An Invitation to Highbury

June 7, 2014

This little trip down memory lane comes from my brother, Jon Vines.

The story began with Arsenal’s Double cup-winning season of 1992/3. We’d beaten Sheffield Wednesday twice in both domestic cups, the Coca-Cola and the FA Cup and the club had promised a parade of both trophies after the opening home game of the new 1993/4 season.

Jon’s son, Matt was very excited at the prospect and set about investing a big effort into making an Ian Wright poster. The plan was to move right down the front of the lower tier while the cups were paraded to within touching distance and to get Wrighty to sign the aforementioned poster.

Well, the day arrived and the parade was scheduled for after the game with dodgy Midlands opponents Coventry City. However, things didn’t go as planned and Micky Quinn, later of Talkshite notoriety, scored a hat trick and the good guys got thumped three nothing. This from Wiki, “He (Quinn) attracted the crowd chant of ‘Who ate all the Pies?’ due to his physique, which he used as the title of his 2003 autobiography. Other nicknames included ‘Sumo’, ‘Hippofatamus’, and ‘Bob’, the latter from football fans who claimed that he bore a physical resemblance to the television presenter Bob Carolgees”.

Mickey Quinn: four goals on his debut.

After the game George Graham spent so much time trying to explain the result to the media that when he returned to the dressing room, the players had got changed and a message was broadcast over the tannoy that there would no longer be a parade of the cups. As a 13 year old, Matt was devastated and Jon decided, as a shot to nothing, he would express his and his son’s disappointment by writing to the club.

Within a week, Jon’s wife took a phone call at their home and called for Jon to come take the call. When he asked who was speaking, the reply came back, ‘Ken Friar, secretary of Arsenal Football Club’! (Upon being told the details of that phone call at a later date, Vines Senior (Matt’s Grandad) was particularly impressed as Ken Friar had always been one of his heroes. Friar had reportedly been given a job as a matchday messenger aged 12 when he’d kicked his football against the car of the current Arsenal manger George Allison in 1946 and then worked his way up through the ranks to eventually become Managing Director).

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The upshot of the call was an invitation, on behalf of George Graham, to visit the club and have a private audience with the manager and the cups. Jon managed to wangle an extra invite for ‘Grandad’ and the three generations of the Vines family had a guided tour of the Marble Halls, met George Graham and even got to hold the trophies. They were also the first members of the public allowed into the newly opened Arsenal Museum at Highbury.

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Matt also managed to bump into Ian Wright in the corridor and got his much desired autograph after all.

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The newspaper clipping below is from The Independent in March 2000 and the last line says “Even now, as a rising 20 year-old, Matthew would rank it as one of the best experiences of his childhood” Jon said. The day as a whole, that is, not just the bumping into Ian Wright in a corridor.

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Written by LBG via chas.    

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Blast from the Past No. 17 … Arsenal’s Exclusive 10,000th game club

June 6, 2014

 

Joined Left Years Games Goals
1 David O’Leary 1973 1993 20 722 14
2 Tony Adams 1983 2002 19 669 48
3 George Armstrong 1961 1977 16 621 68
4 Lee Dixon 1988 2002 14 619 28
5 Nigel Winterburn 1987 2000 13 584 12
6 David Seaman 1990 2003 13 564 0
7 Pat Rice 1964 1980 16 528 13
8 Peter Storey 1961 1977 16 501 17
9 John Radford 1962 1976 14 481 149
10 Peter Simpson 1960 1978 18 477 15
11 Bob John 1922 1937 15 470 13
12 Ray Parlour 1988 2004 16 466 32
13 Graham Rix 1974 1988 14 464 51
14 Martin Keown 1981 2004 23 449 8
15 Paul Davis 1978 1995 17 447 37
16 Eddie Hapgood 1927 1945 18 440 2
17 Paul Merson 1982 1997 15 425 99
18 Dennis Bergkamp 1995 2006 11 423 120
19 Patrick Vieira 1996 2005 9 406 33
20 Frank Mclintock 1964 1973 9 403 32
Total: 306 10159 791

These are the players who have each played in over 400 games for Arsenal, between them they played in an incredible 10,159 games, an average of 508 games per player. Many of us will be familiar with 18 of them as they played in the past 41years but I doubt that any of us would have been around when the final 2 played.

