Le Grove

OK Grovers, my hot tip of yesterday didn’t come to fruition …yet.

Don’t give up on it regardless of what you read in the red tops, if he was going to Liverpool, I would have thought he would be gone by now.

Still as a way of making up for the sin of speculation, today I will give the two angry commenters of yesterday what they want, a factual post, with no speculation in it.

We’ll see if you like it and if it’s a success I will do it with more regularity and be like Arsenal.com and some of the other blogs, it’s your call Grovers, so here it is.

Arsenal signed a French 17 year old called Coquelin and thinks he will be good, Lyon and Nantes were also after him.

Aaron Ramsey could be the answer to our central midfield woes, even though he is only 17, Wenger thinks he can do the job this season.

We haven’t bought Gareth Barry, Miguel Veloso or Xabi Alonso.

We won’t be buying a center back as Arsene Wenger believes we’re okay in that area, so no Richards, Lescott, Kompany or Zapata.

Arsene Wenger doesn’t want to KILL the youngsters by bringing in new and established stars, so we won’t be bringing in new and established stars. Killing Gilberto and Pires was okay though as they had reached 30 years of age and when you get to that age you smell like wet newspaper and it upsets the kids.

Arsenal will have sold more players than we bought, like last year so we will again have a budget surplus.

Season tickets unfortunately have gone up due to market forces and the cost of the new stadium we moved to in order to compete with the big boys, so hard luck, and please keep spending.

Robin Van Persie is injured again, but we are renegotiating his contract to keep him at the Emirates, so please don’t worry and keep them crossed he can manage 3 consecutive pre-season games.

I didn’t mention Rosicky though as by the time he’s fit he’ll be 30 and we’ll sell him.

One question that was asked but no answer was forthcoming was …if we can lose Hleb and Flamini and not replace them, why did we have them in the first place?

Please don’t forget to buy the new away kit as soon as possible, continue to hate Usmanov and Dein but you can like Kroenke, he signed the lock down and will now do what he’s told.

We owe everything to Arsene Wenger, we were a small club before he arrived and don’t forget, we are Emirates cup and Amsterdam trophy holders and we are determined to keep them in our otherwise empty silverware cabinet.

I hope you all found this informative and respectful, I hope you enjoy watching the game on Setanta sports or Arsenal TV today, we could win if our teams parents allow them out to play today, are they allowed competitive football at 17? I don’t know what the rule is!

None of this was meant to sound sarcastic by the way, I am only reporting the facts. Okay, okay, the Rosicky one was down to me, the rest was straight out of Arsenal.com

Have a great day Grovers, tomorrow the season begins and we will have a school report, sorry I meant a match report!

That’s my prediction, Gareth Barry will sign today, I had inside information from  a Grover last night that Barry’s agent was at the training ground yesterday and that can only mean one thing, he will sign.

Wenger will offer £12 million plus Justin Hoyte and O’Neill will bite his hand off, everyone wins, we get experience, class and the next England captain, Villa save face and get a replacement right back, and there aren’t that many on the market, so it’s win, win.

Barry has premiership experience and we really need that, we have Nasri, Vela and Bitchslap who have none and Ramsey is just a kid, albeit a good one so this could be the experienced player Wenger was talking about, my guess is, it was always going to be Alonso or Barry, I like Alonso a lot, but he does pick up injuries and Barry doesn’t.

The players need a lift, the fans need a lift and today would be a good day to do it, so Arsene, get your cheque book out.

I watched the Vela and Nasri interviews yesterday and apart from the inability to speak English, I really liked what they said and dare I say it, I’m getting rather excited, I know, I know, two young boys, me getting excited, sounds like worry-o’clock, fear not it’s only football excitement!

If we make this signing I will feel confident for the season, Zapata would be great, but maybe one of these kids he’s selected for the Barnet game can step up, who knows…

Finally I think he’ll do a last minute August deadline day thing, like he did with Gallas and Diarra but you know what, I’d have Carson, a great prospect and Premiership (not Croatia) proven, for £3.5 million, a steal.

Another great day in the comment section ladies and gentleman, boy! What happens when the season kicks off? We are turning from a blog site to a chat room, hey that’s unique, a blogsitechatroom and it rhymes!

Have a great day Grovers, here’s to hope and a fantastic end to the week!

P.S. Remember to sign up to the Fantasy Grove league, 75+ have joined the fun already!

Nasri can play on either wing and he himself said that, add Vela who likes to dribble around defenders, so maybe with Walcott and Rosicky there as well we have our new wingers. Fast, tricky and played in the right position, could this be why the boss has been quiet on this front?

