have to say that his families wishes are probably quite low down his priority list. The man has pulled a masterclass in getting his own way… take note under the thumb blokes. Taking a role with the national team would be a massive surprise. A lot will be dependent on where we finish at the end of the season I’d imagine.

Crime…

Apparently Kenny Samson’s old man was suspected of involvement in the great train robbery, newly released Government files reveal. Turns out he didn’t do it, but he did feature as the 8th most suspected suspect. What an achievement.

Bould…

There’s a story doing the rounds that Steve Bould is in line to become the new assistant at Arsenal when Pat Rice retires. This is contrary to everything I’ve heard about his career path. You’d think if he was held in regard that highly by Arsene, he’d be training the first team. So far, I don’t think he’s been allowed anywhere near them. Odd considering his experience and stature. It sounds like this really will be the last year Pat Rice sits on the bench saying nothing… I have a feeling if Wenger stays longer than the summer, it’ll be a player he made a start coming in as his side kick.

Right, that’s all I have… see you in the comments!

Thierry finishes off!

Good morning Grovers, I hope you’re not snowed in like I am today, 2 hours in a taxi last night has left me slightly tired, so I do apologise if there are any inaccuracies in the post… I’m knackered!

I rolled into the stadium a few minutes late for the first time this year, the trains were ruined as usual. When I arrived, there were two bin bags under my seat. Despite thousands of empties again, people handn’t taken to the bin bag idea. Possibly because placing a black bag over a seat actually makes the ground look fuller than loads of garish reds flashed up all over the place!

Anyway, I’d rolled in, apparently some guy called Robin Van Persie had scored. Just my luck! He’d turned in a Theo Walcott cross that had been placed across the 6 yard line. His easiest tap in of the year and a great way to get the roof raised early on. Except, well… the ground still felt very mute. I didn’t get the vibe that  we’d scored at all.

We continued to pressure Blackburn after the goal. Rosicky flew a shot at goal from 30 yards that slipped wide of the post. Mertesacker actually managed to get his head on a cross, his downward header evaded Paul Robinson, shame it also did the same to the bar!

Blackburn really weren’t into free flowing attacking play. However, when the time came for them to do so, Koscielny fouled on the edge of our box. Pedereson stepped up and rifled it into the top corner. From where I was sitting it looked like the keeper made a meal of it. A good freekick,but watching it live, well, it didn’t look like it had been hit too hard. The crowd grumbled, we’d grown to expect to concede.

Shortly after, the keeper had us coughing up our double espresso latte’s… he came flying out to the edge of our box to punch a cross away, he totally missed and ended up fisting the back of N’Zonzi’s head! Fisting his head? Maybe punched… Anyway, the ball rolled wide of the goal. A let off if ever I saw one!

Our play had been in second gear, but it was about to kick up a notch. Mertesacker played the ball out of defence to Arteta, he turned the ball out wide superbly to Theo (I was sitting in line with the ball, it really was a technical marvel to watch), Theo interchanged with Song who rifled a through ball so hard, Theo needed a turbo boost to get it, he cut it back and Robin who was on hand to bury the cross.

Theo was making a mockery of my earlier assertion that he hadn’t been productive this year.

It didn’t take long to get back in the goals again. Theo found Robin in the middle of the park, Robin picked out the diagonal run of Chamberlain, he latched onto the ball, rounded the keeper and turned into the empty net! Great goal, great composure!

The game really started to pick up the excitement levels. Vermaelen hit the post when he was found at the back stick unmarked. Then controversy came when Givet two footed Robin in crude fashion. The ref didn’t hesitate, he pulled out the red. The fans had to wait a few moments, our season was in the balance… would Robin come back on? Of course… he’s a real man!

The second half fizzed into action. Robin sailed a corner to roughly the area where Mertesacker was standing. The German doesn’t challenge for corners, he’s not that type of guy, Blackburn cleared as far as Koscielny who superbly teed up Arteta for a low pile driver! We wondered at half time if Arsenal would go for the jugular. When I say we, I mean’t, I sat there and wrote it on a pad, like some sort of loaner diary keeper. Anyway, it looked as though we were going all out… just like in the old days!

Theo was having a fabulous game out wide. He had his chance to show Capello that he’s still relevant when he danced into the box, slipped a pass to Chambo at the back stick, who controled and scored. This was too easy!

‘Feed the Ox and he will score!’… was the chant of choice!

The goals couldn’t continue to keep coming, surely Wenger was going to rest Robin and we’d settle for the score as it was? No chance. Coquelin wanted to give Robin his hatrick. He jinked outside the area spotted Robins run and picked him out with a lovely cross that the Dutchman was all too pleased to bury!

The winning programme was announced, ’23,078′ flashed up on the screen, I quipped to myself in my note pad that I thought that was the attendance figure. Everyone chortled…

When you’re as cold as I was, you do feel tempted to leave early. However, as a blogger, I fear being snapped by a rival doing so… this means I always stay till the bitter end, even if that means losing toes in the process. Yesterday I was rewarded, Thierry had earlier come on for the Ox. Late on, he and Robin interchanged, Thierry found himself in front of goal and made no mistake capping off a remarkable afternoon!