Bob John 1922-1937 – 470 games

Bob John 2

Bob John

Born in Barry, Wales, Bob played for Barry Town and Caerphilly, before joining Arsenal, who signed him despite stiff competition for his signature. He made his Arsenal first-team debut on 28 October 1922 in a 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle United, and soon became a regular, succeeding Tom Whittaker at left half.

He lost his place from the Arsenal side in the 1923-24 season due to stiff competition from Billy Blyth and Andy Young, but after switching to left back, he once again became a first team player. Eventually he was put back to left half, and this time he remained a first-team regular. A prodigious ball-winner and noted passer of the ball, Bob reached (but lost) in the 1926-27 FA Cup Final, after an error by his compatriot and close friend, goalkeeper Dan Lewis whose one mistake led to Arsenal’s loss. It was Bob who consoled Lewis after the final whistle, assuring him he would get another chance to a win a medal, but Lewis never did get the opportunity.

Despite some very strong competition he remained a first team regular, finally winning some silverware in the 1929-30, FA Cup Final. This was followed by three First Division titles in 1930-31, 1932-33, and 1933-34. He also scored Arsenal’s only goal in the 1932 FA Cup Final when Arsenal were controversially beaten by Newcastle United. Newcastle benefited from scoring a goal that was later determined to have been out of play just before the goal was scored. By this time he was one of the senior members of the Arsenal squad, and mentored many of the club’s younger new arrivals, such as Alex James. He played for Arsenal until he retired in 1938, playing for the final three years of his career mainly as a reserve player, missing out on a medal in the League win of 1934-35.

After his retirement he had a largely unsuccessful career as a coach, finishing his football career as a scout for Cardiff City.

His 470 games place him 11th on the all time list.

He passed away in 1982 aged 83 years.

Eddie Hapgood 1927-1945 – 440 games

eddie hapgood 2

Eddie Hapgood Highbury006

He was born in Bristol. Eddie started his football career in the mid-1920s as an amateur playing in local football (while still employed as a milkman), after which he played for Kettering Town in the Southern League. In 1927 Herbert Chapman signed him for Arsenal at a fee of £950. He was so thin and fragile that Arsenal’s trainer Tom Whittaker forced him to take up weight training and to start eating meat, as he was a vegetarian. This turned to Eddie’s advantage outside of football as his new found muscular physique allowed him to supplement his minimum wage, as a footballer, by fashion modelling and advertising confectionary.

He made his Arsenal debut on 19 November 1927 against Birmingham City; initially he was used as backup for left back Horace Cope. Eddie had to wait until 1929 before he became a first team regular, after that he made the position his own, right up until the outbreak of WW11 in 1939. He played 35 or more matches in every season in that period and went on to succeed Alex James as Arsenal’s captain and he led the side to the League title in 1937-38, while personally winning five League titles and two FA Cups.

He was capped by England on 30 occasions making his debut in1930, and was England’s captain for 21 games including his first match which was the infamous “Battle of Highbury” against Italy in November 1934. Italy was the reigning World Champions at the time and England had declined to take part in the World Cup, so the match was billed as the “true” World Championship match. The match was notoriously dirty, with many players sustaining injuries, including Hapgood who had his nose broken. England beat the Italians (who were reduced to ten men for most of the match) 3-2. He was also captain when the English team played Germany, in Berlin and were forced (under pressure from British diplomats) to give the Nazi salute before the match, England won 6-3.

When WW11 started, Eddie who was only 30 served in the Royal Air Force, while also playing for Arsenal and England in unofficial matches. In 1945, he wrote one of the first football autobiographies, entitled “Football Ambassador”. After that he left football completely; he fell on hard times and wrote back to his old club Arsenal asking for financial assistance (as he had never been given a testimonial match) but the club only sent him £30. He spent his later years running YMCA hostels.

His 440 games place him 16th on the all time list.

He passed away on Good Friday 1973 aged 64 years.

Two of the other members of the 10,000 game club are John Radford and Dennis (God) Bergkamp and they are also among only 16 players to have scored 100 or more goals for Arsenal, Paul Merson fell one goal short at 99.

GunnerN5

 

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Arsenal Trivia Quiz

June 5, 2014

How much do you know about Arsenal’s Managers?