I know he said he would play Vela up front, but with Bendtner and Robin, Ade not being wanted and Eduardo coming back early, there really isn’t room is there?

Hey I’m beginning to get excited, what we need now is a partner for Cesc, Diaby’s not ready yet so he needs to sign one of Barry, Alonso or Veloso, my money is on Barry using Hoyte as bait which should see him parting with 12 mil, less that O’Neill wants, but the scousers haven’t got it and that way Villa save face.

I would get rid of Ade and bring in one of Villa, Huntelaar, Arshavin or Santa Cruz, I don’t care which one but I don’t want to see Ade anymore, I would sooner go into debt and leave him in the stiffs rather than see the greedy bastard in an Arsenal shirt again, I for one would break my golden rule and boo him.

I have a sneaky feeling he may have earmarked Villa or Arshavin.

So here is my team

Almunia

Sagna Kolo Gallas/Zapata Clichy

Barry/Diaby

Nasri/Walcott Cesc Vela/Rosicky

RVP Bendtner/Villa/Arshavin

I have added Zapata but I know I’m being silly, with that team, we would win the world cup.

Now you can all get excited.

Oh I almost forgot, someone called Flem or Flob left us for Barcelona, so gob, good riddance you wanker, we’ll be a better team without you and may now have the occasional shot, you are even more of a mystery to me than Ade, at least he can score goals.

I remember you making your debut against the chavs in the community cup and I thought oh shit, Wenger bought a dud here, apart from great control, going backwards never did it for me, I spent 3 years thinking your real name was shooooot!

Finally, Pedro has set the first Le Grove Fantasy Football league. So, if you feel you have what it takes and you want to pit your wits against some of the biggest football nuts out there…

Click http://fantasy.premierleague.com:

1.       Sign up to it

2.       Design your team

3.       Join the Fantasy Grove league by entering this pin ( League Pin 183316-43452 ) into the ‘Join league’ bit. 

4.       Then you are away, the deadline is the 15th of August!

Rumour has it that there is a crate of Peroni in it for the winner, an attractive prize if ever there was one!

Now we’ve sold the pup, we may see some coming in today, that would be good, eh!

They all reached that magical age of 30!

We had Keown, Winterburn, Dixon, Adams, Bergkamp, and Ian Wright, all played well into their 30’s and I have to say playing their best football, look at Maldini and Zidane.

The only reason Wenger wants youngsters is so they can dominate for ten years, then they’d be what? 30!

Trouble is they get to 24 and sod off, so the experiment is shite, it doesn’t work, look at those that have left, Anelka, Flamini, Hleb, Overmars, Reyes and now Ade.

And those that don”t even get to 24 Aliadiere, Sidwell, Muamba, Larsson, Stokes, I’m not saying they were great, but they all ate away at the wage structure and all came with high hopes.

Change the script Arsene, it’s not working.

Yes you get them cheap, but you pay them top wages to come, so with all the kids we have our wage bill is huge, so are they really cheap? I think not, then after years of watching them fumble their way around a pitch, they bugger off (Flamini) or go to the Olympics (Song) the last time a player did that by the way (Brazil game) was Edu, then he rarely played again until he went on a free, because you had the hump with him.

Then when players near the magical age they get thrown out, we need the experience, but we throw them out, unless of course they are French (Gallas) the point here is when they get to 27, they see their last chance for a payday because they know they only have 3 years left before Arsenal dump them.

Look at those we lost, Pires, Henry, Viera, Campbell, Ralph and now Gilberto, when you’re chasing trophies, it helps to have an experienced head, what have we left now? A sulky bastard that when the going gets tough, sits on the pitch and throws wobblies.

I wish I had an answer for why you are obsessed with youth, we know it’s not money because when they get good you have to pay them and those you buy young aren’t that cheap, Theo was £12mil (revised because the Saints got into trouble so don’t claim that one) and Ramsey was £5 mil, plus all the hundreds of £3 mil kids knocking around, it all adds up.

Finally how many of these kids make it? How many FA Youth cups do we win? Are these kids that good?

On that note a big thank you to Gilberto, one of my favourites and a great example of my experience bitch. You’ll be missed!

I don’t mean to sound negative but I can remember when the team was a little older and we probably had a much lower wage bill, so give it some thought, at least we won the odd trophy!