7-1… Geoff believed in the big win and he got it! Next up? Building a sequence and a bit of momentum!

Conclusion…

It’s very difficult to draw a conclusion from a day like yesterday. Blackburn are rooted to the bottom of the league and they played like they didn’t believe in their manager. There really was a criminal lack of effort going on. We smashed them 7-1 without ever really stepping out of second gear, which is testament to how clinical the team was. Robin was superb in attack, but really, the day was all about how good our wide boys were. Theo was using his pace prodctively. He was composed in the final third and he was adverturous going forward. He looked far more confident than usual. Does that make him a £90k a week player? Not in my book, he still needs to show he can do that against the best teams.

Chamberlain was a revelation again. The guy looks unstoppable at the the moment. He’s inspired at the moment, he makes great runs, he plays bold passes and Robin loves playing with him. He’s certainly banished the fat lazy ghost of Andrey Arsahvin. He’ll certainly find himself in the England squad if he carries on impressing. Alex Song also had a very good game, he was composed and did all the basics right. The key to us playing well has to be Arteta though, he’s so integral to the side ticking over. I think everyone in the stadium appreciates what a good player he is. It’s just a shame we didn’t have him when Cesc was around. He’d have been the title winning addition we needed!

Regardless of the opposition, a superb win like yesterday will build confidence and belief. It’s come at exactly the right time. We’ve got a tricky game against Sunderland next week away from home. Then we take on Milan. Followed by another trip to the Northwest/east… followed by Spurs. We need to win every one of those games to stand a chance of rescuing our season. It’s a massive ask, but with players like Bacary returning from injury, we’ve got a chance. Pray for the fitness of the squad, pray that today wasn’t a pleasant blip in an ugly season!

Transfer goss

The Mirror believe Theo Walcott is going to sign on for another 4 years with an a £80k a week contract on the table. That’s probably a good deal for Arsenal regardless of his form. We can’t keep losing players. Wenger is also considering keeping Thierry on for another two weeks, anyone but Chamakh is my motto these days, so that’ll also be good news. There was also heavy speculation in The Times the other day about Benfica’s Garcia moving to us in the summer for a record fee. I take stories like these with a massive pinch of salt. It’s all about gearing us up to buy our season tickets again. Remember this time last year when Wenger said he’d be interested in bringing in Hazard? What happened there? Did we even bid? Amazing how many players we’re linked to now they’ve left. If we’re in for anyone this summer, it’ll be Hoilett on a free transfer. He looked quite handy yesterday and we all know the club love the taste of free. Not to mention that we’ve told you previously John Jensen made a personal recommendation to the club about him last year.

See you in the comments…

P.S. Some pictures of yesterday.

Sad times...

Failing to score against a Bolton side who’ve only managed 2 clean sheets this year was embarrassing. Taking 8 points taken from the last 24 is worrying. 12 points behind Spurs with a 45 left to play for feels like a charcoal induced stomach pump.

We lined up with a strong side, no complaints on that front. Our back 4 consisted of 3 seasoned internationals and a Frenchman some have called the best centre back in the league. Out midfield saw the return of Arteta and up top Chambo continued in the side.

We started off in fairly explosive fashion considering out recent starts. Vermaelen was played in with a superb Sagna cross but he drove his header into the ground. Minutes later Ramsey found himself through on goal but fluffed his finish.

Chamberlain was making things happen, he was looking alert and motivated. He found Robin wide with a lovely outside of the boot pass, Robin cut sharply inside his full back, laid off Chamberlain who skewed wide. Arsenal were opening up Bolton with ease but the finishing was poor. Sagna in particular was giving us balance and a threat on the right. Oh how we’ve missed him…

Arsenal didn’t have it all their own way. N’Gog brushed off Koscielny with ease and struck a shot across goal that the keeper did well to keep out. The Frenchman found himself in hot bother shortly after when he lost his footing watching a looping ball, N’gog capitalised but couldn’t keep his half volley inside the post. Worrying how shambolic our defence looks at times. Worrying how poor Koscielny was playing for a second game in a row…

Our best chance of the game came when Chamberlain picked out Theo though the middle, Mr ‘£90k please’ had all the time in the world but somehow conspired to pull his shot wide. Yet another terrible miss to add to his portfolio.

Arteta vented his frustrations crunching a Bolton player into a lino who looked like Ed Miliband. I’d have done the same…

The attention had been off Chesney momentarily, so he decided to showboat from a back pass, nearly losing out. Someone needs to pull him to one side and give him a bollocking for unnecessary messing around like that.

Theo and his poor technique continued to let him down in the second half, particularly his touch. It’s just not happening for him. I wonder if he feels put  out by the emergence of a player who looks like he’s having the career Theo wanted?

