Daily Bits and Bobs

Arsenal’s most underrated player behind Ray Parlour?

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

One of the things which frustrates me about The official Arsenal website is the lack of updates on our players injuries. Arsene Wenger gives us all a little update during his press conference each week but even he’s quite often vague. ‘He’s a little short’ seems to his favourite phase, along with ‘he should be back after the international break’…. The latest being Aaron Ramsey, Francis Coquelin and Lucas Perez, which if true, is a big boost to the squad, especially as we have many fixtures over such a short period of time….

But, what I do quite like about Arsenal.com, is when they look back at players in the ‘Defining Moments’ section.

grimandi

This month it’s the turn of Gilles Grimandi – perhaps one of the most annoying, frustrating, yet underrated players Arsene signed. Ray Parlour was another seriously underrated player, not by the fans of course, but by the idiots in the media and many England managers. After all, there has to be a reason we all refer to him as ‘The Romford Pele’ hasn’t there? I loved him, still do and I bet to this day, the words ‘It’s only Ray Parlour’ haunt Tim Lovejoy..

Now chief scout for Arsenal in France, Grimandi talks about his Arsenal journey, one which started so badly, yet went on to be pretty good really.

I think the turning point for me was after the Sheffield Wednesday game. It was a nightmare because I broke my elbow and my shoulder, and it was probably my worst game at the club (Arsenal lost 2-0 and Gilles sliced a pass into the path of Andy Booth for Wednesday’s first goal).

After I came back, I scored that goal against Crystal Palace which was so special for me – even though it was actually a cross!

I’m sure I can remember both matches, I certainly remember wondering why on earth he was playing during that first season but over the weeks and months, secretly, I warmed to him. His floppy hair, his tough tackling after which he’d look at the ref as if to say, ‘what, me gov, no never’.

Looking back on that goal against Palace:

It was such an important goal because we were fighting for the title and we were struggling to find a breakthrough. Scoring that goal gave me such a confidence boost and I had that buzz again. I realised that it couldn’t get any worse than that Sheffield Wednesday game so I said to myself, ‘Either I change my ways or I leave the club’, and then after that I felt like I played much better football over the next few years.

Didn’t he just….

That season, Arsenal won The Double and Grimandi was key to that achievement. Mr Utility was always there to be called on. Sometimes it wasn’t pretty or great, but often, he was good, very good even….

In his first and his last season at the best club in north London, he helped Arsenal win the double but perhaps one of the things he’ll always be remembered best for is this…..

Edgar Davids was of course a Tottenham player back then…..

Some of our players head home today having played their final match of this international break last night. Koscielny, Xhaka, Bellerin, Elneny, Iwobi and Monreal have fulfilled their duty but Ozil, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gibbs, Mustafi and Holding could all feature in tonight’s fixtures and Alexis and Ospina’s final game is tomorrow.

Thank goodness club football will soon be back, until November that is, when it all starts again!

rico

47 thoughts on “Arsenal’s most underrated player behind Ray Parlour?”

  4. allezkev says:

    Morning All

    Morning Rico

    I always liked Grimandi, I could never understand why he is often lumped among some of Wengers worst signings, he certainly wasn’t as bad as is often suggested. Just my opinion…

    Nelson Vivas for example, was a bit of a folk hero among the fans and I thought that he was hopeless.

  5. tsgh says:

    Come on folks it has to be the one and only Stepanovs! 😛
    ok maybe the horse Luzhny. 🙂
    Good morning Rico and all…

    Kev- I read about the profits and tax your other company paid yesterday… 😉

  7. rico says:

    Morning Kev, Ts..

    I too thought he took a bit of undeserved stick Kev, he was know superstar, but he always put a shift in. He was shipped over all the pitch too but it didn’t see to worry him…

  8. Marshall says:

    Hi all, lol how would one forget such a tackle? Good to see scoring a goal boosts a player.

    Bellerin is so good you had to mention him twice rico 🙂

  9. allezkev says:

    What company was that Ginge..?
    I’m up to sed my accountant tomorrow so you better let me know… ?

    I thought that Luzhny was ok as well.
    A decent squad player, not first choice of course…
    Wasn’t he the captain of Ukraine?

