I am like, so embarrassed… I forgot it was the 13th birthday of LE GROVE… YESTERDAY.
Can you believe it? The site is now a teenager. Well, this week, it’ll be getting a new cleaner template. The site will work better from a mobile perspective so you have more space to comment. It’ll also look a lot sharper. I cannot WAIT.
Anyway, I wanted to say a massive thank you to all of the people that tweet, listen, comment, and visit the site on the daily. It’s a massive privilege that anyone pays attention to our mutterings and I am very happy you didn’t all bin me off for the fancy YouTubers.
Right, what do we have today?
I did some rummaging around yesterday on the Ozil stuff. I don’t have a++ stuff, but I think the return of the German was more a result of circumstance than a key indicator of how we’re going to operate this season. I think it’s still positive for the player, at least the coach is trying to include him, it’s probably also an indication he’ll be here all year.
At the end of the day, it’s in the interest of Arteta to get something out of a player costing the club £18m a year. It’s also in the interest of the player to show prospective clubs that he’s worth a punt at a rate he deems acceptable next year. Let’s hope this potential rebirth has more substance to it than the other 13 false dawns.
Then there’s nothing particular new to share on the transfer front. Arsenal need to sell before they can buy, but it sounds like the club is fairly confident of making something happen this summer.
The thinking seems to be that a lot of deals are going to happen towards the end of the window. I quipped that maybe clubs are thinking of holding onto players this summer in the hope of higher prices next year. PSG Tech Director, Leonardo, poured cold water on that idea when he said,
“All the clubs today need to sell. There is also FFP. PSG are in this situation. We made a big investment on (Mauro Icardi). We need to be creative. Player departures are anticipated. We finished playing in August and not in May. We have up until October 5th to sign players. But we have to look at the exit door before.”
I think it’s likely that a few big balls need to get rolling then we’ll see the merry go round kick into action.
Arsenal has a collection of players that could move this summer. We need to gather about £90m to make our dreams of midfield completion come true. This is the list of names.
- Kolasinac £4.5m (£120k p/w)
- Torreira £18m (£65k p/w)
- Holding. £8m ( £40k p/w)
- Sokratis £5m (£90k p/w)
- Lacazette £35m (£120k p/w)
- Reiss £20m (£40k p/w)
- Mustafi £15m (£90k p/w)
- Matteo £30m (£40k p/w)
Conservatively, there’s £140m we could bring in if the stars aligned… not to mention we’d clear £785k a week in wages which is £40m a season. I don’t even think the above is a long shot, we need to make it happen. We have far too many players on our books that we need to shift, transfer fee or not.
The imperative is to clear the wage bill this summer, so if you moved on the above players and took £100m, you’re still winning. You can afford to add Partey, who at the very most would command Lacazette money, and I reckon you could land Aouar for under £100k a week.
The really crazy thing about the above block of players is you probably don’t need to backfill any of the roles… the only area I’d say might need looking at is the striking department. If we could take Edouard from Celtic, a player who has two years left on his deal at a Champions League-less club, then we’d be in top 4 shape squad wise.
The imperative for the summer though is reshaping the midfield. We need more creativity and it’d be a dream to add more power and pace.
Though I will say, I still think we’ll improve on last year regardless of what we do from now. A strong start is imperative. We need to go into the second international break within touching distance of the top of the table. That then sets us up really nicely. 9 points from 12 would be ideal.
We also have quite a nice advantage of playing a lot of our tough away games in the front half of the season. Liverpool, City, United, Spurs, Leeds, and Everton all come before January. We’ll be playing to partially full stadiums. Hopefully, the return legs, we’ll have bigger crowds.
I’m feeling pretty positive about our chances this year, but I really do feel so much of our success this season is built into how we start. This is a team that needs momentum. Winning the Community Shield means nothing if we get shithoused by a late Mitrovič goal in the first game, and save David Moyes job with disastrous follow-up against West Ham. We need Arsenal versus City, Chelsea and Wolves energy… not ‘do I even like football’ vibes from Villa and Watford.
This is a huge season. I am very excited to get started. JUST SIGN SOME MIDFIELDERS PLEASE.
P.S. Xhaka doing bit against Switzerland, you hate to see it.
Granit Xhaka Vs Germanypic.twitter.com/JOCOAUwP9X
— BNS Comps (@BnsComps) September 6, 2020
“Still need a twenty plus goal CF though to really push on.”
How many 20 plus goal strikers do we need? How many clubs have more than one?
I would go for the one who has a superior physical presence and exudes confidence and, significantly, also has a far superior skill set.
