So now we sort of know that Ade (or Kaka as Wenger compared losing him to) will most likely not be replace and the undisclosed £25million we got for him won’t be spent (except on improved contracts and bonuses) we have nothing to speculate on any more.

I thought Rosicky and Barazite looked good at the weekend, Vermaelen didn’t do enough for me to really have an opinion on, Randall did of course (no change there) but I thought Ayling looked like he could step up.

I believe the only reason we play Barnet every year is because we use their ground for our youngsters, other than that this fixture is a complete waste of time, we got to see a few first team players and in the second half we saw the reserves, but we see them all the time on Arsenal TV. So, so what?

I do like Jay Thomas though, he has bags of skill but I’m not sure what his position is, maybe he’ll feature this season, I hope so, he’s miles better than two others I could mention, but I won’t.

We had some Grovers at the Barnet Game and they posed for a few pictures with Ken Friar amongst others, good to see you read Le Grove Ken, now get the cheque book out.

For me we weren’t good enough last season so I can’t see how we’ll be good enough this season, we were two players short then and we are two players short now, we need a big ball winning centre back, Barnet showed us how a 400 year old striker can out jump our entire defence with ease, imagine what a Drogba or an Adebayor will do to us???

We also need a ball winner to play alongside Cesc and we all had our hopes up we would get one but we don’t seem to be lucking out there either.

So same old, same old then, still, having Eduardo and Rosicky back will be like two new signings, my only question is, if that’s the case, when they were out all of last year, why did we not get two new signings in to cover them?

I know, I’m just being cynical. Still we are playing tomorrow so we’ll get another chance to see our reserves again. I’m sorry this post is short, but our manager has left me speechless and very, very disappointed.

Have a nice day at least we can win the cricket… …or can we???

The Verminator

Hand Shakes

Arsh + JD

Unknown...?

Underhill

Vik Akers and another member of the coaching staff

Eboue, who insisted he and the players read the site.

Jay Simpson

A big thanks to Bud, Lorna and Jay for sending in their pics from what looked like a fantastic day out. I’d also like to thank the Arsenal staff for getting involved! I have a Kolo reads Le Grove somewhere, I’ll root it out!

That’s strange because Arsene Wenger said you moved because the fans drove you out.

We understand you wanting to move to win trophies, so do we, but did you mention that to your old boss on the way out, because he thinks we have enough to win trophies!

Interesting take that, Adebayor courted every club with money last season and won himself a massive pay rise as a reward.

We the fans didn’t like it but gave him the benefit of the doubt, he played like he didn’t give a toss, we dared to object, then our manager decides it was our fault he wanted to leave.

Funny that as I thought our manager gave him a new 4 year contract for his pay rise, so how was he allowed to leave, I thought he had 3 years left?

If contracts don’t work, why then have we just agreed new long term deals with Ramsey, Walcott and RVP?

Ok I’ll leave that there, however we still have £25mil from the transfer, oops sorry no, we have an undisclosed sum, wonder who we’ll buy? Don’t hold your breath, this is Arsenal and we have new signings Rosicky and Eduardo to come in.

One question then, if they are like new signings, why did we not replace them when they were missing for a season?

Ok I can’t be arsed to argue the logic of Arsenal football club anymore, after all I’m just a fan and I was responsible for Ade leaving, it really is a shame I can’t be as responsible for the manager spending some money though, I’d like to take the credit for that.

Still enough on Ade.

Yesterday we saw Vermaelen’s debut and Rosicky’s return, Vermaelen did okay but needs to work on his jumping and Rosicky looked great, and I agree he will be like having a new signing, but we all agreed last year we needed 5, so maybe this is the start.

Please not Martins though. Great goal by Barazite and nice to see Thomas and Watt step up, we drew 2-2 and that’s about it.

Yesterday proved we need some height at the back so please boss, go and find someone who can defend at set pieces, that was Barnet yesterday, we’ll be playing Everton away in a couple of weeks, then the Mancs and then Man City, let’s just hope that doesn’t bite us in the arse because we did nothing about the defence and gave them Ade.

