Grimandi rumoured to become Arsenal's new assistant manager
Former Arsenal defender Gilles Grimandi could be on the verge of becoming the club’s next assistant manager.
The 40-year-old, who is currently employed as the Gunners’ French-based scout, revealed at the start of the season that he had begun his relevant coaching badges with a view to managing in the near future.
Arsenal’s current #2 to Arsene Wenger is Pat Rice, who has been rumoured to leave his post at the end of the season.
Grimandi was one of Wenger’s first signings at Arsenal, joining from the manager’s former club Monaco in June 1997 for £2.5m. He left Highbury in 2002 for a very brief spell at the Colorado Rapids before returning to France.
He played 84 matches for Arsenal in midfield, right-back and centre-half and won the Double in 1998 and again in 2002.
sick.. Wenger’s love child
do like “the grimster”but would prefer & english backbone as wengers assistant,with a no nonsense approach & not a “yes” man-therefore it can only be MARTIN “IN YER FACE” KEOWN!!
Keown……..Tony Adams……….Steve Bould……….but not Grimandi
Well Wenger does seem to trust Grimandi – most of our recent acquisitions came on Grimandi’s recommendation. Maybe Wenger will be prepared to listen to him.
For me the only logical choice would be to promote Steve Bould.
what a disaster that would be,another yes man,disgusting
Look at the pathetic over reaction of a few xenophobic plastics. Completely predictable.
yeah more frenchies pls!! What the fukk is going on. Put in Bould he made a great job for years now!!!
if this will happen Wenger goes upstairs. WE will always be a poor mans barca :-(.
BERGKAMP !!!!!!!!!!
There are only two ppl that can replace Patty Rice, and they are Martin Keown or Steve Bould.
not a bad choice would prefer DB,Bouldy or Keown and please god not tony adams
David O’Leary anyone?
Grimandi’s probably alright for this first team, but ideally you’d want for the coming generation of english youth team players to be coached by some proper arsenal english players.
if we can infect wilshere, JET, lansbury, ramsey, frimpong, bartley, afobe, aneke and all their up-and-coming buddies with the attitude of keown, adams, bould, we will dominate when these guys are between 23 and 33.
It takes longer than just a few months to get all of the relevant badges required, so I can’t see that this story being true.
You guys say a “Yes Man” but just as bad would be an appointee with whom AW would be constantly at loggerheads.
im the last person to be xenophobic….but this all-french personnel is getting a bit obvious and almost like nepotism.I agree with most: martin keown or bouldy would be exactly what we need…..some english defence type mentality and experience
gonna get slated for this, but….chris hughton? excellent right hand man, coach, decent bloke and despite his spurs connections would be great i feel.
would really stick it to the spuds too.
Errrr, Arsene’s French and he does ok.
The problem with Grimandi would be his lack of coaching experience, and that would be the case whatever his nationality.
But let’s face it, there’s no substance to this story whatsoever, it doesn’t even claim to have any evidence.
GG2 is doing his badges, that’s all. To jump from that to him joining as asst manager straight away is ridiculous. More likely Bouldy would step up and Gilles take a less senior coaching role to learn the ropes.
how can the english who support arsenal even support arsenal?
it keeps getting harder to understand
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Agree.
BERGKAMP. (AT LEAST IN SOME CAPACITY ON THE COACHING STAFF?)
Tony Adams failed as coach but (Relegation) . Pep (no experience) beat Mr Special even with 162 mil expenditure
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting someone with their own mind as number 2. Clearly it isn’t working the way it is at the moment. Too many of our players are lacking in a genuinely competitive spirit. If this is Pat Rice’s last season, then we need a replacement who brings the spirit of the Vieira/Adams’ eras back.
sod this website…had a lovely well written comment and lost it! a curse on you!
basically, the gist is:
for all that our english legends are lauded, and righly so, if it werent for the ‘frenchies/frogs’ ‘dagos’ and for any of myles palmer’s minions ‘french africans’ we would have won sweet f*** all. before wenger came, our backline was good, but the rest was crap, and if it werent for the foreign imports we would be scrapping away with blackburn and bolton for mid-table obscurity
english ‘grit’ and ‘backbone’ have never gotten anyone anywhere…the english national team have won sweet f*** all since 1966, and footballistically, ‘englishness’ has equated soley to mediocrity and failure, so why anyone thinks this is what arsenal need is beyond me. it is the empire mentality where we feel our backwards attributes are an advantage over our soft and talented neighbours, when in fact our soft and talented neighbours regularly walk all over us…even our league – if the PL didnt have so many foreign imports, it would be talked about in the same breath as the dutch league. football-wise, england is crap, and why anyone would want any of english footballs typical attributes incorperated into arsenal is just beyond me
as to the rumours – firstly, how does anyone know that pat rice is a yes man???? you read it on arsenal new review so it must be true right?
also, keown, with no f****** coaching expierence (oh i forgot, according to myles palmer he was the sole reason why we didnt concede a goal in the CL knockout rounds up until the final) is along with adams and bergkamp (who have hardly set the coaching world alight) our saviours?!?!
bould, fair enough, has proved himself with our style and our mentality
i’m not saying grimandi would be a good assistant manager (as if he is actually being considered, which i highly doubt), but stating that he wouldnt be because he would be, according to popular myth, a ‘yes man’ like pat rice, because he is french and because he wasnt as good a player as bergkamp et al, is just xenophobic small minded crap.
i can categorically state that i loathe most arsenal fans – they ruin every trip to the pub and every trip to the emirates with their shite. bunch of spoilt f****** brats
To be a well-balanced right hand you do not need someone who is great only with the mouth, and fails to command the respect of the rest of the squad. Pat Rice was an excellent assistant, because he did most of his talking behind the scenes.