Anyone have any idea of why Martinez despite having a superior all around skill set has never managed to hold down a starting spot until he was 28? Seems at odds with this idea of him being this incredible goalkeeper.
Dissenter
The likes of Jack butland are going for 8 mil from stoke. I think there is value in this market. A backup goal keeper can be found for that price.
Marc
Everton, not us.
We doing the Leno-Martinez go around again yeah, haha.
WE somewhat relevant considering Villa are apparently willing to pay 20 million for him
WE
Sorry mate – misread your comment.
Was very impressed with Fati’s performance recently v Ukraine.. Couldn’t believe he’s just 17, just oozes confidence.
Where’s Stuart Taylor when you need him.
Marc
That’s alright, just don’t ever let it happen again.
Blog looks excellent, Pedro. Very chic and understated.
Marko
How much would a replacement for Martinez cost in your estimation.
And one that’s comparable in ability and provides us with the security that we don’t miss a note if Leno gets crocked again. No point in downgrading for a few million quid not to mention he’s a popular dressing room figure.
Alex Telles from Porto to Wolves.
This follows 17yr old Fabio Silva from two days ago
I do hope everyone realises that transfers need an interested party, saying keep martinez and sell Leno needs someone to be bidding for Leno.
On a squad level, the only 2 players that are untouchable are PEA and Tierney, everyone else should have a price. When the squad is full of quality, then the club can sit back and cherry pick, not now when there is a black hole where a midfield is supposed to be.
WE It won’t be a few million quid, if we sell, martinez for 20 and get a 12 million backup, we have 8 extra million which raises the 32 million offer or Auror to 40 million. I understand the point you are making But till the time we have a settled squad we have to take risks. It’s quite simple – martinez or Leno on the bench give us nothing. I rather have a make do on bench if that allows us to field a proper CM who would make a difference on the pitch. Sure if leno/Martinez get a… Read more »
If Kepa is going for 70 mill, then Martinez is worth at least 50-60.
I should say Kepa was sold … they won’t get much for him now
RR
And what wages would this said twelve million GK be on. Martinez is on 25k a week, good luck getting close to as cheap as that for any half decent GK.
I don’t see the sense in it personally, it’s not like we have nobody else that we can sell.
Dream
Great signing for them, not sure about the wonderkid.
Telles is quality though, one of the best offensive left backs there is.
I’m shocked that we are looking to sell Martinez.
IMO he is a better keeper.
One question tho.
Will playing in front of a big crowd phase him?
All his best games have been behind closed doors.
The longer the partley deal goes on the happier I am..
I ain’t sure him the answer.
Happy b day peter.
Plus
All peeps putting amn as rb
He don’t want to play there…
Maybe as a wing back?
But he has stated before he wants mid.
Liking the look of the site, Pedro!
None of you commented on the rules because no one is going to follow them. 😂
Thanks Mark / WE!
“None of you commented on the rules because no one is going to follow them. 😂”
Seems about right.
#6 could almost name a name
Ryan Fraser signed for Newcastle. That’s one less player to have endless debates about.
Can we still haz Salomon Kalou though?
Still not sucking up this new xhara , brigade ..
We all know there is a calamity in him almost every game.
Peter any other changes you have planned… for the blog?
A while back you were toying with the revamp…
Wondering if any more changes..
Why is Pedro obsessed with the word “Imperative” today.
Pedro
Congrats on running this for 13 years. I think i have been commenting here since 2011. Look forward to many more successful decades of le-grove.
There are Rules? Now you tell me.
WE 1. If we keep Emi I’m pretty sure he would get a new contract, so a new backup would come to pretty much the same, even another 20k extra (assuming emi gets a new 50k deal) comes to about 1 million/year. 2. As i said, I actually prefer emi to Leno and yes I would also like some deadwood off (kola/sok/guen etc) but me or you wanting them off doesn’t matter, someone needs to want to take them off our hands and if these guys don’t get offers it comes down to a) sell no one generating no revenue… Read more »
RSPC only a couple of weeks ago AMN said he’s happy to play anywhere for the team. He just wants to play
Thanks for the book recommendation Pedro
Nice new look Pedro, very crisp.
13 years of greatness. Congratulations Pedro, thanks for giving us a space to express ourselves and the content that are second to none.
Xhaka definitely has a lovely long ball to him, when he has 5 yards of space. It’s everything else about his play that isn’t up to the required level. He’s a big part of the reason we don’t like playing through the middle, he can’t turn and play under pressure and is too slow on the ball. He is also a massive liability on an opponent’s counter. He is so flat footed sometimes it only takes half a step for an oncoming attacker to bypass him, which either leads to an overload on our backline, or he resorts to shit… Read more »
Thanks Benny / Ashwin / Goober!