This quiz will require both knowledge of Arsenal and research work, research is not cheating – It’s acquiring additional knowledge.

All questions refer only to the Managers careers in League Football, with the exception of the questions specifically on trophies.

Good luck and happy researching.

 

  1. Which Manager has the lowest overall goals against per game average?
  2. What was the average in # 1?
  3. Which Manager has the overall most goals for per game?
  4. How many goals for per game did he achieve?
  5. Which Manager has the highest % of overall wins?
  6. What was the % in # 5?
  7. Which Manager has the highest overall % of points won?
  8. What was the % in # 7?
  9. How many Managers did Arsenal have before we won our first major trophy?
  10. How many different Managers have managed Arsenal?
  11. How many never won a trophy?
  12. Of the Managers in # 11 which one managed for the longest period of time?
  13. How many years did he manage for?
  14. How many Managers managed for over 200 games?
  15. How many Managers have managed for 10 years or longer?

 

I will not discuss or publish the answers until the day after the quiz is posted.

GunnerN5

 

 

 

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Does The Arsenal have to be based in London?

June 4, 2014

Morning Gooners,

Most of us have just started to calm down after a nine year wait for silverware – how excited were we? Our cabinet now houses its first trophy in our new Emirates stadium. Many Gunners felt that years of disappointment may never be turned round after a few defeats at the new Wembley. I know how happy I was to have that Monkey off our backs, and now we can go forward and hopefully add to that FA cup.

How many Gooners tried to get a cup final ticket, but were left disappointed? Arsenal of course made it possible for many fans to watch the game on a big screen an the Emirates Stadium, and many others watched in pubs clubs or like myself at home on television. Overseas supporters watched the game on TV or streams much the same as they always do, which started to make me feel just how disappointed they must feel not being there in person.

The Emirates stadium holds sixty odd thousand, and not knowing, but I guess Hull’s stadium holds thirty odd thousand, now that equates to a lot less than what Wembley’s capacity so why couldn’t both sets of supporters, get to see what may turn out to be a once in a lifetime experience.

Ok we can answer that question ourselves without hesitation. The FA Cup Final attracts many hangers on, even some of my Tottenham friends got hold of tickets, and went for the occasion, which really spammed my brain.

I started to think about this situation once all the commotion was over, and of course after the trophy was locked up in our cabinet. Would you believe what I came up with? Arsenal Football club, does it have to be based in London, does it have to be in England even. I had to ask myself, would lifetime supporters still follow The Arsenal if it played its football in The Bundersleague or even in Spain or Italy, and its my opinion that many would.

I started to think that there is no reason that The Arsenal has to play in England at all, as Arsenal is not even English now. Owned by Americans and Russians, managed by a Frenchman, and captained by a Belgian. Now that showed me that Arsenal have outgrown themselves, Highbury Stadium wasn’t big enough, so we moved just a few yards down the road, and named it after our Arab sponsors so even the home of Arsenal has changed.

Now after a little thinking, I also have seen the changes in other Premier Clubs they too are owned by Russians, Arabs, Indians and Americans. Now this has shown me that football is now, as I suppose it always has been just business ventures, so in all honesty it could be run anywhere by anyone. We could in fact be run by EUFA and based in the middle of Europe where Arsenal supporters could easily, or more easily get to watch their team play live.

Personally I am of the age where travelling to games is only occasional for me, and where I am happy to watch my team play on television or streams wouldn’t worry me if we moved to anywhere in the world. But our world wide audience could go to watch more easier.

I have read that the governing bodies have been toying with ideas of a European league, which would attract best teams in  Europe, and start up a new league. At one time that would be unthinkable but not any more, who would you rather watch as opponents every week, Barcelona Real Madrid, Bayan Munich or Hull and Cardiff.

Football has changed, and I suppose we have to as well. I have seen Arsenal of old and I preferred it, but hey I am old and Arsenal are now a commodity for everyone. Up and at them Arsenal.

What’s your views.

Written by Steve Palmer

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Arsenal. A selling club?

June 3, 2014

Given our new found riches the media are totally focussed upon whom we should buy, but let’s turn this around – who should we sell?