I banned the word racist yesterday so anyone using it will go straight into moderation.

Have a fun day speculating what we’ll do with an undisclosed amount today, I’m guessing nothing, as usual.

So someone who tries to get sold to AC Milan one season, gets his wages trebled and his contract extended as a reward, the following season he plays like shite, compares Milan to Beyoncé and says the Arsenal fans are unfair as it’s not his fault what the papers write and he didn’t court Milan, gets sold to ManCity in a double his wages deal and now he wants a loyalty bonus, fuck me! So Monaco hate him, Togo hate him and now we hate him, some record eh? I hope you are proud of yourself you greedy ingrate.

Who writes these contracts at Arsenal? Someone’s 9 year old kid? Look he either has it in his contract or he doesn’t, if he does, we have to pay it, if he doesn’t we don’t, simple really. And if he does, whoever gave it to him should be fired, on the spot.

I have to go back to the days of Keown, Adams and Bergkamp to find the last players that honoured contracts, get shot of him and buy someone decent where we need it and stop bringing in potential Arsenal, we have plenty of that in the reserves. Go out and spend every penny of that £25 mil, plus the £3mil you had left from the Vermaelen deal and buy a centre back and a holding midfielder and go and win the league.

If you get stuck, bring back Flamini, he loves Arsenal and Cesc loves him, win, win. Don’t let the scousers have him, please.

No excuses this time, you have enough money to buy the best, please don’t blow it. Either that or promote someone from the reserves and give us season ticket holders a rebate, because if anyone needs the money we do, your recession proof footballers earn plenty, especially if they are dirty disloyal scumbags like Adebayor, good riddance to bad rubbish, you’ll be remembered for being Arsenal’s most disliked player ever. EVER! Think about that you useless, dimwitted, disloyal, muppet.

Arsene it’s time you did psychological tests on the players you buy, I think we all knew he was trouble at Monaco. Just like his cousin Anelka.

Onto today, the first day of the pre season, Barnet! Ordinarily the only thing that excites me about these days is the fact it’s the end, of the end, of the no more football, if that makes any sense, this time though we welcome back Tomas Rosicky, some of you that are old enough may remember him from the distant past, he was a great player, welcome back Tomas! Arshavin is also back and we get to see Vermaelen, I hope he gets 90 minutes so we can see some defensive combinations involving him.

I really can’t see the point in fielding players like Randall, Cruise, Eastmond and Ayling as they won’t feature for the first team next season, save the Carling Cup but players like Coquelin, Wilshere, Thomas and Watt will so that should be fun, I wonder why no Ramsey though?

Anyway I know a number of you are going, Pedro will be there but I won’t, hacking round the M25 with the road widening is no fun and I did that last week, so I’ll give it a miss and watch a live feed, so anyone with a good link, please send it in.

Have a great day Grovers, the season begins today, whoohoo!

Morning Grovers! I thought as it’s the third day of nothingness… a post from me might be due!

So, the City/Ade saga rumbles on in the same manner every transfer Arsenal get involved with does. However, my concern isn’t with Ade, it’s with the fans running scared… phoning into talksport like little girls,

‘Oh Wrighty, I’m so worried that unless Arsenal spend £200million we’ll finish 9th and City will win the league.’

My opinion is that City have not bought well and I think it’s going to end trophyless and Champions leagueless this year.

The spending spree City have embarked on is unacceptable, vulgar and a touch embarrassing (Did anyone see Gary Cook hugging Tevez like he’d just resurrected a 23 yr old George Best? Scroll to 1.13 here)?

The sums of money being spent seem ludicrous coming from people who pass themselves off as businessmen. If I had a million pounds in my bank account and Tesco tried to charge me £15 for a loaf of bread, I’d go to another shop… it appears the Sheiks have learned nothing from Abramovich’s demise into a public hate figure.

Here is what I think of their signings and potential buys:

Barry: Not good enough to keep Villa in 4th place, has no pedigree or track record.

Tevez: His goal tally speaks for itself… piss poor. A Headless chicken who can nick the odd goal… there is a reason Ferguson didn’t resign him and after bringing in £80mill, I suspect it wasn’t money.