    The daddy has to be Silvestre anyway…

  11. tsgh says:

    Indeed Oleg was a captain- Kev. He is a manager now.. unthough from wiki not very successful.

    Kev whilst you are getting your dividends from Uber on the down low through an off shore trust… pay some tax. 😛

  20. tsgh says:

    He was injury prone though George. That was when AW was not so ‘liberal’. Edu had one top season in his penultimate season and refused to negotiate as he wanted a guaranteed place even though we also had Gilberto, PV04, Grimandi and even Parlour covering for us in midfield.

    We forget Aw waited for him for year to sort out his ‘fake’ EU passport issue.

  23. potter says:

    Quincy ? :- He went mad and they shot him !

    Went to ply his trade in Russia but that didn’t work out now playing in Holland I think.

  24. Le Coq Monster says:

    Yes, I remember the Cygan/Pires deal………………………they got Cygan free, but paid £2m for Pires to polish Cygan`s head !.

    I run the Jeff Blockley Depreciation Society and have a secretary who sends him hate mail every day !

  25. Micko says:

    Who can forget Edu’s debut, coming off the bench and lasting a full 20 minutes before being substituted again with a pulled hamstring….welcome to the world of Arsenal.

  27. Le Coq Monster says:

    I can Micko !……………..being in Cornwall since 1991BC ( before computors) my only Arsenal news for years was watching MOTD or rummaging through bins at Bodmin Parkway Station for old Evening Standard`s that some rich Cornishman had left after a journey to London !……or speak to my Old Cornish neighbour who was a Gooner about some Arsenal news and be told that we just won the double in `71 !………………dont knock it !, he held a street party to celebrate !…………..”Charlie, Charlie, born was the king of Highbury”

  30. potter says:

    If I was Walcott I would announce my International retirement . I thought with Rooney out he might be allowed into the game but no. When Townsend came on he was bought into the game far more and looked a lot more impressive . Alle and Henderson always went to the other side and Sturridge is a greedy git. The game was too open for comfort and England were guilty of too many mistakes.

  31. Le Coq Monster says:

    Lets hope that when Theo gets back he remembers he is now playing for Arsenal with his new more effort approach and not playing his usual shit no impact England game !……………….them two games for England can only damage his recent confident performances for Arsenal !.

    The problem with Theo is that unless he scores, he is always going to look shit !………….needs to be a 30+ goals a season player to keep us happy !. 🙂

    I`d prefer all our players retired from International games and relax like Swansea players with only thoughts of attractive sheep or will Isambard Brunell build an iron bridge over to London Colney Island for sheep trials on their minds.

  32. rico says:

    Totally agree re Walcott Potter.

    Surely Southgate can see how all the other players avoid passing to him. It was the same the other night too. So perhaps the media, who have clearly enjoyed slating his performance, should be highlighting how much he’s ignored, rather than being over critical.

    Hopefully he’ll be back to his best on Saturday when he has quality players around him, unlike the shower of poop on show for England.

    Morning all.

  33. Le Coq Monster says:

    Morning all.

    I should have added like Rico said that Theo indeed is made to look even shitter by the poopier players around him for England…………shame Ozil wasn`t born in Bethnal Green !.

  37. Le Coq Monster says:

    Come on Rico !…………………………who in their right mind wouldn`t rather be brought up on Pie&Mash than artery clogging Kebabs ! 🙂

  41. Le Coq Monster says:

    Saying good morning to ts is a waste of time Rico, he`s just bolted off to the nearest Poundland !. 😆

  44. Le Coq Monster says:

    With the amount of Poundlands and 99p stores does anyone really think that we will struggle to survive after Brexit !………………..they seem to be covering all angles, the icing on the cake will be a Poundland Football Team with Arsene as manager…………..pound to get in, pound for buying or selling players !…………..doesn`t matter ,he is the greatest coach out there !…bet he could get 4th and the odd cup every year !.

  46. Le Coq Monster says:

    I see that the scum are out to copy us and apparantly need £12M to change the name of White Hart Station to………………………… Spud Station !………………….changing the name will not make the dive look any better, if that was the case I would have changed my wifes name to Beyonce !.

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