The Gooner - Issue 309

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ISSUE 309 | JANUARY 2025 | £5

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Layth’s TAKE

Hello, and welcome to issue 309 of the Gooner Fanzine.

It’s coming up to two years since my beloved dad died, and, as anyone who has lost someone dear to them will tell you, you think about them every single day. Time does ease the rawness, but the hurt remains. What has helped me through such a sad time, has been the love and support of friends and family, whose kindness and understanding has helped beyond measure.

What also helped at the time, and still helps now, is the support from our wider Gooner Fanzine 'family.' Whether it’s a kind word here and there on a matchday, or even just a football chat, a smile and a joke on a cold winter’s afternoon while I’m flogging the Gooner outside The Arsenal in all weathers. Such small things helped - and still help - make a big thing just that little bit easier, through your kindness.

We’ve all lost someone, and I make no particular claim on heartache, I only mention this to say that one of the things that makes the Gooner Fanzine so special is our humble community of likeminded souls who rally around others when times are tough.

Get well soon Steve

In light of the above, on behalf of every single person associated with the Gooner Fanzine I would like to send our very best wishes to a Gooner Fanzine legend, namely The Highbury Spy, aka the wonderful Steve Ashford. Popular team player Steve messaged me – I’d say bravely, while modest Steve would say matter-of-factly - a short while ago to apologise, but would it be ok if he missed penning a few of his columns. Why, I asked? Because he was fighting leukaemia, and would be facing a stint of chemotherapy, came the answer.

Such news stopped me in my tracks. I'm not ashamed to say I shed a tear, more in shock than anything. However, inspirational, courageous Steve was full of positivity and his usual good humour, testament to the wonderful bloke he is. He added that he needs to take two or three months off for treatment, but hopes to be back, and I quote from the horse's mouth: “better than ever later in the season.”

I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of knowing Steve for a while now and he’s such a lovely human being, and an unstintingly loyal Gooner to boot, and I know he’ll be back fit and firing, and writing for us very soon. In the meantime, please join me as part of our Gooner Fanzine community to send our all best wishes to Steve and his wonderful partner Mitra in his journey to regain tip-top health once again.

If you’d like to send a message of support to Steve and his family, please email the Gooner Fanzine @info@goonerfanzine.com and we’ll send them onto Steve. Please feel free to thank him for his incredible efforts over the last 30 years and more in sharing such unmissable writing with our humble publication and loyal readership.

It was typical Steve when he mentioned that because of his treatment, he missed his first Saturday 3pm Arsenal game since 1968, the other week when we beat Forest 3–0. That was, bar a game during a family holiday with his parents back in 1982 - which he tells me he still hasn’t forgiven them for! All the best Steve, look forward to buying you a pint of ale very soon down The Arsenal.

In the same vein, again, on behalf of everyone associated with the Gooner Fanzine, I would like to offer our best wishes, love and positivity to John Williamson.

Please also join me in sending our condolences to our genius IT expert, Rob Burne (without whose hard work and deep expertise we simply wouldn’t be able to run our website) after Rob lost his father recently. All the best to Rob and his family.

The new year is a time for reflection, so why not do what I’m going to do, and decide to hug your loved ones just that little more in 2025, and seize every moment, and seize every day. Wishing everyone associated with our humble labour of love that is the Gooner Fanzine a happy and healthy 2025.

Gooner Social

THE POWER OF LUCK

Charlie Ashmore @GoonerFanzine

So, here we are – half-way through the season (even if three, yes three, dreaded interlulls make it feel like things have barely started) and let's be honest it's felt underwhelming, and that feeling has been exacerbated by the strength of Arne Slot's Liverpool's start, even if Manchester City's stuttering has counterbalanced that to a degree.

If I could summarise my views on events so far, they would that the footballing gods have conspired against us (in a way they didn't over the previous two seasons) and we have at the same time perhaps reacted overcautiously to that.

To win a league you need three things to go your way.

1You need to have luck with injuries, you need to have luck with decisions and you need to have luck on the pitch.

I defy you to find a past winner who has had all three of those factors go against them and in my view all three have gone against us in the league thus far.

Injuries have bedevilled us, most significantly of course the loss of Martin Odegaard from Interlull One.

This has been his first significant absence since joining us and boy did we notice it. He brings so much more to the team than just his own ability.

He neatly knits everything together, leading the press which is such a fundamental part of our team's smooth functioning and his

on field communication is clearly excellent. The difference he made to the team when he came back in to the team at Chelsea was immediate and obvious.

But he hasn't been alone of course with Riccardo Calafiori being a big miss, Bukayo Saka missing games which is unheard of, Ben White likewise as well as regular suspects like Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Clearly, we need to be able to cope with injuries and all clubs suffer them but we do seem to have been disproportionately affected so far this season.

Then there's the decisions.

The three red cards have been discussed ad nauseam. Where do I stand on them? I disagree with all three for differing reasons but this is neither the time nor place to go into those.

The point is all three could have had differing outcomes which could have led to different results in each game and had a knock-on effect in subsequent games.

And the cumulative period for which we have played with ten men has had a disproportionate effect on many of the match stats that people like to measure underlying performance by.

And finally, the luck.

Even factoring in the red cards, the results against Brighton, City, Bournemouth, Liverpool and Chelsea could very easily have been more positive for us than they were.

Charlie Ashmore focusses on the three things you need to win the league and how we need to keep the faith

Only Newcastle could really be said to be a performance with no redeeming features and that happens.

Get a draw out of Brighton, hold on for one more minute vs City, hold on against Liverpool and draw at Bournemouth and that's six more points, we are in second place and just two behind Liverpool (under the assumption that losing to us wouldn't have had a knock on effect).

I suppose another element of luck is how the fixtures fall.

Liverpool have had a comparatively gentle start whereas we have played five of, on paper at least, the six toughest away games of the season.

