SALT BAE FEEDS ARSENAL MANAGER

Arteta shocked the world by attending the Salt Bae restaurant, allowing the chef to put a lump of steak into his mouth, and awkwardly lay his hand on the Spaniards’ shoulder.

I’m shook.

Did he know where he was? Did he know they had a video crew filming him? How did someone not stop this happening?

Honestly, I do not know what it is with professionals in the game of football and their draw to the weirdest restaurant concept to take hold in a generation.

Really hoping it was an elaborate ‘organic’ promotion for the region.

Onto Arsenal, the news has really come shuddering to a halt right. There’s not much going in terms of excitement. I’ve had people sending me ITK chatter around Victor Oshimen. I just don’t think his signature fits with Arsenal’s appetite for foreign purchase risk or our budget for next summer.

We need:

• At least two central midfielders
• A versatile defender
• A powerhouse winger with outrageous pace
• A back-up keeper
• A striker

Dropping £120m on Victor Oshimen doesn’t allow us to bring in all those players. He feels like a Manchester United signing. I’m not sold on his talent. I’d much rather Ivan Toney, or if I’m dreaming, it’d be Evan Ferguson. The Zirkzee link felt far more Arsenal than the link with the prolific Nigerian.

My big concern so far this window is all the rumours are about players coming into the club.

Where are my rumours for players exiting?

Reiss? Eddie? ESR? Partey? Ramsdale? Not a peep.

I’m not sure this speaks to talent issues… it seems to be that the big clubs with Premier League stress are also have to double check the books. The Chelsea push to spend every penny on gods earth has come to a stop. Newcastle can’t afford loan fees. The only team flush is Spurs because they sold Harry Kane in the summer. This doesn’t mean things can’t happen later in the window, but it seems increasingly likely that there won’t be much movement in or out.

I just hope Edu starts getting his ducks in order for the summer… so we can move FAST.

Ok, that’s me done. Before I go, I wanted to run something by you. I am considering the consolidation of all the Le Grove pieces into more of a paid format at some point. (newsletter / podcasts / patreon). The organic ad game that has killed newspapers doesn’t work for me and running my own website ends up being a costly endeavor because shit breaks, server costs eat me etc etc. I am lucky to have a very faithful audience and if possible, I’d prefer to have a Swiss Ramble / Arseblog approach to advertising by not having to have it. That would mean contributions. I’ve always wanted to keep this totally free, but the reality is that it’s not costing me to write on average about 3oo posts a year. I’d bundle all the podcasts as part of it and put plenty of free work out. I’d also try and do something for the heroes in the comment section that keep the site bubbling. But I wanted to get your take on it before I do anything. So drop a comment or send me an e-mail if you have any thoughts.

See you in the comments! x