Barry is now back at the Villa skulking around no doubt and feeling a little humble, so the stage could be set to bring him to Arsenal, maybe add Santa Cruz or Huntelaar and get rid of the Togo twat, either that or bung him in the stiffs and sell him in the January transfer window.

He made it clear he’s only bothered about himself, so we should return the compliment, send a message to the rest of the team too, oh and junk Hleb the same way.

Radical? I know, but it’s time to make a stand Arsene, time to stand up to the pay packet bullies!

Way over 550 comments Grovers, what happens when we start playing football eh?

There was a lot of talk yesterday on the shites (sorry I meant sites) that Arshavin wants to play for Arsenal, all from his agent I have to add, but it beats the ‘I want to leave stories from the other two greedy ingrates, and is the best news since David Villa said something similar.

Will Arsene act on it? I doubt it, but we can fantasise and play football manager for a day or so.

I think Arsh would work, and I think Barry would work as well. The majority of you yesterday said (Barry) he’s big buddies with Gerrard and he is expensive, but I don’t see what being mates with Gerrard has to do with it frankly, also with all these others, such as YaYa, Bitchslap, Arshavin and Nasri - they would all take a year or so to get used to the EPL, Barry would not and for me that has to be worth a few million more.

If Hoyte were part of that deal he would probably cost around 12 mil, around what we will get for Hleb, so what’s the big deal?

Arshavin and Santa Cruz would be a good swap for Ade so if we did that, we would be stronger than last term, add Vela, Rosicky, Ramsey and RVP we would have the extra players we so desperately needed last season, so in all we would be a better side.

Any less and we would not have moved and have the added problem of bedding in, Ade took 2 seasons and Hleb 3 don’t forget.

So Ade, Hleb and Flamini out Nasri, Ramsey, Arshavin, Barry and Santa Cruz in, deep, deep joy! (I didn’t mention Jens, no point)

Don’t beleive the Eto’o stories, good as he is, he’s another Ade ego and Robin crock, and as you all know we have enough in those departments already.

If you did that today Arsene, I for one would stop bleating and really fancy our chances against the free spending Chavs, Mancs, scousers and spuds. Didn’t mention City as I think they need a lot more than they have.

If Wenger thinks we have financial problems now, then dropping out of the top four is unthinkable, so get the cheque book out, we’re a football team, not an estate agency.

Have another hopeful day Grovers, only four more to go!

Looking good!

The news (or rumour today) is that Hleb has agreed a deal with Barca, and that Ade will not be too far behind, I hope it’s true but I have a feeling Ade had really pissed Wenger off and he’ll be going nowhere, if it were my call they would both be gone, it’s not so I’m doing a wish list in the hope the boss may read it and take notice of this fans wishes, so here goes, the list…

I want David Bentley, N’Zogbia and Obefemi Martins, with Pascal Cygan brought back to shore up the defence with big Phil. Give Eboue a pay rise and play him out wide instead of Theo.

OK that was for the AKB’s and to ensure some of you would be throwing up in your shreddies! This is the real list!

David Seaman says 6′ 4″ Almunia is good enough, so that’s good enough for me. Bring in Barry for Flamini and bring Diaby in to deputise, we won’t get Villa as that will cost too much so at 6′ 3″ I would go for Santa Cruz in place of spiderman Adebayor.

Arshavin for Hleb won’t happen so I’ll stick with Nasri and maybe the cameo role from Wilshere as back up.

I would get a centre back but I really can’t see that happening as he came out and said a flat out no.

Maybe big Phil or Djourou will step up, don’t forget centre backs come on late in life and those two are still babies.

I think we have enough forward options in Theo, Vela, Eduardo, RVP and Bendtner so a swap with Ade for the big guy should do it, don’t forget we almost did it last term, the kids are no longer kids, we do have a team spirit and Nasri for me will be a revelation, so three in and three out plus Vela may be enough, but he needs to bring in Barry, who in my opinion will be like having a young Lampard, English and stylish and can tackle.

It would also be nice to watch England with a few Arsenal boys in the team for a change. Also nice to stick one on the scousers too.

O’Neill hates Benitez and really likes Hoyte so it wouldn’t be too expensive, if we can’t get Barry then maybe YaYa for Ade plus cash.

It has to be this week so let’s keep ‘em crossed, one more week of this shit and we get to doing match reports again, so get ready.

A big thank you to all you Grovers yesterday who got back on track being mates, so well done, we had twice as many new people as AKB’s so that was neat too, let’s just hope we can do the South Africans today and start the week off on a positive note.

Have a hopeful and fruitful week Grovers, this is the countdown!