We have to hope that these things will all start to turn in our favour at some point, hopefully now as we embark on a three month interlull free period with some very winnable fixtures coming up.

I mentioned an overly cautious response to the adverse events. This was understandable. We won at Tottenham and not a single one of us was complaining at that point, We came

within a minute of winning with 10 men at City and history shows if you try to play this City team with ten men you get battered. But in other games we just haven't been on the front foot enough.

I didn't like the use of Thomas Partey at right back (well as he played, it wasn't the best use of resource), the absence of creativity apparent in a midfield comprising three of Declan Rice, Mikel Merino, Partey and Jorginho, and the knock on impact it had further up the pitch.

The truth however is that, bad as the start has been in terms of overall points tally, we remain well placed.

If we put the sort of run together that we are eminently capable of, we will close the gap on Liverpool and if we can get back within touching distance by the New Year, then anything remains possible - notwithstanding Liverpool's start and the altogether surprisingly good start put together by Chelsea.

Overall there remain more things to be optimistic about than negative about - now is absolutely not the time to be losing faith.

GIVE IT A BREAK

International breaks can be incredibly divisive among football fans.

In England we have got used to our team making it to (nearly) every World Cup and Euros without much effort and perhaps find ourselves taking them for granted.

This can’t be said for other nations – you just have to look at the fan reaction to San Marino’s Nations League promotion to know what it means for them.

It's also a different story for players too.

Of course, as Arsenal fans we were absolutely gutted to see Martin Ødegaard sidelined with a serious injury after playing for Norway back in September, but he would have undoubtedly felt partly responsible as team captain had his national side not progressed in the recent UEFA qualifiers.

Luckily, like England, Norway were promoted to League A in the competition. It may not mean much to us, but the players will certainly be grateful to continue to be picked for their

There’s always an added concern for us as Arsenal fans because we see how carefully Mikel Arteta is managing the load of his players

Annabel Rackham @annabellimor

national sides, even if it adds to what is already a much-crowded club fixture list.

And perhaps it is because club sides are playing so much football that we worry about the effect of international breaks.

There’s always an added concern for us as Arsenal fans because we see how carefully Mikel Arteta is managing the load of his players, how often he mentions in press conferences who hasn’t trained during the week or who needs to manage their minutes to keep a potentially serious injury at bay.

Then, sometimes in the very same week, we see one of our players completing a whole 90 minutes for their country, worrying that international managers are not giving the players the same care and attention that they might receive if they were back at the Arsenal training ground.

It's hard to believe that this season there has already been three international breaks. I had to go back and double-check as I couldn’t believe that the league campaign had been as stop-start as this.

Some fans will probably breathe a sigh of relief knowing that international football does not return again until March. But at the same time, it means a relentless cycle of league, European and cup football is upon us, with no rest for those who don’t play for national sides.

Some Arsenal fans were dismayed to see the reaction to Bukayo Saka’s withdrawal from the England squad in November 2024. Many of us had been calling out for the club to be smarter about who was allowed to go on international duty, drawing on a precedent set by clubs like Manchester City and Liverpool.

Whether these clubs have been strategic or not with their injury revelations is another question, but for some reason it was Saka that

took most of the heat, with some parts of the football media warning that his place could be in jeopardy as a result of his absence.

This is the same Bukayo Saka who won England player of the year twice in the 20212022 and 2022-2023 seasons. How quickly this was forgotten considering everything he has contributed to the national side.

Ahead of England’s games against Greece and The Republic of Ireland in November, captain Harry Kane told a press conference his feelings about eight players pulling out, including Arsenal’s Saka and Declan Rice.

"It's a tough period of the season and maybe it's been taken advantage of a little bit,” he said.

“I don't really like it, if I'm totally honest. I think England comes before any club situation.”

Personally, I did not really see a problem with Kane’s comments. He has always made himself available for selection, sometimes to the detriment of the side when not fully fit and also he is the captain – it is his job to set an example to the rest of the team.

But in another way, I also think it was right of these players to withdraw.

Declan Rice proved he was injured after failing to get off the bench against Nottingham Forest, whilst I don’t doubt that Saka was also injured too as he also received an early exit from the same game.

The reality is that if Arsenal want to compete on four fronts this season – including two domestic cup competitions – then they are going to have to gently toe the line of respecting international callups.

We will probably see more of what happened in the November break, where Martin Odegaard flew to Norway to be assessed by national team doctors, only to return back to London Colney hours later.

It will at least show rival fans and some sections of the media that there is no conniving Arsenal conspiracy, our players are not ducking out of their other responsibilities and as this league season has shown far too much of already – these injuries are very real and need a lot of attention.

If,like me, you find interlull’s annoying, and get frustrated by the interruptions to league form and loss of momentum, then we have worse experiences to come when they change in 2026.

This is when the usual September and October internationals will be merging into one block, with four international matches being played, meaning that there will be no Premier league football for three full weeks.

Quite what Ben White and any noninternationals will do during that time will need to be given some serious thought, maybe the training camps in Dubai are being booked up as I write.

The absence of quite a few English players from the current squad due to injury has taken up a lot of media coverage and I have no issues with our players pulling out whatsoever.

With the number of games that some players are playing, due to the addition of more games in European competition for some clubs, it’s inevitable that something has to give and the results of the two England games back in November shows it is possible to field a socalled weakened team and still win fairly easily.

Champions League thoughts

We are now more than halfway through the new Champions League format and the group stages have begun to take shape.

I am still undecided on the new format. I do like the fact that a defeat isn’t as damaging as it used to be, as losing a game would previously mean three points to one of your three group rivals, but now it feels as if it doesn’t have as much impact on our own chances of qualifying.