Terry: If Chelsea don’t bite Cities hand off for the £45million, they are even more inept than I thought. Terry is a trouble maker and he’s past it. I read that Mourinho didn’t want to sanction an 8 year deal because he thought JT was past his prime… an opinion that eventually resulted in a P45. Terry is a classic nouveau riche signing… the lottery winning equivalent of buying a hot tub, a hummer limo or Versace wallpaper…

Adebayor: I’ve read a few stories about the real reason behind the move… some think it’s because Manchester is a pleasant place to live this days, others say he over heard Phil Brown say Tigers were based up there… However, others believe something more sinister has has been brewing… that perhaps the Arsenal fans lack of appreciation for the world class talent that is Adebayor has diminished to unbearable lows…

£170K p/w

… and this is an important point that needs to be raised, because at the end of the day, Ade is a human being with feelings… once you’ve looked past the poor first touch, the constant straying offside and the farcical arrogance, you’ll see a timid boy from the wrong side of the tracks whose just trying to make enough corn to feed his 20 strong entourage and half his village back home.

Take a moment to think about that next time you feel the need to slag him off.

Anyway… he’ll score a few goals, most at the start of the year to make us worry that we’ve let Pele go, but then it’ll tail off and city will have another bad, over paid egg to contend with…

So, the blues have people running scared… for me though, money isn’t scary unless it’s spent well. You can spend your entire war chest on the best swords money can buy, but if the people you are fighting have guns… they’re going to trounce you… the way I see it, City are buying everyone else’s swords… and the top 4 will spend that cash on more guns… leaving City in a pretty embarrassing situation next summer… yes… gunless with crocked swords.

There you have it, I’ve put it out there, this could be a real egg on face moment, but I really don’t believe City have spent well enough to displace any of the top 4.

In other news, we’re close to signings a couple of 15 years olds… what a way to kick start your weekend eh! One is English and he’s called Jamie Edge… some say he has the best name since Tom Cruise, others believe his talent will allow him to surpass Nacer Barazite, so watch out guys. The second guys is Batrovic… we’ll all be drooling over by the summer of 2015… he’s been dubbed the new Messi, but after watching him on youtube, I’d liken him to the next Van Den Berg… let the good times roll I say…

I’ve also gotten word from my trusted sources at the BBC, who have been tipped off by their trusted sources at the daily star, who made up that Arsenal were tempting Hangeland to Emirates using Big Phil as giant cumbersome bait… Now there’s a deal that makes sense.

Fulham get a semi decent player looking to resurrect his career in a rigid defensive system, Arsenal get a player who is the Captain of Norway and has revitailised Fulham who is now looking to make the jump… I’ve been personally scouting this guy for a while, he might not be Linford Christie out of the starting blocks, but he reads the game well and he is a no nonsense style defender who wont break down and cry after a bad game, he’s also got a great track record and he is young enough to kick onto the next level.

Let me just tell you how good that track record is. His signing in Jan 2009 helped Fulham narrowly avoid relegation. This season he was a major cog for the 4th best defence in the league, conceding only 34 goals (Compared to our 37). If we are judging him on the facts, those are exceptional facts… and lets be fair, he’s playing in a tougher league than Vermaelen and for a weaker side.

Just before I go, I thought I’d tell you that I was walking through a cemetary a little earlier and I saw weird man hiding behind a gravestone. I said, ‘Morning!’ He replied, ‘No, just having a shit’.

I hope I just made your life with that one… Happy Friday Grovers!

P.S. It’s that time of the year again where we all get a bit macho and talk up our chances of winning the Fantasy Grove!

If you were in it last year, you’ll need to go back in and select your team again. We had over 300 people in the league last year and apparently it was won by a Chav… so the cap and case of Peroni roll over a for another year.

