LE GROVE
It’s going to be really tough to write this post today because I have so many emotions thrashing through my system.
David Raya has moved to Arsenal on loan.
Charlie Patino has NOT left the club.
Matty Turner is a Nottingham Forest player.
HARRY KANE IS OUT AT SPURS.
Let’s talk about Harry Kane, because this one is beautiful. Daniel Levy landed the 100m euros he wanted for the 30-year-old England striker. He’s a Bayern Munich player. The only way this summer was going to end was Spurs selling. The player was never going to stay for the rebuild under an untested 57-year-old who had his biggest success at Celtic. The only option for Kane was exit or stay and leave on a free. Levy obviously gamed this out and knew if Kane stayed at 30, he’d be protecting his body from January onwards, his new manager would have his first question set in every presser ‘IS HARRY LEAVING’, and the worst bit… Spurs would have no control over where he went. He could have gone to Chelsea, United, City OR ARSENAL. If your wife is going to leave you, it’s best they leave you for a lovely German man and you never have to bump into them at Wagamamas.
So let’s just wrap up Spurs journey from the Champions League final to now.
Pochettino told Levy there’d be a dip and they’d need to rebuild the squad to rise again. He was sacked when the dip came.
Levy chose winnertivity – and hired Jose Mourinho. Some Arsenal fans complained we’d missed out. I stood tall and said he’d be a disaster.
Mourinho was a disaster. He signed a load of cloggers. Played horrendous football. Achieved nothing bar a great cameo on All Or Nothing. He was sacked.
They tried to sign Conte, who said ‘no, you disgust me’
Spurs rebounded by hiring Nuno, a super agent recommendation. He was absolutely awful, signed more terrible players.
Conte didn’t get the Paris or United job. He decided to shop window himself by taking the Spurs role.
He nearly quit after three months.
He made the Champions League and people told me he’d be their savior and Arsenal lacked credibility for NOT hiring him. I told everyone that he’d be a huge failure.
Conte spent the summer loading Spurs with yet MORE average players, including Richarlison.
Spurs crashed. Conte blew up a press conference by savaging the Spurs institution and having a pop at Levy.
Harry Kane doesn’t sign a new deal. Spurs sell him to Bayern. Era over.
No trophies.
What is the lesson here?
Doing things the hard way is the only way in 20s. The best clubs have long-term planning at the core of what they do. They have a vision, a guiding philosophy, and a strategy they stick to with discipline.
That comes with pain. Fans want instant success. They don’t like pain. They will flap around on twitter and call people frauds and label the club Banter FC, but that is the only way to get anywhere.
Arsenal FC took the pain. They thought longterm. They invested with smarts. They hired an elite coach that had Manchester City IP, layered in with a deep understanding of why things at Arsenal were working, and how to implement a high-performance culture that would put shirt pride at the centre of the revolution. They ignored calls for Arteta to be fired. They course-corrected a very bad player recruitment approach. They embraced the process and now we’re dining in football heaven with Manchester City this season.
Spurs leadership is scrambling to create an identity – Arsenal leadership just signed David Raya to compete with one of the best keepers we’ve had at the club in the last decade. 4 years ago, they were in the Champions League final – 3 years ago I was crying at my keyboard writing about how Arsenal could get back to the top (take a read, I wasn’t far off).
Enough crowing, back to Arsenal.
We managed to get the David Raya deal over the line. Inaki finally gets his buddy at the club. Aaron Ramsdale said bring it on, so let’s see where this goes.
The deal was very smart. It’s a £3m loan with an option to buy for £27m next season. Raya has signed an extension to Brentford to preserve his value.
Wow.
Richard Garlick and Edu leaning into the darkarts of the rules like Mitch McConnel in the Senate.
This is smart on so many levels. It gives Arsenal the FFP freedom to move on an opportunistic signing if they shift some deadwood. Don’t be shocked to see a right winger or a midfielder if they can get some bodies out the business. It also gives us a risk-free trial for a keeper who hasn’t been tested at the highest level. That’s great for Ramsdale, who now has a very clear mission – beat this guy and send him packing to a midtable club. It also gives Raya something to work for – beat Ramsdale, and you’re dining in football heaven. No more pie and mash at the staff canteen – it’s fresh vegetables and vegan options every damn day.
The club mission of the window was to bring in 4 quality players, we’ve now done that. If there’s a chance for another, they’ll move.
Overall, I’m just blown away by how serious we are as a club now. Who is talking about Mudryk? Who is talking about Locatelli? Who is talking about Vlahovic? No one. I only ask this question because I swear we were whining for 5 years about Xabi Alonso and Luis Suarez. We have great scouting, we are disciplined on pricing, and we don’t overspend on contracts. Now we’re competitive at the highest level.
One more thought: I remember watching the Champions League final between Madrid and Liverpool in 2017-18 thinking to myself, ‘damn, the quality here is so high, we’re never going to reach that.’ But that was a loser thought process. There is always a way back to the top once you hit a certain level of finance. We spent too many years under Wenger lamenting the changing landscape of football vs addressing ways we could use our history, location, and top 10 finances to carve out advantages others lacked.
Arteta has been a force of nature at Arsenal – I just hope the club is documenting everything that is working right now and building out a succession plan. The best time to think about what’s next is when things feel like they couldn’t be any better. When you have to make change in a crisis or change happens when you aren’t expecting it, you end up with Unai Emery and Raul Sanhelli guiding you off a cliff.
Ok, think that’s enough from me. Matt and Johnny have put out a predictions podcast and used FAKE footage of my prediction from last year to really savage me. You should check this one out on Patreon and sign up for the season because you love this platform – right?
LE GROVE on Twitter: “📛New Podcast📛🧑🔬Predictions Special!⚽️Top Scorer🐎Darkhorse candidate🥇Player of the season👁🗨Rival watch@iJohnnyCochrane and @mattkandela also go into the archives to flame my predictions from last season. We only put video on Patreon. Worth it.https://t.co/xSbYdLgP6h / Twitter”
📛New Podcast📛🧑🔬Predictions Special!⚽️Top Scorer🐎Darkhorse candidate🥇Player of the season👁🗨Rival watch@iJohnnyCochrane and @mattkandela also go into the archives to flame my predictions from last season. We only put video on Patreon. Worth it.https://t.co/xSbYdLgP6h