I do still think it is a shame that we are being denied the chance to go to the away grounds of the teams that we play at home, plus that we lose the opportunity to get revenge, which is one of the things that was often enjoyable about playing a second leg match, especially if the first game had been quite feisty or controversial, but I think the real telling point will come in the final two matches, when usually some teams would have already qualified via the old format.

Now there should be a need for every team in every position to win their final match due to the seeding system amongst those qualifying.

Previously, if two teams were level on points and goal difference, goals scored etc, it would

Fan favourite Mickey Cannon looks at the international break, Champions League, season performance, Edu and the Emirates

then be based on the head-to-head scores, but as this is not possible anymore, it needs to be settled by a new way.

Instead, if two teams are level on points, goal difference and goals scored, which could easily happen in such a huge league table, then the total points gained by the eight clubs that each team has played will be totalled up, with the outcome being decided by whose opponents have totalled the most points.

So, as well as wanting to beat our opponents, we should want them to win as many points as possible in their other games.

Form is temporary class is permanent

I was never going to join the growing number of Arsenal fans who were moaning about our form earlier this season.

It is easy to see reasons for why things have not been as good as last season and what we all expected.

Although the final results in the games against Inter and Chelsea were not what we all wanted, I saw effort in those performances, especially in the second half to feel reasonably confident that things are improving, as we should have come away with more than we did.

However, prior to our form picking up after November’s interlull, this season has so far been a bit of a disappointment for us, resulting in our previous poor form making me unable to really appreciate what has been happening

I do still think it is a shame that we are being denied the chance to go to the away grounds of the teams that we play at home, plus that we lose the opportunity to get revenge, which is one of the things that was often enjoyable about playing a second leg match

to Manchester City’s league form spectacularly unravelling this past month. Ordinarily we would be cheering on every lost point and revel in seeing us move away from them in the table, after having their worst run whilst being owned by a nation state.

I keep hearing how league leaders Liverpool have had easy games and are still to play difficult teams, but I don’t go along with that. Take a look for yourself at who they have played so far and don’t believe the narrative.

I can however, still appreciate the bad results that Tottenham have been having though, that will never stop mate.

Edu’s exit

The news about Edu leaving Arsenal was a huge surprise for me, hopefully it was not such a shock for the club and that they can replace him soon.

I find it hard to think of who could replace him, as I don’t fully understand his role and what skills are required for a sporting director. Could and should it be a former Arsenal player of note that takes his place?

They would certainly be able to sell the club to a new player or sponsor and be a good name to entice new additions, but is that the main skill required? I don’t know how Edu got to this position and what qualifications if any are

required, so this is one addition that we may have to trust the rest of the board to get right.

I hope it does not unsettle the squad, as sometimes its big announcements like these that can do so.

Emirates Expanding

There have been a few stories in the press alluding to how Arsenal are looking to expand the capacity at Ashburton Grove.

I am all in favour of that, however I am not sure how true these stories are, as they seem to be lacking real quotes and information.

I understand why any club would feel wary of increasing their capacity, wondering if the bubble may burst and if the peak interest has been reached, but we don’t seem to be near that stage yet and with Manchester United planning to increase their capacity, I would love for us to do the same.

Quite how is another matter, and how far these seats would be from the pitch makes me wonder who would wish to regularly sit that far away, but as long as they are priced accordingly, I think the appetite is there for larger home attendances.

I mean if West Ham can still sell out at their awful excuse for a stadium, then there’s no reason why we cannot do the same.

BOUNCEBACKABILITY

Bouncebackability.

A word that had not entered the lexicon of football in 1991, but a term that perfectly sums up Arsenal’s second title-winning season under George Graham.

The course of true love may never run smooth, but love had nothing on Arsenal’s 1990-91 season. A points deduction after the Battle of Old Trafford put a huge dent in Arsenal’s title hopes but when news broke in December that skipper Tony Adams was being sent to jail you could be forgiven for thinking the footballing Gods did not want Arsenal to win the league.

Yet through it all those at the club stayed strong. Graham used the events to create a siege mentality; the players rallied around Adams; and players and supporters were more than happy to use the points deduction as extra motivation, happy for the FA to stick their two points up their arse.

Starting the season with a 23-match unbeaten league run was remarkable under the circumstances. But sadly, the run had to end. Defeated 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, an injury to Steve Bould was crucial, resulting in midfielder David Hillier partnering Andy Linighan in central defence. How would Arsenal respond?

In keeping with Arsenal’s chaotic season he had received a £1,000 fine from the FA prior to his release due to an incident in November when he flicked a V-sign at QPR fans

“We'll bounce back,” Graham bullishly declared after the Chelsea defeat. “If somebody had told me before the season that our first League defeat would be in February I’d have said ‘thank you very much’.” Strangely it was after the only loss of the 90-91 league season that Arsenal’s fortunes changed.

Adams was released from prison after 57 days inside, although in keeping with Arsenal’s chaotic season he had received a £1,000 fine from the FA just prior to his release due to an incident in November when he flicked a V-sign at QPR fans. Making his comeback in front of 7,000 fans at a reserve match against Reading, the return of Adams to the squad was vital.

After finally beating Leeds in the marathon FA Cup fourth round saga – four matches, seven hours of football – the biggest break arrived when Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish announced he was resigning. The day before Arsenal prepared to take on Crystal Palace at Highbury, Liverpool were thrown into turmoil.

Beating Palace would not be easy. After a difficult first season back in the top flight during the previous campaign, Steve Coppell had propelled his team to third place in the table. A win for Palace would see them go above Arsenal in the table. “It’s a great opportunity for them to overtake us,” Graham admitted.

The strike partnership of Ian Wright and Mark Bright had played a big part in the rise of the south London club. Wary of the duo, Graham deployed a sweeper system for the match at Highbury, using David O’Leary behind Linighan and the thankfully fit again Bould. The next 90 minutes would demonstrate Arsenal at their ruthless best, but there were nervy moments during the win.