RSPC, I was going to see about allowing gifs, and I wanted to have a report button for bad comments.
Bar that, this is it.
@20 million for Martinez we will have made a killing. Look also that man utd are trying to move Romero for a decent fee but failing. If I was part of the arsenal mgnt … I was going to quickly grab that money and look for a decent goalie from smaller leagues. They are plenty.
Id say if we only get Partey, we would be more solid with him and ceb as base mids and Willian as cam in 433 (4231), or Willian out wide left with Auba central in 343.
I really am keen to see what happens.
I haven’t been so excited about our backline since the invincibles! RB still iffy but the young guns are surely our future and it’s great to see.
Oh yeah peds, the new site is real nice!
Was in a post from a few days ago and clicked next page of commenrs and it loaded from old to new was pretty cool 😂
Glad you like it Goober, now I can leave it for another 8 years!
I can’t even remember the last change, and I was reading from 2010.
I mean I don’t mind however it is, just a great place to get amongst some ARSENAL fans when you don’t live in London!
If I speak…
https://twitter.com/elpivoteftbl/status/1303096299462504457?s=20
And to think that could have been us 😂 seeya Raul
To think how many people were defending the contacts game…
Wolves are much like what happened with Neves and Moutinho and Jota signing up players that would usually be considered out of their league. Telles and Silva are excellent signings for them. They’re doing great
Sounds like United are trying for telles now. #contacts
Marko, remember when you thought Raul was doing great…
#Contacts #P45
I don’t quite think we were at the contacts game. Maybe if Raul was in longer. But you definitely can’t count out signing players with super agents. They do tend to draw some of the biggest players.
No p45s, a colt 45 and 2 zig zags, baby that’s all I need 😂😂
Goober, we were so entrenched in contacts, Raul isn’t here now.
‘Contacts’ is now the last part of the process, not the first.
I’ll let myself out
I do feel like that entrenchment could only have gotten worse though, so good riddance haha. But we did still make a few really positive signings under him, if they play to potential.
Goober, that’s the art of being awful. Deals don’t always look bad… until you scratch beneath the surface.
Iwobi looked like a wow deal until you heard that we injected agents into the deal.
Pepe looked like a great deal until you realised grounded yourself in the price.
Luiz looked like a clever deal until you realised what 1 year cost us.
Still, at least we’re on the right path now.
Yeah Peds, I give you that. I am one of the few people who tried to have Emery’s back til the end of his first season. We had started our backroom change up before he was appointed and things looked like they were changing for the better. Hindsight shows us not so much, but with edu arteta, per, and vinai I hope we may be onto something greater than just one man at the helm. We will see. But it is looking good! I’m also stoked that we again have a few arsenal men in good positions at the club.… Read more »
Congrats on 13 years Pedro; long may LG lead where others settle for the background or fall by the wayside of Arsenal blogs.
Nice feel to the new look as well.
Hahaha and I will never agree to signing or re-signing of Luiz as good deals in any way, shape or form.
Can’t stand him as a player. Seems a good bloke though!
Led Zeppelin had a sign at the entrance of The Manor in Chiddingly, East Sussex most famed for its moat and where the great Peter Grant (manager) summoned the band to return in the movie The Song Remains The Same.
It read, ‘the rules of the house are that there are no rules’!
Almost seems apt for LG.
Hey Goober good to see you’re keeping your sanity and health despite the Melbourne lock down.
Thanks Tony!
Hahaha thanks Tony.
Reading this blog over the last couple of days probs hasn’t helped the sanity. But love it none the less 😂😂.
How you going mate?
Also I want to go to a theatre with a moat!!!😂
I have just read an interesting article written by Philip Lahmm about the secret of Bayern Munich’s “long term” success and it is of course a route that Arsenal could have taken in the past and perhaps a lesson for the future. The starting point is the longevity of certain strategic players in the team. Players like Neuer, Boateng, Thiago Silva, Muller and of course Lewandowski all in the spine. Second the recruitment of talented younger players who are hungry for success eg Kimmich, Davies and of course Gnabry. Finally the development of a strong squad with very few weaknesses.… Read more »
ES I agree. But we need to get the right players in first to start that. We did have that in Wenger squads, but the club never acted strongly enough with transfers In to persuade them to stay. Our squad isn’t far off now. Apart from midfield. But I’d like if we kept with the young talented buys and growing them as a team ala Dortmund until we get to a point where it’s keeping our best players and also adding that ‘selective’ quality over quantity. We are getting there. And having our defence bolstered in a good fashion instead… Read more »
As a follow on much of Arsenal’s success in the first five years of Wenger’s tenure revolved around seven players who were at the club BEFORE Wenger arrived namely Seaman, Winterburn,Bould,Adams, Dixon, Parlour and of course Bergkamp.