Bendtner, Sagna, Fabianski and Park are already condemned to play away from the Home of Football but if you had your way who else would join them? We have players who are very attractive to other teams – some who may be targets would be a painful loss, others less so.

What about Ramsey? This fellow is going to be a great and not just an Arsenal great. If you had unlimited resources who in the PL would you look at if you wanted a young midfielder? Henderson? You must be joking. Eriksen? Doesn’t deserve to tie Ramsey’s laces. Barkley? Not yet and doesn’t score enough. Now I can hear you say – we will never sell Ramsey, but Spurs fans thought that about Bale! 50+m euros may well make the Board listen.

Just joking – Aaron will stay at AFC until he needs a zimmer frame  to get onto the pitch. Same goes for Wilshire.

images

“What? I am going to Swansea with Lukasz?”

But what of our other midfielders, could any of them be targets for other clubs? Rosicky? Why not – he is quality. I know he has signed a new contract and that he is coming to the end of his career but  – OK, you are right – no-one will buy him. But what of Cazorla? Given the development of Wilshere and the wonder of Ozil do we really need our Spanish magician? Could he be sold to bring in extra money to buy a Cavani or a Falcao?

Horrible idea but given how many MF’s we have one may well be sold and no-one is buying Diaby!

Arteta or Flamini? Again few possible suitors. They are at AFC until their contracts run down or we can arrange a free transfer for Mathieu.

Except, Except ….. what if we sign Fabregas? Would anyone object to selling, let us say JW or Cazorla, or according to GIE, Arteta, to make way for Cesc? (disclaimer: GIE’s was not proposing selling MA!)

What about defenders? Sagna has gone, but is Monreal available? Is he the man to be a solid understudy to Gibbs and if not should he be sold? I like him but accept his limitations.

Vermaelen? Club captain and a quality player; I am sure Mr Wenger will be unwilling to sell such a superb backup CB but what about Thomas’s ambitions – I am sure he will want away in summer and there will be plenty of teams who would sign him.

And Koscielny will only enhance his reputation in Brazil and become a hot property – Barca are desperate for new CB’s. Kos would be a great signing and not crazy money. Merts? Too valuable to sell.

Upfront we have less to fear from raiders. Giroud is a fine player and could well return to France but where? Monaco have Falcao and PSG Cavani and Ibra – the other teams don’t have the money as OG will be at least double what we paid for him.

Ox? Theo? Ozil? Sanogo? Can’t see any of them leaving but what of Podolski? My hope is that we sign Drexler and if we do there is no place for Pod – fine player though he is. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Podolski leave in summer.

Of course, none of the above are likely to be sold, particularly as we have the finances to keep suitors at bay, but there are players who could and perhaps should leave the squad – especially as we will buy this summer.

Who do you think should empty his locker?

Written by Big Raddy

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Posted by Erik the Red

Give Us A ‘D’: Alternative Arsenal Alphabet

June 2, 2014

Continuing the Alternative Arsenal Alphabet we move onto the letter D.

Remember, this is the alternative alphabet so the obvious stuff, like players’ names, is not included.

Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

D is for…

Donkey

When, early in his career, a young Tony Adams scored at both ends in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United the Daily Mirror thought it would be amusing to publish a picture of him with donkey ears attached. The “donkey” epithet was picked up by rival fans and our Tone had to put up with a lot of stick for a while. But it was the journos and the rival fans who were the real asses. By the end of his career this ultimate one-club man had clocked up the following stats:

669 appearances

32 goals

14 years as Captain

10 major trophies

66 caps for England

1 car crash

512 humungous benders

1 rehab programme

No-one calls him “donkey” any more: just Mr Arsenal.

Doubles

We do love a Double, don’t we? When the club’s first League and FA Cup Double was achieved in 1971 it was particularly pleasing because until then our neighbours up the Seven Sisters Road had been able to claim “Double” bragging rights. (Yes, younger readers, there was once a time when Totteringham were, briefly, a successful club. But, like black-and-white TV, post-war rationing and polio, Spud success has been consigned to the dustbin of history). Of course we then went on to eclipse the neighbours by netting two more Doubles, in 1998 and 2002. Only Manchester United can equal our Triple-Double record.