We didn’t have such an eventful second half. The two best chances fell to Robin. His close range effort from a Sagna cross hit the post, then later on, he turned the Bolton defence inside out he floated a delightful chip to the back stick but sadly hit the bar. I was going to say Bergkamp-esque, but it could have been Bentley-esque (againt Boro’ at Highbury?).

Chamberlain went off for Thierry, I’m not sure why, Theo was the man who looked like the rookie. We also saw the introduction of Rosicky. Two players well past their best and it showed. We created hardly anything.

It was Bolton who went for the jugular bringing on two strikers. N’Gog’s finishing stopped them nicking the points at the end when Koscielny was beaten by a Petrov cross, the header didn’t match it. Mark Davie, who was excellent, beat three defenders at the death, only a superbly judged save kept him from rounding the keeper… some thought it could have been a penalty. He had another great chance when he cut inside Sagna and Song but pulled his shot wide.

The whistle blew and it was the Gooner faithful who were relieved. Sorry, sorry times…

We didn’t play terribly. I mean, it wasn’t vintage, but chances were created. Robin Van Persie hit the post and the bar, Theo somehow missed a pearler of a one on one and Aaron Ramsey was equally guilty in the first half. Who cares though? At the end of the day, did we win? No. Is there a league table of ‘if we’d scored our sitters where would we be?’ Probably. But it doesn’t matter. What football always boils down to is the end result. We dropped 2 points and we were lucky not to drop 3.

We’re a one man team. People sneered about that press comment at the start of the year, but without Robin, we’d be in a world of trouble. The only other player on the pitch willing to take a lead is our 18 year old rookie. Again, he was one of our biggest threats and he was taken off over someone who would struggle to get into the Bolton side. Theo Walcott is as technically retarded on the pitch as I am with a server. His poor control and lack of intelligence on the pitch is painful to watch, especially considering his wage expectations to sign on again. Aaron Ramsey for all his bluster is really struggling to be productive. He does a very good job of looking busy, but he’s extremely inefficient and it doesn’t look like he’s improving at the moment. As for our subs? Well, without meaning to disrespect a great, didn’t Thierry and Rosicky look their age?

I don’t blame the players though, I really don’t. It’s not their fault they’re not good enough, it’s the fault of manager who has known they’re not good enough since last February. We’re on a slippery slope now. We’ve managed 8 points out of 24 and our slump is stating to feel very much like the one that started in February last year and ended in September with us being bottom of the 26 game table. We’ve dropped points against Bolton, Swansea and Fulham which is simply not good enough. Wenger doesn’t know how to stem a bad run of form anymore, he rarely has. If things aren’t going exactly right, he doesn’t know how to rejuvenate jangly nerves.

That squad needed an injection of players this January. How they managed to pull themselves out the mess they were in after the Man U game is a minor miracle in itself. It came at a cost though. We used too few players and now they’re all mentally and physically drained. Look at the creativity yesterday. Alex Song was passing to his imaginary friend again, he was very poor considering the form he’s previously shown, the defence were hoofing it forward like Wimbledon in their prime and the rest had no clue. They needed help this January, some new enthusiasm to carry the burden, but they didn’t get it because the manager was too concerned about the recessionary impact the Euro is having on continental clubs.

Rome is burning… and the whole club is looking the other way. It’s a shame, but the up-shot is that I think January will be the last transfer window Arsene cocks up. I don’t think he’s going to make it to the summer. I don’t think the players believe in themselves and I don’t they believe in the manager. We’ll see though, I might be totally wrong… but I think this might be a profitable window too far for some. It certainly has been for the fans. Sitting in 7th position with everyone on the same points and watching other clubs over take us because the manager wants to do things on a show string budget rankles with people. The fans make all the sacrifice, while the board put up ticket prices and rake in massive bonuses off the back of our loyalty.

Most of this situation is the managers doing though. It’s partly the board for not showing more back bone, but I appreciate the legacy issue. All we can pray for is a massive stroke of luck and hope Villas-Boas and Kenny Dalglish cock things up worse than us. Sad thing is, we barely look top 4 anymore, we’re not even in the top 6 based on form…

Still, a point is a point eh?

Right, moan over, lets hear yours!

P.S. We listened to your suggestions yesterday and Greg has been working through the night to rectify them. The grey is darker, the comment boxes are more contrasted, the spacing between the text is wider and the comment box has a  more traditional shape. You should all be able to see the new site now… so apologies for the nonsense yesterday, that’s teething problems for you! Thanks for bearing with us, I love you all like surrogate siblings.

P.P.S. This might be a good time to download the Le Grove podcast from iTunes, it’s packed full of information that will help you make sense of the current situation.

Back in the game… sorry for the down time… I’m rubbish at moving websites. It’s sorted now.