Here is the link to sign up: Fantasy Premier League

Here is the league pin: 244411-61733

Chamakh aka Numbchucks

So we are no nearer selling Ade according to the press but he cannot possibly stay now, last seasons flirtation with Milan got him hated, this season had a work permit hearing thrown in for good measure so there is no way he’ll be accepted by the management or fans alike, so I expect that deal to go through today, the dressing room will be awful if he’s allowed to stay and that is too daft to contemplate, sorry, but he has to be on his way.

So Numchucks club have said Silvestre must be part of the deal, are they mad? Are we mad? Silvestre has had it as a top player and with Senderos, Toure, Djourou and Song all still in the mix we have more than enough cover for Vermaelen and Gallas.

I know I said I quite like him and many of you have said you don’t, I still don’t know enough about him to get into a debate, Huntelaar though I do and with his ability to find the net, and being Dutch, to me it does seem like a no brainer and we could get him and have £8mil left to get the defensive midfielder Matuidi as well.

I still think our main need is for a midfielder as we seem to have enough forwards, but I would never say no to a proven goal scorer and we still don’t know if Eduardo and Rosicky will be back to their best, it’s also gone very quiet on the Simpson front, I wonder what the plans are for him?

I also really, really, hope we get a big lump of a defender in, and I love the idea of Naldo, but that has gone very quiet as well.

My sneaky suspicion is that the minute the Ade deal goes through Arsene will announce his new signings, we will all be delighted and looking forward to pre season.

Am I in cloud cuckoo land?

I think today could be the day as leaving it till Friday is running it close, still in theory we still have until September the 1st and you all know Wenger’s record on deadline day …and beyond!

Have a great day Grovers, you never know, one thing that has united all Arsenal fans is we all seem to want rid of Adebayor, are you reading Ade?

So that made me laugh yesterday, Adebayor is having a work permit meeting in Manchester, so what the hell does that mean? He didn’t have one playing for us?

On the BBC, it says Ade has asked to sleep on it overnight as he is concerned how it would go down in Togo! No thought for his beloved Arsenal then? That’s his Goose well and truly cooked.

I had to laugh at old boy Robson yesterday, saying Tevez only moved for the money, ha, ha, so £28 million each on Rooney, Ferdinand and Veron when £10 million to everyone else was a fortune had nothing to do with money then, what a complete muppet hypocrite.

The thought of losing a big lump like him to our new biggest rivals fills me with dread, but the thought of getting rid of a lazy trouble maker that loves himself and depositing £25 million in our bank account excites me more. But only if he spends the money.

I would be tempted to ask for Richards, give them Kolo and spend £28 million on newer, better players, Talk is of Hazard, I like the look of him but he really is in the Wilshere mode, one for the future, what we need to challenge next year is a world class partner for Cesc, one because that would lift the team and two because without that we will be lucky to finish in the top 4, that’s my opinion.

So who are the candidates? Matuidi, Inler and Cana as Melo has all but gone, I must confess I don’t know enough about any of them save that they run a lot, shut down and win the ball, a bit like Ray Parlour and that’s what I think has been lacking. I keep mentioning Flamini but I know a lot of you have mixed feelings, I can’t understand why the boss can never bury his pride, it smacks of sulking, we all make mistakes and if the boss was so keen to keep him in the first place, he should be just as keen to bring him back, plus he would be the cheaper option and he knows the Premiership. Graham did it to great effect with Keown and he was one of Wenger’s stalwarts.

I also like the look of Numbchucks, but he would be off the the ACN so I would steer clear of him, if Wenger sells Eboue, Kolo and Adebayor that would only leave Song in the ACN and as he is not a first choice centre back, that may work. As we wouldn’t be losing a key member of the squad when we need him the most. He also needs to decide whether we need Senderos and Djourou, I like them both but will they make it? So maybe we should be looking at another centre back like Naldo, and if we get Richards as well we will have two players in every position along the back and bring in much needed cash.

So to sum up, if we sold Eboue, Djourou, Senderos, Kolo and Ade we could easily bring in £45 million and that would comfortably bring us in a world class centre back and defensive midfielder with enough left to land Micah Richards and Eden Hazard.

And the last two both want to play for us, so that is a massive bonus. Apparently Arsenal have sent people to talk to his parents in Belgium.

