Henri Lansbury is set to hang up his boots for pastures new despite recently winning Premier League promotion with Luton.
The former Arsenal academy player is set to embark on a gardening career and revealed his off-the-field passion following a lawn mower celebration against Hull last season.
“It’s massive [for me]. It keeps me away from the training ground with the lads. I’ll shout out the boys at Grass Gains [a blend of organic fertilisers], they have been crucial to this. It makes your grass nice and green,” he said.
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The 32-year-old is moving to Monaco where he will be working on the Ligue 1’s side’s pitches after coming up with a new formula for the aforementioned Grass Gains.
“It came about during the first lockdown when I was stuck at home and got into gardening,” he told Talksport.
“I started to spray my weeds with toxic stuff and put toxic fertiliser down and my missus wasn’t too happy about the kids running on the grass straight after. I was trying to usher them off and she said ‘why can’t they just make an organic fertiliser?’ I put my head together with my mate and me and the boys have cracked on and taken it to another level.”
Arsenal’s midfield from the 2009 FA Youth Cup final:
CM: Emmanuel Frimpong ??
CM: Francis Coquelin ??
RM: Henri Lansbury ???????
CAM: Jack Wilshere ???????
LM: Jay Emmanuel-Thomas ???????Hello cult corner. ? pic.twitter.com/cHovOxiH6R
— Squawka (@Squawka) April 18, 2018
Grass Gains, already no stranger to grounds in the UK, is Champions League-bound and Lansbury states it’s a rewarding feeling giving something back to football. “We’ve done Fulham, we’ve done Genk and we’re in at Monaco soon,” he added.
“We’re going in the right direction, a few local clubs have asked for it and we’ve put it down on their pitches as well. ‘I want to give back to the local clubs really, I want them to have a nice pitch to play on, there’s nothing better than a kid running on a pitch with stripes on it and that’s what it does, it helps stripe it off.”
Lansbury’s retirement comes on the back of Jack Wilshere and Emmanuel Frimpong — his teammates in Arsenal’s midfield when they secured the 2009 FA Youth Cup — both also calling it quits for different reasons at a relatively young age.
Touted for promising things, Lansbury only made three league appearances for the Gunners from where he enjoyed several loan spells before leaving permanently for Nottingham Forest. He would soon represent Aston Villa and Bristol City before ending up at Luton Town but Lansbury will not be part of their upcoming debut Premier League season.