Wright “twice made Linighan look as cumbersome as a lorry essaying a three-point turn with a learner driver”, to use the words

That 1980s Sports Blog – aka Steve Pye - recalls Arsenal beating Crystal Palace 4-0 in February 1991

Steve Pye @1980sSportsBlog

of the Guardian’s Frank McGhee. Luckily on both occasions, Wright shot straight at David Seaman. Making his England debut a few weeks before, Wright was obviously a striker going places.

Linighan may well have been troubled by Wright, but his header from Paul Merson’s corner did allow O’Leary to scramble home from close range to give Arsenal the lead in the third minute.

A mistake from Eric Young then let Merson in for Arsenal’s second just before the break, harsh on a Palace side that fought well in the opening half.

Tactically Graham triumphed, using Merson and Kevin Campbell as wide attackers, resulting in three Palace centre backs marking the lone forward Alan Smith. Campbell would play his in the next two goals, setting up Smith for a beautifully executed left-footed strike from the edge of the box that passed Nigel Martyn via the underside of the crossbar.

A minute later, Campbell pounced on a fumble from Martyn to put the game to bed. With just over an hour gone, Palace had been blown away, and even though they would finish third in a stunning season, their faint hopes of a title bid ended at Highbury Stadium on that February afternoon.

One of the biggest roars inside Highbury that day happened when news filtered through of Luton taking the lead on their dreaded plastic pitch against Liverpool. The managerless Scousers would lose 3-1 to end the day in second place, behind Arsenal on goal difference; technically on points too, but the FA could stick their two points etc.

Graham “advances his ambition of seeing Arsenal supplant the Anfield club as the prime footballing power in the land”, the Guardian’s Russell Thomas declared after the Palace win. Let’s get this right, kids. It was Graham and Arsenal that knocked Liverpool off their perch. Eight days later, Arsenal won 1-0 at Anfield and a second title in three years was on its way.

ToTierneyor nottoTierney?

Simon Rose @thatsimonrose

“To Tierney, or not Tierney:” that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to pick a classic left-back or to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous inverted options.

Kieran Tierney was a huge Arsenal favourite for his no-nonsense defending and buccaneering wing play before we signed Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Tierney’s orthodox ways became usurped, with an array of injuries for club and country even hampering last season’s loan spell at Real Sociedad and wrecking a summer exit.

But if Tierney can return to fitness, with 18 months left on his Arsenal contract, can he still have a role to play this season?

The easy answer is ‘no’. Mikel Arteta appears to have moved on and Tierney was signed under Unai Emery. Miki likes inverted full-backs and boy how we were wowed by Zinchenko’s

Tierney might be the last fit man standing just when we need him. Timber’s ACL return has been predictably hampered by muscles tweaks

arrival. A title winner from Manchester City? A left-back who can also play in midfield? We were shocked by this sorcery and it did no Tierney no favours.

Regular injuries didn’t help Tierney’s cause and that has been the bane of his career. A permanent move to Spain or a return to Celtic looked likely last summer before yet another injury, with Scotland at the Euros, left him marooned back at Arsenal without an obvious route back to our first team.

But fate can play an unexpected hand.

The wizardry of Zinchenko as an inverted left-back wore thin once we realised he’s weak defensively and not that great in midfield.

Once his slide-rule passes through the lines got sussed he’s largely been injured too or became out of favour himself. If Zinchenko was that good we probably wouldn’t have signed Jurrien Timber. And if Timber hadn’t done his ACL on his league debut it’s unlikely we’d have chased Riccardo Calafiori.

Problem is they all get injured, which gives Tierney a chance.

Throw in Takehiro Tomiyasu as another Arsenal defender who can play left-back –inverted or otherwise – but also spends most of his time injured and has been usurped by Timber, you realise that our left-back position is less a slot and more a revolving door.

Playing left-back for Arsenal becomes less about how much you wander around the pitch out of position thinking you’re a midfielder and more about survival of the fittest. Which is where Tierney’s Arsenal career may not yet be completely over.

The obvious Tierney outcome is that if he can stay fit long enough over January he’ll probably head out on loan, maybe with an obligation to sell.

He could, sadly, just as easily spend the rest of his Arsenal career hobbling from one injury to another until the transfer windows run out and he leaves on a free. But his narrative could yet take a somewhat different twist.

Tierney might be the last fit man standing just when we need him. Timber’s ACL return has been predictably hampered by muscles tweaks. I’m just delighted to see him get through a match frankly. Zinny seems plagued by calf injuries and if Tomiyasu sneezes he’s out with yet another knee problem.

Calafiori is a gallivanting stallion of a player but seems susceptible to knocks too, which could leave a fit Tierney as our only credible left-back option by default.

The chances are that even then Mikel might prefer to play Myles Lewis-Skelly at left-back, his style of player, than Tierney, but coaches do like experienced players, especially in defence.

Tierney won eight trophies with Celtic before landing an FA Cup and two Community Shields with Arsenal.

Don’t forget, Tierney also had a great rapport with Gabriel Martinelli, including crosses for headed goals, so he could rekindle the spark that Martinelli has sadly been missing.

We should have confidence that if we need Tierney and he’s fit, then he should stay and play, to step back up for the club as a much-loved steely character.

And as the man with an infamous liking for supermarket carrier bags would know, every little helps.

ARSENAL MEMORIES ACROSS THE GENERATIONS

Tina Evans shares wonderful reminisces from her family steeped in generations of loyal and unstinting Arsenal support

My grandad Albert Brinkman went to The Arsenal’s first-ever game at Highbury in 1913, the following year he went off to fight in WW1.