That is perhaps a lesson that Wenger forgot in the latter stages in his management career.
I like the makeover . Maybe we can tag fellow commenters Pedro ? It might be bothersome though . Still 10/10 on the blog renovation.
Emiratestroller
We need someone with a vision like that . I think we have the core nailed in Tierney , Leno/Martinez , Saliba , Gabriel , Saka Martinelli , Pepe . Just need some more skillful additions.
Stroller Agree with that. Once we moved to the Emirates, the Invincibles squad was pretty much broken up, only 2 years after winning the title. The only players remained were Henry, Ljungberg, Gilberto, Toure and Lehmann. Ok, we had Cesc, V Persie, Adebayor, Walcott, Hleb etc coming through, but we lacked the experience to really go all the way. Had we had Vieria, Pires, Campbell and Lauren in the team for the experience in the dressing room, then we could have won a title after moving to the Emirates. Look at Ferguson, he kept Van der Sar, Ferdinand, Neville, Scholes,… Read more »
not making constant wholesale changes __________ When was this? 15 years ago maybe. Recent history… If you look at starters.. Last season 3 starters Pepe, Tierney, David Luiz.. Year before.. 3 starters Lt, Leno, Papa. Year before. 3. Auba, Laca, Kola…. Year before that…2 Mustafi and Xhaka… Year before that 1 Petr Cech. (Man did that transfer window suck) I would like to try a year where we did make wholesale changes and then go from there. We are being selective and getting the selections wrong is our problem. In my opinion. You have to have something to build from… Read more »
Midwest that’s pretty much how I see it too
Goober
All good here, thanks and will be better once the season kicks off at the weekend to see what kind of sauce Arteta uses against Fulham.
Goober- Looking at that list actually made me a little sick to my stomach.. Thank God some of our youth prospects are very good. I mean there is nothing wrong with keeping quality and building selectively when you can. but we haven’t had that quality since the Invincible era in abundance. we have to get to a good baseline of talent in our starting squad and that might require wholesale changes when for two seasons you brought in Xhaka, Mustafi and Petr Cech. I do admire Bayern .. for the way they are run… but they have a huge competitive… Read more »
Midwest/Goober We haven’t had any sensible management leadership since David Dein lost his mojo and was unceremoniously kicked out of the club while Wenger disingenuously kept his distance from the Dein melee. Equally, we haven’t had a decent manager since after 2006 when Wenger thought he was invincible. The wheels fell off Wenger’s narcissistic wagon and the downward spiral began with Wenger’s believing totally in his demigod position at the club and football in general. For me Arteta represents a potential leader/winner in the young visionary managers of the future. From what we have witnessed since lockdown winning two finals… Read more »
Love the new layout Pedro. And belated happy birthday Le Grove.
Love the new look, very grown up.
Goobergooner I agree 100% that we need to bring in the “right players” and that means “long term planning and recruitment”. In my previous posts and indeed since the beginning of last season I made the case that Arsenal were in transition and both defence and midfield needed a rebuild. I think that Arteta has actually managed to do that fairly well. He has produced a gameplan and lineup, which makes us very difficult to beat by teams who are expected to beat us. What we need to find now is a gameplan and personnel who can kill off opposition… Read more »
Alex Iwobi
Krystian Bielik
Laurent Koscielny
David Ospina
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Carl Jenkinson
Takuma Asano
Nacho Monreal
Stephan Lichtsteiner
Cohen Bramall
Aaron Ramsey
Danny Welbeck
Petr Cech
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
With the odd exeption that’s a lot of averageness we’ve recently moved on.
New layout is nice.
Congratulations on the new layout Pedro. Kept the spirit of the site but with a much fresher look.
Happy belated birthday too.
ET I don’t think you can say Bayern’s squad is much better than Liverpool’s
They won the CL and have a great team. Liverpool have won it once and made another final, won the league once and were millimeters from winning it the year before with an insane number of points alongside their CL win.
Bayern won the CL this year but I don’t think that means they much better than Liverpool.
