Category Archives: Arsenal and Me

The Arsenal and Me – Finchy’s Story

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My ‘The Arsenal and Me’ is quite an ironic one, my Dad’s side of the family were all born and raised around the Angel, Islington, most of them supported Arsenal, with a few supporting that lot from N17 – my Grandad was one of them! He would take my Dad with the rest of the family to Sp*rs one week, then Arsenal the next (I’m told that’s what most North London families used to do), anyway it was 1955 or so before my Dad stopped going to Sh*te Hart Lane, after an Arsenal win in the North London Derby (nothing’s changed!) and continue to go to Arsenal Stadium every week as oppose to every other week.

So my ‘Arsenal and Me’ began with my Dad and his family, I was born, and still live in Newcastle, where my Mum’s family are from, of course they all support ‘The Toon’ so it was a struggle for my Dad to get me in Red & White, but he did and I will never thank him enough for it, because supporting The Arsenal has brought me so many great memories (and some bad ones too). I didn’t get off to a great start, my first game was the FA Cup Final in 2001, which unfortunately we lost, but it was before the game when I was in tears. My Dad spotted John Barnes walking around Cardiff and asked him for photograph, I was about to take the photo when a plastic chair aimed at Barnes came flying from a pub full of Gooners and hit a 7 year old kid on the head – me, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to watch every match I could, and to the ‘Arsenal fan’ who threw that chair, I’ll get you back one day!

Nearly every week I would ask “Dad when are we going to Highbury?” he quickly drilled into me that it was “Arsenal Stadium” and not “Highbury”. I knew because of where we lived, it was difficult to take me, but he finally did in 2003 against Fulham, he organised with an old mate of his for me to have a look around the changing rooms before the match, I had a picture with both Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry’s boots and then went to watch my team, later I found out that his ‘old mate’ was only Bob Wilson! I went to a few games here and there, mostly ones local to me (Newcastle, Sunderland or Middlesbrough) as well as the 2005 FA Cup Final, but it wasn’t really until we moved to The Soulless Bowl that I followed them properly, we’d been on the Season Ticket waiting list since the start and finally got one 5 years ago. Now I travel from the North East to every Away game and every other Home game to watch The Arsenal, into Europe as well. There’s a word I’ve seen mentioned in a few of these stories that stands out for me, ‘family’ and that’s exactly what it is. There’s nothing like seeing your mates, having a few beers and supporting the boys in the famous red and white.

If anyone’s wondering, the ironic part of this whole story is, had Arsenal lost the NLD in 1955, I probably would be a T*ttenham fan…but they didn’t and I’m not!

Oh well…

The Arsenal.

Finchy

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The Arsenal and Me – Jools’ Story

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So where do I start? I was born the day before Arsenal beat Liverpool in the 1950 Cup Final, an omen? Well my love affair started back as a nine year old back in 1958/9 season. I was born in Stepney but most of my mates were Spurs fans. The first game I remember was a 2-1 defeat up at Sunderland in the FA Cup. Over the next couple of seasons leading up to 1960/61 I endured my mates gloating at the all conquering Spurs team beating all before them and the double. Little knowing that they would not do it again,still all these years later! Haha. I read all I could about the Arsenal glory days of the 30s period and was mesmerised by the rich history, the marble halls of Highbury and ended up being a walking Arsenal facts kid! Lets face it, it was better to live in the past as the present team then was awful! Not a bad attack, but a terrible leaky defence, propped up by the amazing Jack Kelsey coming to the end of his career. I first saw Jack playing against Man City and in nets for them? The late great Bert Trautmann.

Early 1960s we had McGill and McCullough in defence, tried their best, but to be honest we were bad! We had a superb natural goalscorer in David Herd who scored goals for fun and probably kept us alive in Division One for many a season. Ironically Herd started a trend of our top goalscorers being sold to Manchester United over the years..unfortunately…Herd, then Stapleton, then RVP a bad trend.

We moved on and had a very cultured player in George Eastham and signed another prolific centre forward in Joe Baker from Torino. Joe was short for a centre forward, scored bags of goals full of heart and my favourite image was him squaring up to big Ron Yeats in the Cup at Highbury who was about a foot taller!

We drifted through the early seasons of the 60s I managed to get to a few away games Blackpool against a young Alan Ball. Both Manchester teams, Liverpool after they were promoted. Arsenal appointed Billy Wright as a manager, may have been a great player but awful as a manager. I remember the demonstrations outside Highbury and the burning effigy of him on the Avnell Road.

I actually was one of the 4,500 approx attendance v Leeds at Highbury mid week to see us lose 3-0 I think. Still I think the lowest ever attendance for a top flight game in England. Wright got the push and we got various managers in Don Howe, Terry Neill. We were still a mid table side. I started to go to more away matches…our cup defeat at Peterborough (a newish team in the league!) I went to places like Bolton, Shrewsbury, Cardiff, Swansea( Town then) at the Veitch Field. Along with fellow fans we hitch hiked to places like Newcastle, drinking in their supporters club, was totally pissed and just propped up on the terraces at St James Park, did not even remember the match!