After the war when football started again it was back to The Arsenal, and he first took my mum Rose when she was five in 1922. My dad, Tom Jales, was born in a pub off City Road, and he was eight when an older friend took him to the Arsenal.

As my mum grew up, she loved The Arsenal and being a feisty, upfront sort of girl, she didn’t mind being in a minority amongst all those men.

As my grandad was a tailor’s assistant, she got him to make her an Arsenal outfit, then he made one for himself and his friend Jimmy Clayton.

Jimmy sometimes took his white duck to gamescan you imagine that happening now. Of course, that soon got them noticed, there were few women at football matches in the 1930’s let alone one that got ‘dressed up’.

There were lots of photos in the Saturday evening newspapers, luckily she kept the cuttings.

She met my dad on an away train in January 1934, they had their first date at the following home game at the Laundry End / North Bank and married at St Mary’s Church, Islington in 1938.

I don’t think my grandad would have allowed her to marry anyone other than an Arsenal supporter. My dad worked on the railways at Kings Cross, and being a reserved occupation was there throughout the war.

Their flat suffered bomb damage so they moved to Harrow Weald and when the war was over, it was back to going to the Arsenal.

I was born a couple of years later and my early memories are of being left with my nan or aunt while my parents, grandad and uncle went to Highbury.

Then came the day: November 26, 1955. My grandparents were going to buy me a signet ring for Christmas, so they took me to a jewellers near Highbury Corner. I chose the ring, then outside my Grandad said: “you are coming with me,” grabbed my hand and we started walking across to Highbury Park.

There were more and more people as we neared the ground, I kept saying to him “we’re going to The Arsenal, aren’t we?” He just simply replied: “just you wait and see.”

When we got to the top of Avenell Road and I looked down the hill, I stopped dead. I had never seen such a crowd.

As we walked down into it, the jostling, goodhumoured bantering, the peanut seller shouting, the smell of wet woollen coats and cigarettes.

I was mesmerised and just loved it. I still have our two tickets from that day and still wear the ring, now on my little finger.

To the very last day at Highbury, even though we sat in the West Stand, if we had time when we came out of the station, I would make my husband walk up Highbury Hill, along and then down Avenell Road just so I could stand at the top and look down.

I met my husband John when I was 16. He quite liked football but not that bothered. We married in that iconic year of football, 1966.

The first Arsenal game that John came to, along with my mum and dad, was the League Cup Final against Swindon Town at Wembley. I said John was the jinx and didn’t let him near The Arsenal for many years.

Then there was a mortgage. Then two children, so my visits to Highbury were only a few each season. My dad rarely missed a home game, usually stood in the

Clock End with my uncle and cousin until he started taking our son, then it was the Family Enclosure in the Lower West Stand.

I started going regularly again in the late 1980’s along with our daughter dawn and my dad.

My mum suffered ill health so her trips to The Arsenal were few until it became all seater in 1993. We managed to get four seats in the Family Enclosure, eight rows from the pitch, just to one side of the halfway line – perfect.

So, three generations of Arsenal supporters were there again, just like when I started going with my grandad and parents.

Euro memories

On May 4, 1994, all four of us travelled to Copenhagen for the UEFA Cup Winners Cup Final against Parma. Seeing as my mum and dad were 77 and 81, I booked the trip with the Arsenal Travel Club.

What a day, mixing with everyone, us singing “1-0 to the Arsenal” – with Parma fans asking: “What are you singing that for?” They certainly found out later.

The following year I booked again for the four of us to go to Paris. Got to the Eiffel Tower and made

sure mum and dad were settled on a bench in the park while Dawn and I partied with Arsenal and Real Zaragoza fans alike.

The Spanish were very generous with their homemade Sangria. We won’t say anymore about the match, suffice to say Dawn had a grown man crying on her shoulder after the game.

My mum’s health deteriorated, and she passed away in February 1996.

Tom Watt, who had interviewed mum, dad, Dawn and myself for his book The End, arranged for her ashes to be buried in front of the North Bank where her and dad had their first date.

As we still had mum’s seat at Highbury, John came along for the occasional game and a few friends too. My dad said he would renew mum’s seat for the 199697 season so I said John would like it. That year we had been married 30 years, so better late than never.

The Final Salute

I have always said he came in for the glory years as the trophies came thick and fast. My dad passed away in November 1999 and his ashes were laid alongside my mum’s. Dad said that in that last year he missed more Arsenal games than he had in the previous 78 years of going to Highbury.

So, it was just John and I in those final years until that heartbreaking day, May 7, 2006.

It was not only leaving Highbury, a constant in my life for more than 50 years, but also leaving my beloved mum and dad. So, my grandad was at that first game at Highbury, and I was at the last one.

We knew for years that we wanted to retire to Dorset, and I had told John I couldn’t go until Highbury shut, so we didn’t renew our season tickets, and seven months later moved near Poole. We still managed to see most games over the years one way or another.

John passed away in May and as I said at his funeral: “He came late to the Arsenal party, but boy did he embrace it…”

I always send kisses heavenward when The Arsenal score, and that's been a lot lately.

That was the year that was

So that was 2024! What are your memories? Glorious summer holidays? Pain at our team slipping up at the last?

Maybe the signings of Mikel Merino and Riccardo Calafiori, or disappointment at losing Emile Smith Rowe.

Meeting club photographer Stuart MacFarlane was one of our highlights at AISA (Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association). On the big screen of a Picturehouse cinema, we projected some of his favourite photographs.

The one here is an intimate moment when he squeezed into the pre-match huddle.

The trick, he told us, was not to intrude but to pick the moment. And boy, didn’t he pick a few good ones!

Every picture he showed was greeted with a laugh or a collective sigh. Our members were indeed privileged to look at his work and share his insights.

A few weeks before, we’d entertained Liam Brady. This may well have been his last public speaking engagement. It didn’t stop him from capturing the imagination of supporters old and new with stories of games and players past

Richard Smith @AISA_Arsenal

and present. We plan to hold similar events headlined by ex-players in the coming year.