Many of the names that have been suggested are to self-opinionated, position focussed and lacks character or the servant attitude. It would not take long before they desire to come out from the shadow and demand to wear the manager’s shoe.
If Arsenal really would like to move forward from the eX-players that will command the most respect are Dennis B, T. Henry and Vieira. Should you ask players in the first team and in the academy which Arsenal players have been their greatest influence and has offered encouragement, I am certain these three names will come up again and again.
Most of the English names mentioned would wish to rekindle the George Graham system, because their experiences were very narrow and inward looking. In order to select the most appropriate candidate we fans must remove the chip off our shoulders, and graffiti from our minds into thinking into thinking if he is not an Englishman he is not a credible candidate.
In my opinion, we really need to blend philosophies of the modern game. That is; efficient execution of attacks, effient ball passing and solid defending. Therefore, if Mr. Pat Rice is to go, then, I think Mark overmas would be a good choice for the job, with Martin Keown being appointed as a defence coach. Overmas is a product of the Ajax Academy and has been a gunner before. As a player, he was very attack minded yet he always had a cool head. Steve Bould should remain we he is as he has done a good job so far and removing him would destablizer the set up.
If it’s true, there is nothing better than a scout who has experience of identifying the right type of players needed. Just imagine this, Arsenal need to make a sub and AW is not sure which player to go on (not in cases of injuries where its definitive of course), wouldn’t be helpful to have an advice from someone who knows what type of players can do what?. This can help a lot w team selections as well, and as well as reading other teams and really picking out their danger men, really smart move if true!
I think that is move in the good direction. All respect to p rice, but we need a change. Bould and Keown would be my first choice or Adams. But Grimandi is tactical brilliant, he must have been since his fotball skills where limited, and he won the double in 97-98. I think this a good thing. Come on arsenal fans be positive for a change! If we beat Chelsea and we will we will be top by the 5th of january;) Merry christmas fellow arsenal fans;)
Nicely said jabberwocky. 100% right and I doubt very much that you put it better in your first version!
Couple of things to add…
Expecting Bould, Keown, Adams etc to somehow return us to the days of George Graham (GG1) defending is as narrow-minded as calling Grimandi (GG2) a yes man. They’re all smart cookies with their own ideas (in Adams’ case, perhaps a few too many – if ever a bloke needed to start drinking again…!). It’s also worth pointing out that they also played under Wenger who extended and revitalised their football, so more than anyone they know the benefits of his methods.
But anyway, there’s another myth going round that says that Wenger’s no good at the defensive side of things. We’re talking about the man who built the invincibles here!
He’s trying to build a new team and he wants to do it his own way, by discovering young talent and bringing it through. If that’s your approach then naturally it’s going to take longer to get the defence right, because generally they hit their peak later. That’s all that’s going on here.
I know a lot of Arsenal fans are impatient with this but in my view they fall into the category referred to in jabberwocky’s last paragraph. Wenger has put together two awesome sides for us. Now he’s going for the third and not only has he earned the right to be given the chance to do that (clearly the board’s view) but along the way he is also giving us drama excitement and some damn fine football. Every club goes through ups and downs, and sometimes those downs can be turgid and boring. If a down can be like this then I say thank you Arsene, carry on!
@jabberwocky: Right on Brother!! To say England is a whole bunch of crap is a bit harsh. But what I will say is everything from music, food, architecture and football has been improved with a helping hand from our friend the foreign influence.
Its just plastic Arsenal (and English football fans) who are frightened of losing what small minded identity they cling onto so dearly. I hear so much bulls**t on every site from fans who probably never even been to a game. Those who think by watching clips on you tube of the “good old days” makes them some sort of fan.
Get behind your team, voice your concerns about defenders (which i do think is a problem with out TV) and goal keepers (personally i think give young Szczesny a chance he’s another Joe Hart in the making) But support your team for gods sake! We aint in no crisis, the fans create the crisis and if we had won only the league cup in 20 years (namely sp*rs) then i would be worried.
I think appointing Grimandi is an excellent idea, Very defensively minded which is exactly what we need right now, and do we really think they would appointment so f**king nerd off the street to become number 2?? You got more chance of sh**ting in the queens handbag! Wenger can be a right knob sometimes but he only has the best interests of the club at heart.
Stop being so bloody fickle, Buy your self a ticket to the emirates and a shirt, and GET BEHIND YOUR TEAM!
Bould all the way!!!
The “foreign influence” is important and a large part of why we are so good technically. Sadly though great technique, passing and movement has won us nothing lately, and won’t until the team’s desire and determination match those of the likes of Chelsea and Manure.
by far the best match these season. everything went smoothly, EVERYTHING! just keep it up, and dont get carried away! NICE!
Johann “Adams” Djouroue! Its the best defensive performance by an arsenal player since god knows when, Maybe since adams and bould against parma i 1994! Great game and I am happier than ever! Johann “Adams” Djouroue!!!!!
Squilacci played as defense in all defeats this season, this ain’t no coincidence he played against Sunderland (1-1), W.B.A. (2-3), Chelshit (0-2), Shaktar (1-2), Newcastle (0-1), Tottenham (2-3), Braga (0-2), Manu (0-1) and Wigan (2-2).
When Djourou played against Wigan, Newcastle, Tottenham and Chelsea ARSENAL WON.
Please send this message to somebody in the team… SQUILACCI NO MORE
IS WORST THAN SILVESTRE
When he is playing it’s 10 vs 12
SQUILACCI = ENEMY
WENGER OPEN YOUR EYES!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=177418048958976&set=o.119640531290