Welcome to the future, or the present for the next few years. This is the new Le Grove. After 2 months development, a failed move and some seriously massive obstacles (like moving 1 million comments), it’s here! Teething problems are bound to happen, so bear with us and let us know… but hopefully the experience on the site and on mobile is far less clunky than before. The hope is that you’ll spend as much time here with Geoff and I, putting the world of Arsenal to rights as you did before! What do we have to talk about today? Very little… Ryo has been loaned out to Bolton. We signed the cheap version of Gotze… big deal. Is he for now, tomorrow or yesterday? Who knows! What we do know is that once again the managers thoughts were on the bottom like… He’s in the press again extolling the virtues of a bankrupt Europe.

“I don’t know if you have seen the numbers in Europe but there are 1.6bn Euro losses [among football clubs, according to a Uefa report], that’s not debt but losses. “That is absolutely amazing. That means tomorrow if you had to stop your activity, half of Europe would be bankrupt. “It means that football has to respond and I don’t know if financial fair play will come in, but it looks like economically the whole of Europe is becoming a bit more cautious.”

He’s so patronising, like getting a degree makes you an elite thinker. Arsene, I earned a degree in finance a fueled it with Apple Sourz. Here’s my thinking on Europe vs Arsenal. If the rest of the continent is bankrupt and Arsenal are sitting on a huge stash of cash, we should be in prime position to spend.

1) Because you can drive a harder bargain when you know the seller is weak

2) there are a lot of weak sellers

Out of the top 5 at the moment, we’re the weakest squad wise. We should have signed full backs on Jan 1st, we didn’t and so far in 2012 we’ve accrued no points. No points, but we’ve saved £360k in wages. Brilliant business. I wonder how important those 9 points will be in May. I wonder what £90k a week for 5 months will look like versus losing £40million? Counting the pennies and losing site of the cash mountain… what’s the business term for that?

Madness.

Ivan Gazidis has also been chatting in the press in embarrassing fashion again. He reckons City would love to be competing in the three competitions we are. Err… Ivan… which 3 would those be? The Champions League? Are you kidding me? We haven’t been contenders for that competition since we lost in the final in 2006. Competing for the Premiership? Again, which league table is he looking at? The only competition we have a slim chance in is the FA Cup… and that’s only if Wenger doesn’t decide to place his priorities elsewhere last minute.

He also went on about the sustainable business model, ignoring the fact that we’re already being out manoeuvred on that front. If we don’t have a decent team on the pitch by the time we negotiate the new commercials, how sustainable is our model going to look? How can we generate decent commercials if

1) We’re out of the Champions League

2) We can’t demand £50million a year in shirt / naming rights.

The reason we moved from Highbury was to compete with the big boys. So to hear Ivan say we make superstars is extremely disappointing. I know we can’t compete with certain teams on price or salaries, but I’m not unrealistic enough to expect us to be in for the elite. I want us to be in for Hazard early, Gotze at the start of the summer and I’d like us to pay the extra for players like Juan Mata. Making superstars is only sustainable of you’re supplementing them with world class players you can’t home grow. Look no further than Cesc and Nasri to tell you that. If we’d signed Arteta and Mertesacker last season, how many more points would we have made up?

News has leaked that Jack is out for the season with another fracture. That’s what I’d heard was the fear at the time and why I said we shouldn’t be too quick to judge the medical staff. Obviously more news will come out over time but if he’s picking up these types of problems without doing anything too physical, it could be a genetic make up issue. Let’s pray he doesn’t have a disposition to stress fractures.

Big Dave from the comments pointed me in the direction of Jack and the gambling tweets that have got him in hot water. I can’t for the life of me understand why you’d need to gamble as a footballer. If I was earning £80k a week, I’d feel like I was winning the races every pay day! Where does the satisfaction come from in winning a £10 bet if you’re hugely wealthy? The club need to seriously have a think about employing me to come in and teach the players the rights and wrongs of social media tools. It’d be fun…

1) Don’t take pictures of your genitals to share with female admirers, even if they are totes hot.

2) If you’re not allowed to gamble, don’t tweet that you’re checking the odds. It’s a big give away you might be involved in betting, although many of the 1.1million following you might not catch on, some will. Instead, ask Arsene about the stock market, his insight and knowledge will give you far better wins than a crappy ten pound bet will.

3) Don’t offer someone a fight online. Ask Arsene Wenger how best to intellectually battle someone. 4) If you can’t spell, ask Arsene Wenger, he has a degree in economics.

5) If you’re going to cheat on your girlfriend, use a landline… twitter leaves a trace. Don’t ask Arsene for advice on this.

We have a game tonight against Bolton, it’s away, it’ll be freezing cold and Owen Coyle has his side on the way up. This is a potential banana skin as it proved last year. There are no injury problems to report, so a fairly strong line up is to be expected. I don’t really care what happens as long as it follows a similar trend to the second half against Villa. We’ve been slow out the traps in the last few games so if whatever has been said at half time could be said before the game I’m sure the away fans would be muchly appreciative!

Good news in the race for fourth, Chelsea dropped points again, which was marvelous and City lost ground to United against Everton. The bad news is that Spurs continued their good run of form and Liverpool won again in convincing fashion. It’s going to be tight and there are going to be tumbles from here on in… we’re not out of the race for top 4 yet! If you’re up there, have a great night, if you’re watching it at home, drop a comment on Le Grove during the game!