Behind the scenes, we’ve been working with the club on improving the experience of being an Arsenal supporter.

We’ve written here before that we aim to represent the whole of the fanbase, and feedback from surveys and messages to our website (aisa.org) have led to advising the club on issues that, from within, they may not have appreciated.

We can’t solve the problems – if we could, there wouldn’t be a 30-minute queue to get on to the members’ page on the club website!

But we can bring your concerns to their attention. We like the exciting crescendo of ‘The Angel’ (‘North London Forever) but members complained that parts of the stadium were being deafened by rap music long before.

We measured it and reported back to the club that it was almost at the human pain threshold. It’s since been modified.

Similarly, we reported on the chorus of disapproval on the new text font for the matchday screens that, for much of the stadium, was unreadable. You’ll probably have noticed that it’s legible again.

At a more strategic level, AISA is part of the Advisory Board that most recently was discussing issues such as ticketing, concessions and governance with the club’s owners and executives, and our representative is now co-chair.

So farewell 2024. If you want to add your voice by joining us in 2025 visit our website.

ARSENAL W.F.C

Freddie Cardy

@CardyFreddie

NORTH LONDON IS RED AS ARSENAL WOMEN’S

Arsenal

RENEE-SANCE CONTINUES

midfielder Lia Walti revealed that childhood Gooner Leah Williamson stressed to her teammates that ‘there is nothing bigger than the North London Derby’ in the Gunners’ final training session before beating Spurs 3-0 away at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

If vice-captain Williamson’s words weren’t enough to get Arsenal in the mood for the visit to N17, her side’s 1-0 defeat away to Spurs in December last year had remained fresh in the memory of those Gunners players.

Last season, Arsenal mustered over 30 shots on goal but failed to hit the net once in their first ever Women’s Super League defeat to Spurs. This time, just one was required to get the Gunners going.

After 57 seconds, the first question of what Arsenal fans think of Tottenham was raised by the away end, and approximately seven seconds later, it was promptly answered by Alessia Russo’s left foot.

Jubilation in the away end, and Renee Slegers’ side never looked back, with Frida Maanum and Stina Blackstenius both finishing off flowing team moves. Arsenal’s play was instinctive and confident, and Adidas’ shipment of shooting boots had arrived.

If Slegers’ first games as interim head coach were a case of keeping her head down and getting the job done, the 35-year-old was able to put smiles on the faces of fans again with 5-0, 4-0 and 3-0 wins in the only eight days.

After thrashing Brighton at the Emirates, Slegers’ side outclassed Juventus in Northern Italy to improve their Champions League prospects before putting three goals past their rivals 3-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a result that will stand any Arsenal manager in good stead.

So what had Slegers changed following the resignation of Jonas Eidevall? Not much, at first. But having worked for over a year as an individual development coach in Eidevall’s staff, her relationships with players provided a trusting figure to steer the Gunners through choppy waters.

Beth Mead shone a light on the mental uplifts provided by the interim boss. “We know what she gives us, the confidence she gives us, we’re playing good football so I think as individuals and as a collective we’re very happy with what Renee’s doing for us right now.

“She deserves the credit of making us feel good and the performances that have been coming on the pitch as well.”

Whether Mead’s comments were designed to throw her weight behind Slegers taking permanent charge, or simply a window into the failings of Jonas Eidevall’s final weeks in charge, it is clear that Arsenal need the right person, not just coach, to take them forward.

If Arsenal believe Slegers has put the case forward that she can be both, and the Gunners keep on winning, the decision might just be made for them.

JANUARY TRANSFERS

coach mike’s tactics

Coach Mike takes a tactical look at the fast approaching January transfer window

Ioftenthink how great this current Arsenal's team is compared to other sides from the past. When we are on form I see great depth but when we hiccup I see the flaws and the needs of improvement.

Sometimes I feel guilty to even consider that Arsenal need more than they have but the truth that the club lives in, is that you have to target over 90 points to win the Premier League these days. That means you can't just be ‘good’, as Liverpool found out a few years ago.

Sometimes you can't even be ‘great’. You have to be ‘unreal’ for the vast majority of the season and Arsenal prior to the November international break were far from great, even though it appears to have shifted since then.

When I say ‘unreal’ I have to be honest and admit that as good as we are on paper until we win a major trophy, we cannot use the top-tier adjectives. In order to do that, a few additions are needed.

Here I want to explore what we are lacking and some players that could move us to the elite level. Here are the qualities that I think our current squad lacks:

◊ An alternative striker who can occupy two defenders

◊ A winger that is good enough to give Arteta confidence enough to rest Bukayo Saka as well as potentially being our first choice left winger

◊ A long-term replacement for Thomas Partey/Jorginho

◊ A penetrative attacking midfield

Arsenal’s game model is now based on having a link player at striker. I'm not convinced this was the initial idea, but as Kai Havertz evolved it has become a clear advantage for us as in any team that has a player who can do more than simply score goals.

When you look at Erling Haaland, not only is he an elite goalscorer but he indirectly brings other Manchester City players into goalscoring situations as he occupies two defenders.

It isn't just a need for a target man as centre backs are more than capable of playing 1v1 against a player like Chris Wood, for example. It's more that we need a player who instils fear in the opposing coach and therefore into both of their centre backs that they feel the need to double team him in the final third.

Arsenal have proven that we are so much more than a team reliant on a striker and so our best is when we have the unpredictable quality of goals coming from a variety of positions. This player would obviously have to be an elite goal scoring threat because he would not occupy a crowd otherwise.

Mike McDonald @mike_mmcdonald

Arsenal also lack a striker whose specialty is finishing. Havertz has definitely improved in this area, but it's not his primary quality. Ideally this player would also be able to create goals out of absolutely nothing.