Arsenal made significant changes to our squad last season offloading a large number of players either not good enough or past their sell by date _________ Making significant changes to our squad or wholesale changes to that is the least of my worries… buying players who aren’t good enough to start is.. We have a had a real problem with that and the jury is still out on Pepe. So until we can assure that we have fixed that aspect. I would say we need more changes not less. We still have about 8 players we could move on easily.… Read more »
Mid/ES that list is what got us 8th haha. And that’s with Arteta steadying the ship. Could have been worse 😂 I think the club also envisage a “quick turnaround” of players in this transition period (aka since Wenger til arteta’s 2nd summer window I’d guess). We have a massively inflated wage bill and players who are paid up to 7 times what they’re worth, I think you can guess there haha and even that is being generous considering his output. But even kola on what 100k, that’s bonkers. We need to rid of players who are not earning their… Read more »
Maybe arteta’s 3rd summer window? Time will tell. But I’d imagine we’d have most outgoings done by next summer window end and arteta’s squad will be coming together nicely by the start of his 3rd window.
Goobergunner I think that Arsenal’s incoming transfer business this summer has been fairly transparent. Willian, Gabriel and Ceballos have been recruited. Partey and Aouar are also on the agenda and let’s hope at least one will be recruited. The only other player who has been a topic of discussion was Coutinho and I think that his recruitment was remote. Departures are more problematic, because the Manager has changed his mind about offloading one or two players who have upped their game, injuries is a factor and also as we know other players are proving difficult to shift. There is still… Read more »
Nice read in the Athletic this morning…
https://theathletic.com/2027004/
Chris Wilder the Sheffield United manager writing a letter to his younger-self at Halifax lo those many years ago
The one player who will not be leaving this summer is Aubameyang. The only question is whether he has already signed a contract or indeed does not plan to do so. My view has been all along that the club should do all in their power to renew it, but that if he refuses to sign a new contract then allow the present one to elapse. It will give the club one season to sort out the situation and if necessary identify a successor if we have to do so. In the current economic climate no-one is going to spend… Read more »
That’s it stroller. Still a long way to go. I just don’t know who I’d prefer between aouar and Partey. The former has more upside; and as an attacking player he’d probably end up the more heralded player. But we have been crying out for a proper beast of a cm for sooo long. Cazorla should have had this type of player instead of Coq. Instead he got Ozil. Ceballos will do well with a player like Partey. Unless we go with a younger alternative for that position. Though I’d still be up for that. I just can’t bare another… Read more »
Loving the new look.
Congrats on the 13th year anniversary.
YouTube is one thing but nothing can replace reading for me… keep it up pedro.
WOKE ALERT
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12066391/hector-bellerin-arsenal-defender-invests-in-forest-green-rovers
It just beggars belief that we have so many bang average players at the club, on shite loads of money. The legacy that Wenger Mark 2 created has basically crippled the club. Whatever happens in the future will not detract from the fact that the club was appallingly run for so many years. We all know that he and Gazidis were downing the red in bucket loads when Ozil’s contract was sorted and Sanchez went on a free. What other explanation is there? No wonder Wenger has no intentions of returning to the club. He must be so embarrassed and… Read more »
Yeah don’t u just know it.Bell end.What a shock..PSG please hurry up with the readies.
The thing that jumps out at me was ‘key players in the SPINE’. We’ve been pretty spineless recently tbh – poor at CB, poor in DM/CM/AM and with Auba wide pretty average in terms holding up the ball in the CF area.
With CB’s sorted it just emphasises once again how important sorting midfield out, and that’s a midfield with power not just technical ability otherwise we’ll still be overrun.
What’s the problem with Bellerin investing in the FGR model exactly? I would have thought not actually destroying the planet would be a good thing unless I’m missing something here?
No big loss if Bellerin leaves.
Hopefully get a good price for him.
Graham, who will play at RB/RWB then?
Cutting the pitch with a solar powered mower and feeding the squad lentils isn’t going to save the planet. That’s if it needs saving.
Must be so nice to.be able to do things like Bellerin is doing at FGR without having to worry about the small things in life.
Anyway, at least I do my bit. Turn my standby light off each evening on my TV and meticulously plan my recycling.
Pity places like China don’t give a Castlemaine XXXX.
Never mind.
LT – actually every little helps as they say. Meat production is a major contributor to global warming to every vegetarian or vegan means fewer greenhouse gases. I’m not a veggie but I do try to limit my meat consumption for both health and environmental reasons. People don’t have to join in but I can’t see why it’s necessary to slag the guy off for trying to help.
Andy1886
Some people just hate on Bellerin because he is a bit flashy. I actually like his bold out look on life. Never takes crap from anyone.
Don’t worry andy1886.
Arteta will sort it.
Have faith.