Tag Archives: Arsenal

The Arsenal and Me – Peter’s Story

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Last Saturday morning I was privileged to be amongst so many wonderful Gooner fans on the AwayBoyz boat up the Thames. What a wonderful experience and one I’m so glad I did not miss. I didn’t go to the game though as I had to get back home to Wales. On the boat staring out onto the Thames my thoughts went back to when I was a very young kid and travelled to away games whenever my mum, God Bless her, could afford to let me and my elder brother go.

Travelling away in the 50’s and early 60’s was not easy. No motorways and slow steam hauled trains. Most fans travelled as part of the Arsenal Supporters Club. My brother and I always travelled by the Club coaches. I loved going to the games North of the Midlands. Manchester, Blackpool, Bolton, Newcastle etc. Would cost about 12/6 to 15/- depending on distance.

The coaches left Highbury Corner at the back of the old entrance tube station about 10.30pm on a Friday night. It was generally all the old faces that turned up! I was always the youngest on the coach. Gradually all the fans would turn up wearing their colours etc with rattles in hand. All optimistic but not over the top optimism!

There was always a guy on board called Fred. He always went. My brother and I always made sure we sat well away from him as he always drank a bottle of whisky during the journey!

We’d set off going up the Holloway Road in good voice with a few choruses of the Arsenal song set to the tune of Anchors Aweigh! The roads would be almost empty except for the occasional lorry. I tried to stay awake as I loved just watching us go through the many towns and small villages en route.

About 3am we’d stop at a transport cafe to have a break and a cup of tea etc for about 30mins. Generally this was about Newcastle under Lyme area.

Eventually would fall asleep and wake up as it was getting light and you could sense you were ooop north with all the Mills etc easily seen. The odd looking coloured buses. Men walking to work with their flat caps on. Just like a Lowry painting depicts.

We’d get to our destination about 8am. The driver always knew where to take us for breakfast. Never ever forget those! Full old English- northern style. Big mugs of tea. Fried bread etc.

About 9am we’d wander to the ground wherever we were playing. Nothing much to do in those days! Pubs didn’t open till 11am. Someone would always bring a ball along and we’d all go along to the nearest bit of open land and have a match between ourselves. I used to really love this being young and enthusiastic, and a decent player. My favourite players then were Derek Tappscott and Danny Clapton. Danny was a winger and had a unique way of going past a full back- dropping his shoulder etc. I used to practice doing this during our match pretending I was Danny! We’d put coats down for goalposts etc.

Just approaching 11am the older ones drifted off to the nearest pub to the ground. My brother was about 16 and I was about 9 or 10. We’d have to sit outside with our lemonade and bags of crisps! Never bothered us as many came outside with us anyway. The friendly banter with the locals would then start. Their accents then used to amaze me! “Are you ooop for game lad” they’d say. “You’re wasting your time lad thars in for a thrashing!” Generally they were always right!(sadly).

About 1pm we’d all go to nearest chippy for our lunch! How I looked forward to that. Proper fish and chips cooked in beef dripping!
We would be close to the stadium by now and all the programme sellers would be out and, of course, the rosette sellers. “Wear your colours!” they’d be shouting!

Time to go into the ground. Not that many fans travelled away to league games. We would meet up with the ones who travelled by train in the ground and start our singing and chanting and making noise with our rattles. 2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate etc. Fairly mild stuff compared to those songs on the boat to Fulham!!!!

There used to be a legendary Arsenal supporter named David Stacey. He wore a red and white dinner suit with top and hat and tails in red and white. Mascots etc could walk around the pitch in those days. He carried a big board which read — We Arsenal Supporters say “may the best team win!” Can you really imagine that happening today! When he reached us we’d all just cheer and rattle our rattles and give a few choruses of the Arsenal song then. He then walked all the way around the ground showing the banner to the applause of the home fans! Much respect amongst fans then.

The match to me really passed me by! I remember more about events leading up to and after that have stuck in my memory. We normally always lost or drew.

On one occasion at a Cup game away to Man Utd the fog came down and the game called off just before 3pm. I remember being so disappointed. The Man Utd supporters club invited all us coach travellers back to their club and entertained us before our coaches left Manchester Piccadilly about 10.30pm for London and home.

Normally got back home about about 7.30am Sunday morning after being dropped of at Drayton Park along the Holloway Road..

I really really miss those days.

regards to you all,

Peter

PS.
The Arsenal song we sang then to the tune of Anchors Aweigh!:-

Send Arsenal down the field for one more goal,
No other teams can fight than the boys in red and white.
Never let their Glory fade
long may it glow
So let us all sing out with
Up The Gunners!
Up the Gunners!!!
GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mmmm Such happy happy memories. Will share a few more old stories another time.

And now onto Tottenham (without Bale)

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So that is that out of the way then. Another comfortable victory in the Champions League qualifiers see’s us into the main draw for the umpteenth consecutive time (it’s too late to Google and see how many. I think its 16 though?). Any doubt, of which there was a lot, was removed after the 3-0 lead in the 1st tie. And the game was secured with 2 brilliant goals from Aaron ‘The General’ Ramsey at the Emirates last night. And with that out of the way, we can concentrate on what will be one of our most important games of the season.