As we live very firmly in the era of deep blocks, having a striker who can score out of nothing isn't just a bonus, it could be seen as a total necessity.

A player who isn't necessarily playing well but is so goal hungry that it doesn't matter. A player who can receive the ball in open space and create a goal for himself.

Gabriel Jesus should be able to be this as he is in his prime but seems to be overthinking and over playing.

Arteta will want a level of technical security alongside unpredictability.

I have promoted the idea of Viktor Gyokeres for many years now and he is now justifying his huge release clause. I think he has the potential to do all of the things that I have mentioned

but the argument against is whether you spend close to £100 million on a player who is not first choice. The very top clubs do this.

Jack Grealish is a good example, but I'm not sure Arsenal would. I would want him as first choice centre forward because I think Havertz is just as effective at left eight and his movement off the ball is even better from that position, which I believe was the position that was intended for him when he signed.

Alexander Isak is a more likely purchase as he can play wide as well as striker and his contract talks have stalled. I have a hard time seeing Arsenal prying away Newcastle’s primary asset as they are now competing with us, or at least think that they are.

Brighton are apparently looking to loan out young talent Evan Ferguson, so that could be a short term solution that could potentially lead to a long-term fix.

I initially liked the idea of Raheem Sterling. I hadn't paid enough attention to see his lack of defensive contribution, which I believe is why

that Arteta has not trusted him. I thought that he would be highly motivated to leave Chelsea and come into such a talented squad and be willing to do whatever the coach asked, but there is obviously an issue there.

An elite winger is the most likely January signing. With Martinelli’s form being patchy there is a great argument for this winger to be first choice left-wing and Martinelli being used as back up on both wings.

Personally, I would choose a left-footed player and have the option of one winger crossing with his favoured foot.

This would bring the best out in Mikel Merino, Declan Rice and Havertz in the air. I believe that the first two in particular would get more headed goals if the ball was curling out and towards an on running midfielder rather than every cross being an in swinger and too far away from them.

In-swinging crosses are designed for finishers and we have less expert finishers than we do brave box players.

The brave always prefer out swinging crosses. What is pivotal is finding a winger who can play both sides and have the trust of the coach to put Saka on the bench.

There are two players that fit into this profile. Leroy Sané and Mohammed Kudus.

Both play or played in the Premier League and both can play both sides. Sané would be significantly cheaper as his contract at Bayern Munich is up in May, but his wages would be significantly higher.

If I was to take a guess I would say that he would be the player that we go for because of his ability to devastate.

There are very few players in world football who have this quality and who can match their electric speed with composure and technique to find a teammate or finish.

Kudus is my favourite because he has never played at this level and would be more motivated in my mind. He is a better age than Sané and is the closest to checking every box.

There are of course other options who are more similar to Martinelli in Kaoru Mitoma at Brighton and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia at Napoli. Raphael Leao is of the level but not a serious player out of possession.

Would Arsenal do the unexpected? Neymar wants out and Mo Salah is out of contract shortly. Too silly to consider, I know.

I have also wondered if the reason that Arsenal and Liverpool both kept their powder dry over the summer was because they think there is going to be a fire sale at City if they get relegated due to their charges.

I only mention a long-term replacement for Partey/Jorginho as often clubs will bring in a long-term target to the club to get them acclimatized for six months before they are expected to have a bigger contribution.

I would love for Partey to stay and perhaps the club is waiting to see if he can maintain fitness for the entire season before offering him a contract.

At a club like Arsenal the central midfielder needs to be able to create and destroy. Elite clubs don't settle for just one. Martin Zubimendi at Real Sociedad is obviously a long-term target, but I have a preference for Carlos Baleba at Brighton.

I think he has a higher ceiling and offers the potential to break lines on the dribble which is a rare quality that separates the great midfielders from the potentially elite ones.

Zubimendi is a better passer but is yet to play in the Premier League whereas Baleba is putting in top performances against top teams.

Much like the central midfielder, there is a long-term need for an attacking midfielder with ability to penetrate on the dribble.

At a club like Arsenal the central midfielder needs to be able to create and destroy. Elite clubs don't settle for just one

Arsenal are renowned for being good at set plays, but that is not across the board. It seems rare that we get a penalty kick and what is interesting is that we rarely get free kicks from outside the box compared to other clubs that have the level of possession that we do.

When we do get this opportunity, we don't have an expert. We have many who are capable, but this is not an area that we have tapped into.

Arteta has made it known that it is so important to be able to tap into every detail and I'd imagine he has his eyes on a dribbler for this reason. Those of our players who do penetrate on the dribble normally release the ball when they get into the penalty area or before. If we had a highly competent ball carrier that was actively willing to get into the box on the dribble, then we would get more free kicks as well as penalties.

Eberechi Eze is the best in this profile and could play left wing or attacking midfield. I wonder if the rumours about the Las Palmas player, Alberto Moleiro, are true as he would come much cheaper, allowing big money to be spent elsewhere.

Watching him gave me memories of Santi Carzola, which is quite a delightful thought. Maybe we should just bring back Santi himself? He's only turning 40 in January…

Then there is the potential City fire sale and a player like Phil Foden who could fill at least two of our needs. Too much crazy talk from me. Or perhaps not?

BALANCE OF POWER

THE 1970s – AN ARSENAL DOUBLE SETS OFF A DECLINE AT WHITE HART LANE

Thismomentum was slow to flower as we entered the seventies.

Arsenal exited the FA Cup ignominiously to Blackpool and had lost to Tottenham at Highbury at the start of the 1969-70 season. But we had Europe to cling to and as the team gelled we ended up winning our first European trophy in 1970 against Anderlecht.