Chased around Leeds by their fans for burning a Leeds scarf we “borrowed” got away on a train to Bradford by the skin of our teeth! During the 60s our ongoing relationship with Glasgow Rangers usually had us playing each other at the beginning of a season in a friendly alternate years at Highbury and Ibrox. A few of us decided to hitch hike to Glasgow for the game! We split up into twos and set out early Friday evening! We managed to get to Glasgow for 8.00am Saturday morning.

We got to Ibrox outside the ground for 9am and whilst walking around looking at the impressive stadium a guy pulled up in a car. Came up and chatted to us, will never forget it, he was the Rangers manager at the time, was so impressed we had hiked up for a friendly, he gave us a full tour of the stadium, showed us the amazing trophy room and gave us tickets for the main stand!

We drew 2-2 amazing atmosphere and we set back that evening. Took us a lot longer to get back, ended up sleeping in a brick kiln in a wheelbarrow outside Carlisle. Did not get back home till Monday morning and my Dad had reported me missing to the Old Bill !! I got a right hiding! I had already been in trouble the end of the last season for going to Burnley despite recovering from chicken pox!

Things were starting to change at The Arsenal the seeds of a good side were germinating and Bertie Mee was moving on up! Two Cup finals stick in my mind, we lost to Swindon Town 3-1 a 3rd Division team in the League Cup Final at Wembley. We were naturally heavy favourites but to be honest they ran us ragged in the mud with their flying winger Don Rogers causing havoc. I remember being in a daze all the way back from Wembley and sitting in The Gunners staring into my beer in a state of shock! The other side of the coin was our amazing come back against Anderlecht in the two legged Inter Cities Cup Final ( UEFA Cup ) we lost in Belgium 1-3 and turned it around 3-0 at Highbury! The place was rocking! George Armstrong our talented winger ran them ragged, our first trophy since the early 50s! Talking of Highbury rocking, who remembers the mid week derby v Spurs during the mid 60s? Ended 4-4 68,000 inside the ground and an estimated 30 plus thousand locked out!

Bertie Mee was the turning point for The Arsenal along with Don Howe’s zonal system they invoked an amazing spirit and assembled a superb side which flowered in 1971. What a team, Radford, Kennedy, Simpson Storey Mcnab, Graham and Tick Tock McLintock to name a few. You played 42 games a season then, no subs, plenty of hard men about and we mixed it with any one but still had the skills to beat the best. That night when Ray Kennedy soared in the lights at the Lane to win the title was unforgettable, the atmosphere was electric. Somewhere on the net is a clear pic of me celebrating on the pitch! We went on to see Darling Charlie put the Scousers to the sword at Wembley, our first double, think we even won the Youth Cup that week! Was an amazing season!
Over the next few seasons we scrapped with Leeds on and off the pitch haha. By the late 70s I was working at the Daily Express offices in Manchester. We got to the final v Ipswich 1978 and the then editor of the Sunday Express promised me a ticket for the match which he delivered! I was over the moon, got down to the match, red/white scarf on, entered Wembley, looked around and to my horrow was surrounded by a sea of blue and white! I was in the Ipswich end!! To be honest the Tractor Boys were fine, good humoured, found it funny and we shared a drink, maybe them winning helped!

As you know two more final followed Manchester United and West Ham, . Could not get tickets but i had fun winding Man United fan neighbour pre the 79 final. Imagine his surprise when he opened his lounge curtains one morning to find a full size Newspaper Poster “Arsenal for the Cup!” staring in on him! He took his time taking it down, not realising the same poster was facing outwards!

As we drifted through the 80s the appointment of Stroller was perfect, he assembled a disciplined (on the field) side, stuck up for his team and showed he was an Arsenal man through and through. If anyone has not watched Fever Pitch, just watch it! Again we were hard to beat and 1989 Anfield showed the true grit and determination of our side. Who were the best? 1971, 1989, 2004, ??? all different scenarios so I prefer to give them equal status!

Rioch was not an Arsenal man but I would always remember him for one thing signing Dennis Bergkamp a true genius!

Wenger?? When he came a breath of fresh air, very innovative, but now?? Maybe we need a change again! His best side the Invincibles, I have a signed framed away shirt, Bergkamp, Henry,Pires,Ljungberg and Gilberto which I treasure.

Favourite players over the years? Baker, McLintock, Graham,Brady, Radford, Kennedy, Adams, George,Viera, Petit, Bergkamp, Overmars,Wright,Storey, MacDonald to name just a few! So many more.

I could go on and on, hope I have not bored you all …too much. UP THE ARSENAL !!!!

Jools
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The Arsenal and Me – Herbert’s Story

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When She Wore gave me the task of writing why I love The Arsenal, I had a long search through the memory banks. It’s a question the majority of fans ask each other. Why that particular team? Many cite family loyalties, ‘I come from an Arsenal family’ or ‘I did it to spite my dad/brother, etc’. Others are down to geographic location, ’it’s my hometown club’. For me, I blame Panini.