P.S. Any constructive feedback you have on the site is welcome. A big thanks to Phoenix Studios for knocking the blog together bang on brief, a massive thanks to Tagadab for managing the move and a big thanks to Geoff for putting together the new logo, it looks superb! Also, if you’re on the mailing list, please be patient, I’ve had to merge two mailing lists into one… so I’ll be shutting down the both of them today and starting up a new one… which, when you’re technically retarded like me, could likely spell disaster.

Help yourself to a fresh one!

Good afternoon Grovers and welcome to the new incarnation of Le Grove!

I’ll give a bit more of an introduction when everyone is over, needless to say, if you’re here, you’re in the right place.

Enjoy the site and please feel free to let me and the design boys over at Phoenix Studios know what you think!

Also, why not kill some time by talking about all the players we didn’t sign on deadline day!

Pedro & Geoff

Thierry pointing the way to the new site...

A lot of debate went on yesterday after I said I was disappointed the crowd booed Arshavin before the game and the players at half time.

Some Suggested the booing motivated the team, some suggested it’s the fans right, some were in agreement that booing doesn’t have a place mid-game. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no right or wrong opinion. It’s easy for me to say I don’t accept the dissent in the ground because I’m privileged enough to be able to dissent to a mass audience every day.

However, some people need to get some serious perspective… we won at the weekend. We qualified. We’re through. Wishing we’d lost and harping on about the potential disgrace of nearly losing is ridiculous. Correlating being anti-booing with being pro-Wenger is equally illogical.

The simple question I have this morning is what is the right answer? Everyone has different views, that’s the same in any crisis, the question is, how do we seriously move towards a point where we’re listened to? Where the infighting stops and the fans move towards a common goal? How do we make Ivan take notice… or more importantly, take action. In fact, is it even Ivan we want to notify of our displeasure, or is it faraway Stan?

What exactly do the fans want? Is it removal of the manager? Is it acknowledgement things have to change or is it simply a bit of value for money?

One thing is for sure, the bickering and arguing online makes it tiresome to be a Gooner at the moment. It’s the same in the ground. Slanging and counter slanging goes on all game at the moment and it makes for a horrible day out. What we need is a united voice to air our grievances. What we need to know is what are the supporter groups doing? The AST have been pretty clear, they won’t discuss the managers position publicly until the end of the season. That doesn’t mean you can’t raise the issue at the next meeting on Monday the 13th Feb.

What are AISA, Red Action and Black Scarf doing? Have you asked them? Are any of them taking a lead that suits your disposition better? Start a debate… Goonerdom is a rabble of infighters at the moment and it’s not healthy and it’s not enjoyable. The fans haven’t been this at odds with the club in my life time… and that’s the fault of one man and his team that let him get away with it.  That doesn’t mean we should abstain from doing something to rectify it. It’s the club we love more than anything and being counter productive because of passion over spill isn’t the way forward.

It’s easy to piss and moan about how right you were, or how much of a fan you are, but if you’re not doing anything proactive, you’re just as bad as the person sitting in the ground in silence. The board don’t care about boos if you’re in the ground! They probably don’t care if you moan online.

Only one thing strikes a chord at our club… money.

So what’s the answer?

Eisfeld…

Apparently we’ve made our first January move. A German 19 year old reserve who is leaving  Dortmund because competition is rife.

Sure he might be amazing, sure we might have nabbed a deal… but if Klopp is half the manager his record suggests, you’d imagine he’d be reticent to let a top drawer player leave for £400k. I might be wrong, but the fact we’re taking a Dortmund reject on at that price when our youth team wage bill probably exceeds their first team equivalent isn’t particularly inspiring. It doesn’t say a lot about our expensively assembled academy does it?

‘The teenager’s development has been hindered by keee problems – he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in 2009 – and he will be put through his paces at the club’s London Colney training ground before signing a long-term contract.’

We have major squad issues and we’re sorting them with kids again. Injury prone kids! It’s almost perverse. It’s like a massive slap in the face for all the fans who know there is £50m in the bank. Maybe he’ll be another Oxo, but we’ll have to wait 6 months to find out. We know a few things for sure, he’s no where near the level of Gotze or Kagawa and there’s a risk he might be a crock. Why take a punt in the most important season of your career?

This feels very Bischoff-esque? Another dodgy transfer no one really probed the club about. Why would we sign the equivalent of a cripple who hadn’t played in years for a season when we’re Arsenal? How much was that deal worth? Who underwrote that? Who questioned the wage efficiency of that disaster?

Wenger does himself no favours, it feels like he’s trying to get the sack sometimes. His obsession with kids is damaging the team’s top 4 prospects. What must the players think?

One thing is for sure, I think if today ends player-less and the season fizzles out into nothingness, we’ll see a change of management in the summer. I still think we’ll make top four though… then Gazidis will have a tough decision because the Americans don’t like empty seats and they know if they serve up another summer like the last, we’ll be looking at a 60% filled stadium.