Derbys

And speaking of the N17 losers, you can’t beat the atmosphere of a North London Derby. On the one hand, a stylish team with stability and class and a diverse and well-informed fan base. On the other, a bunch of permanent losers supported by the entire roster of extras from Planet of the Apes. The first League match between the clubs was in the First Division, on 4 December 1909; Arsenal won 1–0 and that pretty much set the tone for things thereafter. In the years since then, our record in the NLD is as follows: P177, W76, D47, L54. Altogether now: “It’s happened again… it’s happened again… Tottenham Hotspurs, it’s happened again.”

Dein The Divider

David Dein brought Arsene Wenger to Arsenal and helped oversee the acquisition of some truly amazing players (Bergkamp, Overmars, Henry, Vieira, Ljungberg and many more). Perhaps his greatest transfer coup was spiriting away Sol Campbell from under the neighbours’ noses and giving him the chance to play for a proper team. But eventually Dein left under a cloud, flirted with the fat Uzbek and his son, Darren, seemed to be involved in every high profile player departure from Arsenal in the later Wenger years. Some fans want him to come back to team up with Arsene again. Others want nothing to do with him. What will his legacy be? Hero or villain? Or a bit of both?

Divers

I know I’m biased, but I honestly think that when it comes to diving to win fouls or penalties, few clubs are as honest as Arsenal. True, Bobby Pires occasionally went down pretty easily and we did have the Eboue years (but how many other clubs’ fans would have got on a player’s back about diving the way we did with mad Emmanuel?). Eduardo allegedly made one dive (I’m still not convinced) and you’d think he had carried out the slaughter of the first born sons. And I remember Theo diving – just the once – and admitting the fact in interviews. I haven’t seen him dive since. Contrast that with the likes of Suarez, Rooney, Gerrard, Young, Drogba and countless others and you realize that we really are the good guys.

Dandan

If you’re not a regular on Arsenal Arsenal you may not know about Dandan. He was one of the regulars on here (right from the beginning) and always brought wisdom, perspective and humour to his observations. His wise and calming words in the aftermath of some of the club’s bad times were always particularly welcome. Sadly Dandan passed on earlier this year. We all still miss him greatly.

RockyLives

 

 

 

 

 

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Our first signing of the Summer needs to be……

June 1, 2014

My view is that Arsene signed his new deal because he has been promised access to the new funds available via the Puma and Emirates deals. Some of it has probably already been spent on improved contracts but these deals are mega compared to the old deals, we managed to breakeven even with those old deals, so there is now not just a lot of cash sloshing around but also some guaranteed income streams from which to pay wages to new signings and now literally no need to supplement our profits with cash from selling players.

So the player at the top of my shopping list is the man grabbing the headlines yesterday as his club have apparently said he can go, and as the Metro claimed the President said he wasn’t for sale we can only assume they are incorrect and that the other media outlets are correct. His name? Come on now pay attention the one man we need…..Cesc Fabregas.

cf1

What’s that you say? We have a ton of small gifted attacking midfielders already we don’t need another one….

Sorry you’ve really not been paying attention have you. Remember when Arteta joined us? 28 years old and up until that point an attacking midfielder, Arsene saw something different he saw a player who was able to be our metronome to safely bring the ball out of defence and to get it to the attacking midfielders, he also understood that a player who has spent the vast majority of his life opening up defences would be the man to snuff out danger when we were defending seeing the space and marshalling it or nicking the ball back, the only thing going against Arteta now is his age.

So Cesc, 27, whilst he has spent the last two seasons racking up the most assists in La Liga he has not set pulses racing as he did at Arsenal, he has played in a variety of attacking midfield positions but for us he played deeper, more the Rambo role than the Santi/Ozil role.

Bring him back put him at the back of our midfield three, add Rambo, Jack, Ozil and Santi to the mix, that’s one good looking midfield that would strike fear of ball starvation into any PL side

On top of that he always had his own clock, Cesc could receive the ball and whilst everything around him was going at 100mph he was seeing it all in slow motion, receiving the ball off BFG I doubt Cesc would ever be caught out.

And what of tackling and winning back possession, well we all know you don’t have to a brick outhouse to play DM, a quick brain, quick feet, desire and agression are equally desirable traits, Cesc has all of them.

So please Arsene bring Cesc home and make him our metronome.

By Gooner in Exile

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