We will never have a better chance to improve our squad and we haven’t done that since 2003 so it’s about time, no one can say that we don’t have the money now because we clearly do and we would be losing some high wage earners so therefore saving even more money.

Come on Arsene, do the right thing, we may have lost Villa as a rival but Man City are a different proposition. Give us all some hope because selling Ade and not making hay while the sun shines will only leave us a much weakened side.

Have a great day Grovers, something will happen today!

So on the day we hear the tragic news that old boy John Hartson has cancer we also hear from the opposite end of the scale, greed.

First of all John, everyone here on Le Grove wish you well, it will be a tough fight but you’re a fighter and we are with you every step of the way, good luck mate, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Onto Ade, he whinged on that BBC interview with Garth Crooks that he can’t control what the papers say, so as he hasn’t come out and said the City rumours are untrue, we have to believe they are, if this is scotched on Arsenal.com I will be major league pissed off, as if it were untrue then this should have been bollocksed yesterday, but it wasn’t, so here goes.

So Ade, how does it feel you are every shite wannabe team’s second choice? Milan were slightly interested when Dzeko turned them down, but they never followed up on their interest. Then Man City, after being turned down by ‘has been’ Eto’o, have also turned to you, so you have been chased by two teams that wanted someone else first, have you no pride? And City aren’t even playing Champions league football!

Don’t get me wrong, I really hope this story is true, you were trouble at Monaco, you are trouble with Togo and if we keep you, you will disrupt this side no end, I would sooner you went and we bought in a world class defensive midfielder and a winger. To be honest I would swap you for that new Taylor made R9 Driver and a box of ProV1’s, but I don’t manage Arsenal, I only play football manager so that won’t happen.

Go with our blessing Ade, enjoy your money, I hope the City fans are more tolerant of your offsides than we are, but a word of advice, don’t headbutt Micah Richards, he might headbutt you back.

Arsene take the money and spend it, don’t use it for pay rises or to pay for Ivan’s new recruits, use it to strengthen the squad, but do it with class players, not more bargain basement troublemakers, make our team get excited, like they did when you signed Arshavin.

I was quite amused when Rednose was puzzled as to how the transfer market has gone ballistic, this is after he made £80 million by selling a player to Real Madrid, he is either mentally ill or quite stupid, I suspect somewhere in between after he signed happy crock Michael Owen.

Vieira to Spurs? How funny is that! Don’t hold your breath Harry, it won’t happen, once a Gooner, always a gooner.

So after yesterday’s chat about no more speculation, Adebayor has got us all buzzing, I have always rated his ability but hated his attitude and his inability to learn as well as his work rate.

Yesterdays picks as replacements were all midfield and wingers, almost none of you wanted Numchucks which does seem to be Wengers preferred choice, but many of you fancy the idea of Jeremy Toulalan, Matuidi, Cana or Inler with Hazard on the wing, an interesting debate and one that I believe will be decided before Saturday if Ade does indeed go.

Richards for Kolo and Ade plus £28mil anyone? I would! That way we could get in Nimbchucks, Matuidi, Hangeland and Hazard and still have change. The back line would be sorted then would it not, we could even sell Eboue as we would have ample cover?

I have to say though a forward line of Robinho, Adebayor and Tevez could do some damage, And finally how does it feel Shaun? You could have been a gooner once.

But Arsenal, not a penny less than £25mil and let’s hope him and Tevez enjoy playing in the Europa cup this season.

Have a great day Grovers, it could actually be an interesting one!

Before you tell me to scrub my mouth out with soapy water read on, there is much method in my madness.

So coming off the back of a complete no news week we have in theory one week left of the non football bit and then we begin pre season, so I guess we have a week to sign the defensive midfielder we need or go with what we have.

Last season we had Denilson and Song as our defensive midfielders, this season we have a few options but one of them isn’t Alex Song, Wenger has said he we be competing for the centre back role.

So who have we got to choose from? Well Diaby is bulking up so there’s him, Ramsey could be another and Nasri has said he could do it and of course there’s Denilson.