Robin cleared

I didn’t even see the incident (How Wenger), but apparently the FA have and they’ve cleared him of any wrong doing. Superb… a four game ban would have been awkward. Awkward like introducing your new 19 year old German saviour to the first team dressing room.

Miyachi Off?

Ryo might be off to Bolton today. That would be a lovely move for him, he’s going to be a good player, but it does beg the question, why did Wenger sell him in as a first team player this year? We get to the end of the summer and he tells us we have loads of players, then we get to Feb and realise hardly any of them are ready. Anyway, if he gets his move, good luck… hopefully Owen will work some Jack magic on him.

Transfer countdown!

It’s the final day of a most uneventful transfer window. The most likely signings will be a couple of kids, though don’t be surprised if we ship in a last minute loan deal or a surprise signing.

It won’t be Podolski as he’s injured! However, it might be Gourcuff who was benched at the weekend, or maybe Tevez who Geoff demanded the other day. If West Ham are sniffing around, surely we should be? That Granero chap from Madrid looks a bit handy as well… with starts at a premium maybe he’s someone we’re checking out? No one can tell me there aren’t deals to be had in Europe today… if you’re interested of course.

Farewell!

After 4 and a bit years, we’ll be saying good-bye to this old design and we’ll be moving over to a swanky new home. The new site has been designed to capture the best bits of the old style sheet whilst bringing it forward into the 21st century with a new lick of paint. The mobile site should run on all devices far better than this site and the comments should be as intuitive and easy on the eye as the little beauties you see below.

I’ll miss this site, home to 1600+ posts and a million comments… but the time has come to move. Hopefully you like the new design as much a we do and hopefully we’ve found ourselves a stable server! We’ll probably be switching over later on this afternoon, so do bear with us if you can’t get on… it’s not the site, it’ll be your IP playing catch up.

In the mean time, we’re live on iTunes now… so if you want the Le Grove Podcast on your Apple product, you can find us here!

We started Chamberlain for the second time in a week. At least the manager didn’t try to prove a point by testing him again. We also saw Coquelin return to the side as right back. There was no place for Arteta, Henry or Sagna… All had to settle for a place on the heated bench.

*At this point you have to know I’ve just wiped my nose with something I’d used over the weekend to mop up kebab.

The highlights before kick off were sitting opposite Martin Keown giving an interview and watching the mascot rip a shot past Fabianski in off the bar!

The highlights gave up after that, they stayed in the dressing room with Vik Akers. The first half was a turgid affair. We struggled to find our rhythm. Most of our chances were shots which made a lovely change. Robin teed Vermaelen up for a thunderbolt of a strike that Given tipped over. Soon after the Dutchman had a crack at goal of his own but could only hit the wall.

Chamberlain was doing his part for the defence. He made a superb early tackle to deny Villa a cross. I went on to count a further 3 blocks that half, then I had to stop because he looked too similar to Coquelin from a distance. Still, the point stands, he does help out at the back.

Fabianski was doing his best to show us why he isn’t number one. His kamikaze distribution kept putting us under immense pressure and the punched clearances from crosses had hearts in mouths.

Theo managed to break through on goal, he was kicked on his way through, stumbled and duffed his shot wide. Chamberlain had a go himself, dragging a low shot left of the post. In fairness much of the creativity was going through him.

The first goal of the game went to Villa. We sent Ramsey out too late to deal with the short corner, he was bypassed by Keane who turned, floated a chipped cross to the back post where Dunne was on hand to bang a header past Fabianski. Koscielny really should have done better there.

We had a few more chances after, the best falling to Ramsey when he managed work his way into the box from the touch line, his shot looked like it was snatched away by Given.

We were hit on the break down the other end, Petrov found Bent with a super ball, Vermaelen managed to cover enough ground to make a token slide tackle, the shot beat him, it was saved by Fabianski, but Bent was first to the rebound which he slipped in from a very tight angle.

The all too familiar sound of booing sent us into half time. I never participate and I find it hard to comprehend during a game. I guess that’s where we are though, fans are sick of losing in mid jan when they know they’re contributing to £3million a game. The point for me is that it was only half time. It’s a game of two halves!

Almost immediately after kick off things picked up, it looked like Robin had a header cleared from the line by Ireland.

Ramsey broke up play in midfield, played it to Song who pushed forward, waited, then slipped Ramsey in who was lumped over by Dunne in ridiculous fashion. Let’s be thankful though, that was the only way we’d get a penalty this month!

Robin stepped up to deal with the kick and buried it with precision. The roof lifted, the crowd decided to retire their seats for the afternoon and everyone started to make some noise! The stewards relaxed as well, which helped the game along.

Our second goal happened under comical circumstances, Theo worked his way into a good crossing position after being played into the box by Rosicky, he dodged a slide tackle, he crossed it to no one… carried on his run… Hutton cleared it at Theo and it ended up in the back of the net. Superbly marvelous considering his Spurs ties! Theo then ran to the dug out to do a weird celebration. Not sure what that was all about!