I’m a provincial. A child of the countryside. An idyllic upbringing among the orchards of Kent. When I was a kid ‘out in the boonies’, the nearest town was 5 miles away and trips to a sports shop were infrequent and replica kits were virtually non-existent. I had an interest in football but only from what I had read in my Grandfather’s newspaper or saw on World of Sport. I had no allegiance to any one team. Panini solved my problem. I was given this album and about 10 packs of stickers just before the 1977-78 season, and being a bit of a pedantic child, I sorted them out in numeric order without looking at the pictures on the front. Oddly I remember working backwards – no I don’t know why either –and dutifully stuck them in, a touch lopsided.

The final sticker I had was right at the front of the book. It was what kids now call, a shiny. A club crest. Red and white with a big gun on it and the word ARSENAL in that font we all know and love. Below the crest read the words:

VICTORIA CONCORDIA CRESCIT

I didn’t know what it meant but it must mean something to someone.
So who were this Arsenal? The double page was covered with empty boxes but with names underneath. Pat Jennings, Pat Rice, David O’Leary, Liam Brady, Malcolm McDonald to name a few. Who were they all? I looked at the honours board noting that this club and I had something in common. They’d won the Division One championship and FA Cup the year I was born a few years before. Fate surely? In that moment, my footballing destiny had been sown and I devoured every scrap of news to do with the team that I could find.

Luckily for me, the team reached the FA Cup final three years in a row, Roger Osborne upsetting me in ’78, Alan Sunderland sending me delirious in ’79 and Trevor Brooking making me cry in ’80. I’ve told Trevor that since in the car park at The Boleyn. A lovely man. Hand on my shoulder, he apologised for making me cry all those years ago but not for the goal. Then again, I didn’t expect him to.

My debut at Highbury, or any Arsenal game for that matter, was in 1991. The 4-0 win over Palace. I stood on The North Bank. I went with some older work colleagues. Pre-match build up started in The Gunners pub on Elwood Street. A couple of ‘sherberts’, then the walk. At the end of the road there was the end of the East Stand and the North Bank turnstiles, what seemed to be thousands of people milling around, the whisperings of the ticket touts, the programme seller on the corner, the diversity of people in the street, young and old, black and white. Heart thudding in my chest, sweaty palms and a dry mouth. I’d only ever seen it on the television. I remember it as if it were yesterday.
£4.00 – those were the days! – at the turnstile and up the concrete steps. At the top, I stopped. Laid out before me was my field of dreams. The hallowed turf I’d been waiting over a decade to see. An overwhelming moment. That shiny sticker that had captivated me all those years ago had brought me to this. I’d waited all my life for this moment and I fell even more truly, madly and deeply in love with what I considered to be my club. I couldn’t get enough and went home and away for the next four years.

I haven’t been to a competitive league game since 1996 but I’ve lucky to witness the FA Cup finals, good and bad, but like a lot of supporters, it’s down to the cost. What does upset me is that I cannot afford to take my two daughters to experience a game at The Arsenal. My parents weren’t interested in sport at all so I missed out on the matchday experience that I read and hear so much about, and because of the way football is these days, my kids are missing out too. Our love affair with The Arsenal is now sadly from afar.

Throughout the years I’ve been supporting The Arsenal, it’s become to mean more than just the team on the pitch. Of course I’m immensely happy with the success that we’ve enjoyed, the players we’ve had the pleasure to see or read about but one of the key things for me is that we, as a club, have been known for our class and style. We are world-renowned for it. We do things the ‘right way’. We are a club that other clubs aspire to be. Not just now in the present climate with FFP. We’ve always been the benchmark and that’s something to be rightly proud of.

Highbury, the marble halls, Art Deco, the Bank of England club, Herbert Chapman. This may all be history, but it’s ours. Yours and mine. The DNA, where we’ve come from, it’s made our club what it is today. The Arsenal have been innovators, pioneers of what we’ve come to take for granted in this modern football world. As a supporter, I’m incredibly proud that we have a rich tapestry of history, not just from on the field successes and world class players. Not many clubs can boast about the achievements that we can. The first live radio broadcast of a league match, first live television broadcast of a match, first team featured on MOTD, under-soil heating, floodlights, our own Underground station. Our current manager has been rightly lauded as being the catalyst for change in English football. We’ve featured heavily in popular culture whether that be in film, comedy, literature and the theatre. It’s these little things that I love about my club.

The Arsenal plays an important part in my life. It dictates my moods, it elates and deflates me but no matter what it does, I love it. Painfully so at times, to the detriment of everything else.

Every time I pull on a shirt, I feel pride. The shirt and the name on it is my identity.
I’ll end on a quote from our former goalkeeper, the Double-winning legend, Bob Wilson:
‘It was this feeling you were wearing this big gun on your chest and everywhere you went, my word, you felt proud to be wearing it’
No matter what has happened in the last few years and what may happen in the future, that sums it all up. Thanks Panini.

Herbert

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