Denilson may have bulked up a bit and Ramsey will be a bit older but who will the boss put in there. My guess is Nasri or Diaby with Denilson and Ramsey as back up.

How will the team shape up then? These are some possible line ups.

Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Clichy

Walcott Cesc Diaby Rosicky

Arshavin Robin

Or perhaps

Almunia

Sagna Senderos Kolo Vermaelen

Walcott Cesc Nasri Vela

Adebayor Robin

Or maybe even

Almunia

Eboue Song Vermaelen Clichy

Nasri Cesc Arshavin Rosicky

Bendtner Eduardo

I have included Vermaelen in all the line ups not knowing what he’s like, but as the boss has just spent £10 million on him, I have to figure he will start, we do seem to have a few options in the team especially up front and strangely enough in the middle, I know that a few of the centre back pairings are both left footed but so what, many pairings in football are all right footed, and although we have a lot of midfielders we don’t have too many options in the defensive role, but when did we ever? Petit wasn’t really a defensive midfielder and nor was Edu, not in the strictest sense anyway, so maybe he’s going for the exciting attacking midfield and banking on a solid back four to …well, defend.

I know that’s a little novel, defenders defending, but what we’ll lack defending we’ll make up for winning the midfield battle and going forward, who knows maybe he has Cesc earmarked for that role as well.

What I would like to see Wenger do this season is what Maureen did so successfully in his time with the chavs, make a substitution when we need it and not on 67 minutes, when the opposition are expecting it.

I would also like to see see the boss switching the forwards at half time if it isn’t working, that way the other team will be confused and we will be resting our front line, we will also be rotating and therefore not getting players moaning about lack of playing opportunities.

It may just work and with such a long season, it could save on injuries too. We could also rotate the back four now we have a plethora of centre backs and two spare full backs.

What do you think, have we enough? I believe that with the players we have, another year on and the criticism they received last term, we may just come of age, we’ll know soon enough, I would buy that DM and I would get shot of Ade but if we don’t then at least the team will know each other, realise it’s their last chance and maybe, just maybe they’ll push on and repay the faith our manager has put in them, so today Le Grove is backing the squad to deliver.

We will soon be past the point of signings, and the time for supporting what we have will be upon us, so one last week of speculating, then that’s it.

A word of deep joy aimed at our much loved antipodean chums and how they must have felt like the mancs did after we stuffed them in the 2005 FA Cup final, and it makes up for that cheating Red Bull driver that punctured Theo’s rear tyre when he overtook the field at the first corner in the German Grand Prix, shit happens boys and so does Karma!

Have a great day Grovers, the sun is shining!

This was a piece I found in the Daily Mirror that talked about my latest bug bear, players signing new and improved contracts, how the fans greet it, and what the truth behind those extensions really means.

I said last week that extending all these contracts did nothing except make a number of kids even richer and if they wanted to leave,Wenger would let them, he always does, and paying all that extra money out to these youngsters only deprives us of our transfer budget, so the manager saying he has nothing to spend is misleading, he just spends it on his youth project.

All the recent contracts he extended were players that aren’t even regulars, save Robin and possibly Theo. I mean Gibbs, Ramsey, Fabianski and Wilshere are a long way off.

This is what the Daily Mirror said about extending contracts.

When the news broke that Robin van Persie had signed a new contract, an Arsenal fan sent an email which ended with ‘the title’s coming back home’

Of course big players agreeing to stay with your club is good news.

But analyse the fans euphoria a little deeper and you’ll realise we’ve become dribbling inmates in the world’s biggest loony bin.

All those players were already tied to lucrative contracts with years left to run.

So all that has happened is the club has got down on both knees and said to them we don’t need to do this, and by doing so we’ve got less money to spend on new players, but will you take a lot more of our money please, and agree to take it for even longer than you legally signed for?

So you’ve just taken out a crippling loan to buy the season ticket which actually pays for those improved wages.

Now that was all I was saying last week, that to me is the reason we aren’t buying players, because we are spending the budget on keeping the young players we have.