The fabulous 15 minutes came to a conclusion with another penalty, this time when Koscielny picked up a Ramsey (I think) through ball and felt the back of his heals crumble when Bent of all people went for an ill thought out slide tackle. Both Villa scorers had turned Arsenal providers. How very generous. This time Robin elected for high and right and we’d levelled it. Things were really getting rowdy in the home end… ‘we only sing when we’re winning’… never felt so true!

The game still had a few panic moments to soak up. Fabianski made a couple of good saves and had to deal with a few ‘oh my god don’t drop it’ moments. All in all though, we played the 90 out in a professional manner. Watching Robin tell the ball boy to slow things down was amusing, the man must feel his whole life is about educating children!

Arsenal made three substitutes. We saw Arteta join the party which was fantastic. We also saw Thierry and Sagna join. Both came on to electric applause, but what was nice was the applause repeated for Theo and Chamberlain leaving.

Most of the crowd stayed for the final whistle and a roar erupted… the next round of the cup is against Boro’ or Sunderland. We’d have to fancy ourselves there eh? Even if it is away!

Conclusion

I don’t like to tell anyone what to do, but the crowd really do have to start behaving. Sure, we’re not getting what we want in the transfer market and some of the performances have been poor, but booing during the game and at half time isn’t the Arsenal way. It’s embarrassing and it makes for a nasty day out. How must Chamberlain feel? Two games into 2012 and all he knows is a crowd that pisses and moans at every opportunity. What happens outside the ground is up to the fans, but it feels like booing has become a habit and in my opinion, it should stop. We’re in the situation we’re in and making it worse by jeering our team isn’t going to help matters.

On the game, it was absolutely a dreary first half. The important thing is that we came out fighting in the second and the boys have to take credit for that. It’s very easy to curl up and die after going two down in a game, but we didn’t. Robin picked the team up and we came out firing on all cylinders. Ramsey needs to be credited with a super second half. What I like about him is that he never gives up. He might make a bad pass, he might fluff a shot, but he keeps on chipping away until things start happening. Another man who deserves credit is Rosicky. He keeps the ball moving and he was instrumental for the Theo goal. He’s not your world class, all guns blazing centre midfielder, but in the right team he can make things happen.

At the back, I felt Mertesacker had a very solid game. He was cushioning headers, making interceptions and in the main, controlling his back four very nicely. He’s growing into his role at Arsenal and he’s starting to adapt to the pace. He’ll never beat certain players for pace, but he’ll be able to read the game better and snuff out opportunity before it happens.

Chamberlain also deserves a massive round of applause as well. He made some mistakes  yesterday and put us under pressure occasionally, but the depth he adds to our attack is impressive. He has natural skill to go around players and he has the bottle to take on a shot or clever pass. I think Robin really enjoys playing with him and as far as I’m concerned, everything is in place for him to become the nations saviour come the Euros. He also managed a full 90minutes without breaking down, which was definitely worth noting.

So, in conclusion, it might not have been the resounding win I was hoping for, but I’d say from a sporting perspective, it was as good as. Coming back from 2 down in front of your home fans has to have an impact on team morale. It tells the players anything is possible now and that there is no excuse going forward. I know the win is papering over the cracks, but we have some of our better players coming back now, so hopefully the run in will be kinder to us.

As fans, we can go over the same old problems in our heads, or we can just accept that we’re not going to get what we want and support the team. Save our protests for outside the ground, or make your complaints online because the club do read them. Protesting inside the ground makes us look ugly as fans. Booing a name when it’s read out is disgraceful. We’re starting to look like the Geordies or the Blackburn fans… and let me tell you, that’s not a good look.

Anyway, that’s my piece said… remember to listen to the podcast I knocked together with Alex Fynn. It covers off all the major talking points regarding Wenger and the reasons he doesn’t spend. It also has plenty of other tasty tidbits you might not have known about our great club.

PODCAST

P.S. We’ll be moving the site over tomorrow which means the sites comments here will switch off at some point. So bear with me for the next few days, but we’re moving for the greater good and the new site does look very smart and the mobile version is even better!

Last time we played them, I missed the game, but it was only a late 87th minute goal that saved our bacon.

The injury news is looking favourable. Late fitness tests for Thierry and Arteta should see them in the squad along with Bacary Sagna and Coquelin. The return of a proper right back is the best bit of news we’ve had in a while. Having someone mobile in a position we’ve really struggled with couldn’t come soon enough. It’s just a shame all those players couldn’t have been back for the United game last week.

I’m expecting a strong line up not least to get some defensive confidence back in the team. We need to start getting back to winning ways fast. This is a great mini spring-board opportunity  and hopefully it’ll be a chance to shake off our second extended hangover of the season.