So being an Arsenal fan in the summer continues to be torturous, reading the morning papers is depressing.

The Spuds are in for Arse shavin and Luis Garcia and all we have to look forward to is reading that Song is off to the Olympics in August, that’s repaying Wenger’s faith and he’s not even in the team yet, get rid of him, he has Ade written all over him, twice in one year!

Yesterday we were after Barry and I was on cloud 9, today we’re giving Ade away at half price, I wish the boss would come out and say it’s all bollocks, it seems to me that agents and players are running football these days, why on earth would we say £35 mil one minute and £16 the next? it’s too stupid for words, it makes my blood boil that we just sit there and say nothing, say something Arsenal, we are having the piss ripped out of us as fans.

Adebayor is allowing it and should be sold or left to rot, we have to make a stand against these arrogant pricks, we have to. Ronaldo thinks he’s a slave, someone ought to make him read a book on slavery, the moron probably can’t read though, who do these twats think they are?

We’ll have to wait until next week to see who we are finally going to sign, but we have to do it before pre-season otherwise I doubt it will happen and pre-season begins next week.

Okay onto a bit of sillyness now, yesterday we had a few ding dongs, a few of you made up but a few came on and wanted to continue, well doing that just makes it unpleasant for others and will ultimately stop the majority coming on, don’t forget our mantra ‘have an opinion not get one’ and calling people names is not on.

So if it continues I’ll have to edit the offenders and if that doesn’t stop it, I’ll have to moderate in order to protect the integrity of the site and the majority of Grovers.

You know who you are and you are all good people, I don’t want this site to be like the other moronic ones, we are getting between 4 and 500 comments a day and that’s more than anyone, I don’t want that to stop, because if it does Pedro and I will ride into the sunset.

We don’t spend all our time doing this to get in between the few that want a tear up, if that’s what you want send us your email addresses and we’ll send them to your adversaries and you can rip each other in private

So come on Grovers, let’s get back on track, have a happy Domingo!

Northern monkey tabloids are reporting that Arsenal have made an 11th hour bid to get Gareth Barry and are using Hoyte plus cash as a lure.

O’Neill hates the scousers, as we all do, he likes Hoyte, so I can smell a way out for all of us here, we on Le Grove have always rated Barry and I would be super confident for next year if we signed him to.

Ade off would be great as I’m fed up with him big time and Huntelaar in, that would make the boy wonder happy and that’s a good thing too, finally Hleb out and YaYa in plus cash would complete it, stick a couple of young’uns into the mix and we’re looking at mopping up next year.

I always hoped that the Nasri deal would start the ball rolling so expect thing to happen at a pace from here on in.

Have a great Saturday Grovers.

Even the most ardent Gooner will have to admit that this summer has been a nightmare.

We’ve had players talk about leaving before, but never in the volume we have today. What is worse about the players leaving is the complete lack of respect they are showing on their way out.

We started the summer needing 2-3 world class players to enable us to compete next year.

We’ve lost Flamini, Gilberto, Lehmann. That is three so far… which to my mind means we need 5-6 new players?

It get’s worse though… Alex Hleb is almost a dead cert to be leaving and Adebayor is doing his utmost to get his move to Milan. So that would mean 7-8 players we need to compete?

Ok, so we’ve signed Ramsey… but he wasn’t even a regular for Cardiff, so write him off as a starter. We’ve still not signed Nasri even though his holiday has finished, Marseille have bought Arfa, the French tax year has changed, the full moon has passed…. etc etc…*

Are we really heading into this season banking on a load of kids who are at best, average?

I hope not.

I don’t want to wait another 3 years to have half a good season. Open that cheque book Arsene and make sure we are competitive… long termism is fantastic, but a healthy bank balance isn’t what makes most Arsenal fans tick.

We want our team to represent our outlay every season… If we’d known the deal after leaving Highbury was clinching 3rd or 4th every year for the next century… we’d have told you to keep your Emirates dream.

People talk about spoilt fans, well how about spoilt club? We’ve paid more and got less than the other top 4 teams for the last 3 years… we’ve never expressed our upset at the stadium, never booed a player and never been anything other than 100% behind the team.

We are owed Arsene… don’t allow this summer to become even more farcical than it already is…

*How random? Stupid fate tempting… See here for Nasri stuff! This happened when I was posting before and we signed Ramsey…! Read on for the details…

“We are delighted to be signing Samir Nasri. He is young, quick and technically an outstanding player. He has shown great potential with his performances for Marseille and the French national team over the past two seasons and he will add great quality to our squad.” Arsene Wenger”

“I’m very happy to become an Arsenal player, it means such a lot to me. This is a very important step in my life as a football player because Arsenal is a massive club. I really hope everything will go well for me here. I will my best for Arsenal and its fans and I am honoured to be part of such a great football club.” Nasri.