Gazidas tells the world about our huge loan and maybe restructuring the debt etc because of the property slump, and at the end of it they said we still owe £350 million, what??? That’s the debt we started with 4 years ago, no wonder they say we are skint, what happened to the money?

So as I have said many times before Mr Board, please tell us all the truth, how much are we in debt, how long will we be in debt for and how many more years do we stick with project youth?

I don’t think it’s too much to ask do you? You know, honesty, it’s what you teach your kids.

Onto football and this time next week we would have trounced the mighty Barnet at our annual hammer fest at Underhill. Unfortunately a great many of our players will be still enjoying their holidays so we won’t get to see anything of what we’ll expect to see regularly next season, however we will see the likes of Ramsey, Wilshere, Nasri, Eduardo and Arshavin, however, we will be seeing the Arsenal again, which is great. I missed you boys!

The boss still has until September to fine tune his squad, so hopefully we’ll see if Diaby or Denilson can make the step up, I’m looking forward to seeing Vermaelen make his debut and really hope he is the one we’ve been waiting for.

I’m guessing if we sign anyone else it’s next week or not at all so let’s keep them crossed.

There is nothing we can do if he doesn’t, so we’ll have to hope the team are ready and up for it, I know we’ll all get behind them from the off and I for one can’t wait, first game of the season is always fun. Meeting old friends and drinking new beers.

I hope he tries a combination of Bendtner, Arshavin and Eduardo up front especially given the other forwards will still be away, just to see if they can work together, Rosicky and Arshavin are coming into their peak years so they won’t want to waste them and Eduardo will want to make up for 18 months of personal hell, so expect to see him come flying out of the blocks.

I know some of you are still thinking we haven’t enough, but we’ll know soon enough and he still has 7 weeks to add to the squad should he need to, I believe we have one more to come.

Would I have Flamini back? In a heartbeat, it hasn’t worked out for him in Milan and his replacements haven’t worked at Arsenal, we should all bury our pride and bring him home, it will be for the good of the team and Cesc would love it. And don’t forget Arsene, you bought him in the first place.

Have a nice Sunday Grovers, it’s the last one of the non footballing season left, next week the show gets back on the road and we get to watch the Arsenal again! At last!

That did make me laugh, Arshavin fears that if the government doesn’t reduce taxes, people that earn £50k a week plus will leave as it’s not fair.

Andre, join the queue mate, how do you think people feel that only earn £100k a year feel? And anyway, how on earth do you think Gordon Brown can pay for all the people in this country on benefits if he doesn’t screw the rich?

And I don’t include all those poor sods that have lost their jobs and have mortgages in the above statement because those people will only be getting £60 a week jobseekers allowance.

It’s only the bums and people that have contributed jack shit to the economy that get decent money.

It did make me laugh though, if he thinks that any government will lower the taxes so we don’t upset Premiership footballers then his must live in a world where pigs fly, forget it Andre, it won’t happen.

I also read that Theo thinks we will win some silverware this coming season and that Robin thinks that Jack Wilshere’s talent is scary, I like the sound of both of those comments, what I don’t like though is the deafening silence coming from Arsenal as far as new signings are concerned, it’s only a week until pre season starts, come on Arsenal!

Interestingly the board think we don’t need Usmanov’s money as we are doing Ok financially and Wenger has a healthy transfer budget, great, so no more talk of we’re skint and we have no funds, get out there and buy someone then Arsene.

I think we can discount Melo, if they want Eboue and £15mil they must be kidding themselves, I would sooner we bought Matuidi or even Diarra, though Diarra will go missing around the ACN so perhaps that’s not too smart.

I said some months ago that we don’t necessarily need a defensive midfielder, just one that’s big enough and strong enough to win those midfield battles, there has to be a few out there like that, like an Edu or a Petit, or maybe even giving Vieira a two year contract to babysit Denilson and Diaby, or maybe Diaby will come back stronger and fitter and we can try him.

There are many combinations we could play, but if Wenger has stopped buying, I wish he’d tell us and stop torturing everyone.

Have a great Saturday Grovers, one week to go and the season begins in earnest!