Something I did wonder about is how the effect of Jack being out for the season will affect the rest of the players. I’m sure it must boost the team to see one of their star performers working their way back into contention… not least for the relief of having some quality in the midfield with the added hope that he adds to our chances of a top four. We obviously won’t be able to judge the impact, but it’s an interesting point to note regardless.

Wenger has  been on the defensive about young players and the problems he’s been having. Firstly, he spoke about how hard it is to rest a player like Jack Wilshere when he’s one of the best players in the team.

“You can convince him he does not play when he is not good enough. But if he is not injured and is one of the better players in the team, it is hard to explain to everybody that you don’t play him because he might maybe have a future stress fracture.“

Now, you can take the situation we were in one of two ways. You could frame the argument by saying he was too good to drop, or you could frame it the other way and say that the squad wasn’t good enough to drop him. The latter was the issue as far as I could see. Jack gives it his all, 100% effort all the time, but I don’t think anyone could say he wasn’t visibly tired at times last year. You might not be able to pin an exact injury that might occur in the future, but you could certainly predict that if you over played a kid, the chances are he might break at some point. In fact, we made that point many times during last season…

Sure enough… that’s what happened. Just like it did to Vermaelen after we ran him into the ground in his first season

The other issue Wenger was talking about was the one to take off Chamberlain…

“People forget that to start him [Oxlade-Chamberlain] against Manchester United, a player with no experience, it takes guts to do it at the start.

“He came on at Manchester United when we lost 8-2 and nobody spoke about it. But to start him in a game of that magnitude [last Sunday] and then for him to have done well is very positive for us.”

This is another comment that you could take a number of ways. Sure, it takes guts to play an 18 year old in a game like the United one. However, what was the other option? Andrey Arshavin who we’ve given chance after chance all season? Did Wenger really have an option? Not only that, we’re not talking about playing an unknown… we put £12million down on him. He’s should be top talent for that cost and he shouldn’t have been be a major risk if we’d done our home work. Which, it turns out we had done.

Wenger once again bragged about young players wanting to play for us because they get a chance. Well, that and the bundle of money we throw their way. I’m not sure young players wanting to use Arsenal as a stepping stone is something to be shouting about. I’d prefer it if young players came to us because they admired how amazing our first team is. The idea that we buy them up and put them in regardless of how well they play seems to have got us in all sorts of bother over the years. Realistically, are they coming to us because of the chance, or because they see gaps all over our first team squad?

We need to strike a much better balance going forward. That said, Chamberlain is the type of talent you don’t mind us throwing in at the deepend. Powerful, creative and… as Wenger put it… fearless.

The decision to take him off was bizarre at the time and it still is. He played Jack in 50 odd games last year, so why he thought he needed to rest Chamberlain after 70 minutes is beyond me. Alex Fynn said in the podcast he thinks it’s linked to Jack Wilshere’s injury… I’m not sure I agree. Maybe if he’d played 20 on the bounce.

If Wenger is considering a move, word on the street is that Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho may part company at the end of the season. Jose has done a pretty good job getting his team in front of Barca in the league, but the football isn’t as expansive as the Madrid fans would like to see and Jose has done some pretty crazy things over the past couple of years… the craziest being that he keeps losing to the greatest team ever in the El Classico’s. If Madrid came knocking in the summer, would Wenger say no? Or would he thing… you know what… I’m pretty good at working with world class players… this could be my last chance for a move like that?

Who knows… but he’s put it out there. His family are looking to move back to France, this might be a nice, warm stop off along the way. One thing you can be sure of, even if Jose does want a Premier League club, it probably won’t be us should Wenger leave. I have my doubts whether United would have him as well… he can be brand damaging to a degree.

Anyway, it’s time to forget that and look forward to an afternoon of exciting football. Today not only needs to be a win, it needs to be a confidence boosting win where we play nice football and hopefully craft a few goals. It would also be nice to bag a clean sheet. I expect the crowd to be on good form and I’d imagine we’ll all be kissing Arsene’s backside after booing him last week.

P.S. Remember to listen to the podcast I put together with Alex Fynn, it seems to have had a good response so far which means I’ll have to get some more in the pipeline! More detail about Wenger’s future and what his family want to do are contained inside…

PODCAST

If you’d like a copy of the book associated with the podcast, see below. Well worth a read.

So here it is people, the first ever Le Grove podcast! I haven’t listened to it back, all I know is the microphones worked and I started and stopped it in the right place.

It was recorded with Alex Fynn who is co-author of Arsenal: the making of a modern superclub (the other half being Kevin Whitcher of the Online Gooner). It’s a truly fantastic read if you’re looking for clarity on the last 10 years of Arsenal. Alex counts Arsene as one of his neighbours and he’s worked around football and Arsenal for years.

We had a good chat about all sorts of stuff regarding the club. We spoke about the United game, George Graham, David Dein (his future), the commercials and the future of Arsene.

Take a listen if you get the chance and drop some constructive, praise-full feedback for me in the comments.

PODCAST

After 4.5 years, it’s here, please enjoy!

P.S. If you’d like a copy of the book, here is the magic code to get you a discount!