Arsenal.com

Will we get some Hleb news later!

Have a good day!

Big thanks to Kurt Angle for Modelling the stylish new Shirt

First up, our new shirt! After seeing it up close, I like it… the stripes on the sleeves are maroon… which is pretty cool. Me and Geoff like the collar as well. So a big thumbs up after my initial thumbs down.

Onto todays post!

Ok, so I am angry… more angry than I have ever been about a summer!

Why? Is it about Arsenal? Is it the weather!

Well, no, it is about the state of football.

Arsenal have had one player leave purely down to money and 2 more hoping to follow in his footsteps. Frank Lampard is leaving Chelsea as the bastards wont give a 30 year old a 4 year deal worth £140k a week, Ronaldo is miffed that he only getting £120k a week… he feels he deserves £300k tax free and countless other players are also rocking the boat at their respective clubs.

I am not going to knock players for demanding these sorts of wages; after all, they are on offer…  I won’t knock the agents stretching clubs to their limits after their clients have one good season… but when do Europe’s elite clubs around a table and decide enough is enough?

The EU implement employment laws to protect the average workers rights. They are not there to make a millionaire sportsman richer.

So what is the solution?

Well in America, their bosman ruling happened in the 70’s. They had something called a ‘reverse clause’ which meant no player could discuss a move without permission from the club who held the rights. After the players lobbied various sporting bodies this clause was lifted and players could talk to other teams on expiration of their contracts. This was called ‘restricted free agency’ and led to bidding wars for the best players.

Restricted free agency caused the same problems for American sport teams as it is causing European football teams. The best players go to the most affluent clubs (or Clubs willing to go into the most debt), causing a lack of competitiveness.

To address the lack of competitiveness, and waning fan interest, the national associations for basketball, football and Hockey implemented salary caps.

The way a lot of American sports associations implement their caps is by working out the leagues revenue and dividing it by the number of teams so everyone has the same limit.

NFL and NHL have a hard cap… that means no one exceeds their limit. NBA has a soft cap, meaning that no one exceeds their limit unless the team who own the player are renewing a players contracts (The ‘Larry Bird’ provision). This is to stop a teams best player from moving every year and it helps keep the fans happy (Fans don’t like change… bless um’).

So there we have it…

The premier league and all the other major leagues can set a uniform wage cap to use how they please.

Everyone is in the same boat then and this has many advantages:

1. The team with the best coach and the smartest board will succeed.

2. Teams won’t be so inclined to buy players to stop other teams purchasing them (SWP effect).

3. Teams will think twice about paying players like Joey Barton £60k a week.

4. Teams will be run organically. Having a sugar Daddy will be of no benefit.

5. Season ticket prices may stop soaring (Dream on I hear you say…).

6. THE FANS WILL ENJOY THEIR SUMMERS MORE!

The idea isn’t fool proof, and this article here suggests a salary cap just makes the richest and the smartest, richer and smarter. But let’s be honest, Arsenal are a pretty savvy club… so let’s not worry too much about that!

Admittedly my idea is a bit idealistic, but lets be honest… falling premiership gates and a disdain for the modern game ain’t gonna reverse if we carry on as we are…

Fan’s help pay the salaries of these over paid sports stars and if they feel they are not getting VFM or that the game is not competitive, they will eventually switch off.

So if you are reading and you are a club chairman, have a think about it and share your thoughts with another chairman!

That is my solution, let me know yours!

Happy blogging!

P.S.

This morning Arsenal have been linked with Falcao, the Columbian scoring sensation (38 in 58 apparently.). The Hleb fee has been agreed and Hleb has been bashing London again. Arshavin has been bid for by and English club… £19mill apparently! Oh, and Gilberto has apparently been transferred to Pana. If that is the case, I think it is a real shame. Our treatment of Gilberto has been poor and you really can’t blame players approaching 30 for wanting to leave. That will be the 5th player to leave since January (If Hleb and Ade leave)… all first teamers or potential first teamers… that is a turnover that would make McDonalds blush! How does Wenger fight back from this? Only time will tell Grovers!

P.P.S There is another story on the news feeds regarding wage caps… I wrote this yesterday morning incase you were wondering!

P.P.P.S. See the Falcao vid here…