The visit of Tottenham Hotspur.

That lot up the Seven Sisters Road genuinely think they have a chance this year. In fact, they genuinely though that they have had a chance for the last four years ever since Robbie Keane said in 2009:

“I think it’s certainly even and if you look at the squads, I think that our bench is probably a little bit stronger than theirs at the moment.”

Well Robbie, once again the Tottenham bench might be better than that of The Arsenal’s, but it is the 1st 11 that counts. And like in every year of the last 18 (or is it now 19), Tottenham will be in our shadow. Yes, they might have spent big – over £60 million, but this is not the first season they have outspent Arsenal. In fact, in the last 10 years, Tottenham have spent nearly £200,000,000 more on players then Arsenal. And this is not nett spend, but gross spend.

It is not what you spend, it is how you spend it, and Spurs have a history of not spending it well. And their current crop, as previously discussed, are not as good as their big price tags might indicate. Anyone, enough of the bitching about that lot.

At the end of the day, as long as we play to the best of our ability, we should be beating that lot. Aaron Ramsey is running the midfield. Santi Cazorla now seems to of got fully fit. As has Jack Wilshire. And whilst Theo Walcott might not of yet shone, he already has 2 assists in 4 games.

Spurs meanwhile, started their last game with those prestigious ‘young’ talents Danny Rose (23) and Andros Townshend (any relation to Pete?). Yes, young Danny might have once scored a screamer against us, but so did David Bentley. And that was his career peak. I am sure Danny won’t go on to too many better things.

What it is about The Derby is the pride, the passion, the buzzing. There is no better game out their then derby. No matter the ‘mocking’, it is a cup final. Even if you become Champions, losing twice (or evening losing one and drawing the other) means that you will still be on the other end of some poor banter. It means so much. And a 4pm kick off on a Sunday. Let’s hope the game is the only thing that kicks off.

On a side note, it seems OK for Sky TV/BT Sport to move a game from a Saturday early game to Sunday 4pm for TV, despite the police originally moving it for ‘safety grounds’ but when it comes to there being no trains to get home (Sunderland/Swansea) things will not budge. But that’s for another blog.

But back to the derby. I am sitting here. It is Wednesday. 4 days to go. And I am already buzzing. The anticipation will only increase. Bring on Super Sunday. Bring on Tottenham.

Keenos

Ps: How small a club must Spurs be if there best player go’s ‘on strike’ to leave? That is so 2011.

What, if anything can make us forgive Arsene Wenger ?

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So, as I sit here waiting for the Arsenal vs. Fenerbahce qualifier to kick of I got thinking about Arsene Wenger, the fans feelings toward him, the predicament he finds himself in and what he can do to rescue himself, if indeed he can.

The more I think, the more I wonder if he is happy? Does he feel he is doing a good job? In fact, has he done a good job?

I am no financial expert, and I certainly do not profess to understand the financial ins and outs of running one of the world’s largest football clubs. Sure, I see it all on face value. I see the club wringing every last pound out of the fans from season tickets, memberships, marble stones everywhere you look, merchandising and food & drink inside the stadium to even charging to be put on waiting lists for season tickets or club level.

The money going into the club must be at the highest it has ever been, but the money being spent always seems to be on the low side when it comes to player acquisition.

But…how much of this frugality has been required to help the transition away from Highbury into the Emirates?

Despite hearing the apologists saying that the footballing landscape has changed, and it certainly has, it does appear that we were fed a line from the club about the need to move in order to compete. That move was 7 years ago. Surely by now we should have been competing in the transfer market more than we have been. I, for one, am disappointed at the lack of activity and to return another profit on our transfer business would be considered as negligence on my part, but with 6 days left, is there time for Wenger to regain the fans trust in him, right the wrongs and restore the faith in him that, let’s be honest, we all had for him during the late nineties and early noughties.

Maybe, maybe he has been doing what is right for the club. The whole ‘He has money’ from the board, to the ‘I don’t have money’ from him was frustrating. The ‘If you gave me £40m to spend I’d give it straight back’ & ‘4th place is a trophy’ comments – were these all a smokescreen for what was really going on, maybe he didn’t have a penny to spend. The club are always going to try and save face wherever they can, it is a large PR machine than needs to keep a lot of people happy and I am a strong believer that you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

We have been linked with a whole load of players this transfer window, many of whom have signed for different clubs – the new found ‘In the know’ fools that you find all over social networking sites do nothing more than fuel fans anxiety and frustration and everybody would do well to give these people as little credibility as they deserve – fact is they know nothing. Arsenal has always done its business quietly and I have lost count of how many times we have made a signing that nobody, not even the ITK that professes to have insider information, saw coming.

That said, the past few days have seen us linked with names such as Benzema, Di Maria, Ozil, Rooney and Cabaye and the whole point of this piece was to play devil’s advocate and ask the question….

If Wenger spent the reputed £70m, £80m or £100m, depending on who you listen too, on some ‘top, top quality’ players and mounted a serious challenge for the title, maybe got to the final of the FA Cup and say won the League Cup…would he be forgiven? Would we understand more and be more patient with him? Would his respect, that he absolutely did earn all those years back, be restored?

Or is it too little too late ?

DHammy