I remember going to White Hart Lane a few days after the Fairs Cup triumph for a meaningless end of season game (if ever such a thing exists between these two clubs).

There was a real sense that a new era was beginning even if Alan Gilzean, our Nemesis, scored again to decide the game.

That new era feeling was truly in full swing as soon as the next season began and the first part of a

glorious Arsenal double was clinched, unforgettably at the Lane.

That season Tottenham actually finished third and won the League Cup but they were very much put in the shade. Bill Nicholson departed and Tottenham went into a decline steeper than Arsenal’s, despite a solitary Spurs League Cup triumph.

The departure of Don Howe set Arsenal back enormously, but Tottenham’s decline saw them cling to survival on the last day of the season in 1974-75 only to be relegated the following season.

Arsenal were also very poor but there were obvious green shoots with the emergence of Liam Brady, David O’Leary and who could forget the transfer of a useful young goalkeeper, Pat Jennings? A player who was ditched by Tottenham when still one of the finest keepers in Europe.

The third part of Peter Le Beau’s outstanding in-depth analysis of the history of the North London derby

Peter Le Beau @GoonerFanzine

Arsenal had three ex-Spurs in their team with Willie Young and Steve Walford by the end of the decade and had purloined Tottenham’s manager, Terry Neill, who had spent most of his career at Arsenal and had rebuilt Tottenham after their instant return back up to the top-flight.

Arsenal started to develop a much stronger team, mainly because of the return of Don Howe to Highbury, and reached four finals in three years at the end of the decade.

Three FA Cup finals saw us win against Manchester United in the legendary five-minute final but lose the other two and fall exhausted against Valencia in the Cup Winners Cup in Brussels on penalties.

A game no Gooner will forget was a 5-0 triumph at the Lane at the end of 1978.

Tottenham had created a sensation by signing two Argentinian World Cup winners but even with the addition of Glenn Hoddle they were murdered by Brady, Graham Rix and Alan Sunderland providing one of the most glorious pre-Christmas moments Arsenal fans have ever had.

Visiting White Hart Lane for an Arsenal fan was becoming increasingly precarious as hooligan spectators abounded (on both sides) and ‘aggro’ was a regular and terrifying feature of attending football in the late sixties, the seventies and the eighties.

After entreating my mother to let me attend my first away NLD, I returned home after a harrowing day and then managed to persuade her that everything had been serene at the Lane that afternoon.

She would have believed me had the news not immediately relayed the fact that an Arsenal fan was arrested in the Park Lane End with a rifle in his possession! So much for rigorous stewarding!

But all football was dangerous then, not just the NLD and I did visit Tottenham several times to see non-Arsenal games without suffering severe mishap.

Arsenal, in collecting four trophies, including our first Double, and avoiding relegation clearly had a much better decade than Tottenham. But Tottenham had made ambitious moves to get back towards the top table of English football and these moves were about to pay off.

Visiting White Hart Lane for an Arsenal fan was becoming increasingly precarious as hooligan spectators abounded (on both sides) and ‘aggro’ was a regular and frankly terrifying feature of attending football in the late sixties, the seventies and the eighties

HOWES GROWLS

One can learn a great deal from doorways. Think of fortresses and coffee shops. Imagine courtrooms and public houses.

While serving the principle purpose of allowing people to move in and out, an entrance’s shape, size, and style says much about the structure, lodging, or place of work.

I’m curious therefore as to why Arsenal management want the way into the Sobha Realty Training Centre to look like a health clinic, or somewhere a fan might have to check into for rehabilitation, having sobbed through another Leandro Trossard performance as creative centrepiece rather than super-sub.

That said, I thought the same on three separate Emirates Stadium tours — one led by legend Perry Groves — when the home dressing room made me want to book in for a massage versus strap on my boots and go and kick lumps out of my opposite number. Alas, the modern game is what it is.

The most interesting thing about thresholds is who crosses them, going one way and the other. Sit in a boozer or café and look at the door, or gaze across to the shopfronts and offices on the other side of the street.

The volume of footfall, the way patrons dress, and facial expressions all tell a story. Who is welcomed back and who is thrown out into the gutter paints a picture too.

Football clubs tend to have revolving doors in that, in a ruthless world of short-term contracts, there are always comings and goings. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to take from the frequency with which certain characters are whirled into an organisation or spat back out.

If there isn’t a league table to look at or trophy cabinet to view, look at the arrivals and departures at a club and they’ll tell a story about what stage they’re at on their journey.

Richard Howes @richhowes

At Arsenal, we’ve always had a decent door policy. In my lifetime, most of the players and leaders I’ve watched have secured their footballing legacies at The Gunners.

Some have gone onto do bigger and better things wearing other teams’ shirts or in rivals’ boardrooms, but I’d have offered to give the majority of departures a lift to the airport to hurry them along. Those that stayed have given me life-lasting, spine-tingling memories.

One of my nephews, Charlie, 9, dressed in yellow and sticky polka dots for his school’s recent Children in Need fundraising day. He met the colour criteria with a 2021-22 Arsenal away shirt, with (Pierre-Emerick) Aubameyang on the back.

It reminded me how the majority of the fanbase backed manager Mikel Arteta’s decision to show him the door in 2022.

Mesut Özil’s underachieving had become tiresome long before he packed his bags and headed for the exit a year earlier.

I’d have paid for Nicolas Pépé’s airfare to France. And we can be mockingly shushed no more by Wayward — I mean, Edward — Nketiah.

In the comeback column that tells it how it is, Richard Howes laments the club’s faltering door policy and spends two minutes with Ray Parlour he won’t get back

I could go on, but The Gooner’s paper is precious, and you get the point.

The strength of our door policy was no better demonstrated than by last year’s signing of Declan Rice, which brings me to the crux of this column. We remember the photos of Rice gleefully signing his contract, flanked by Arteta and sporting director Edu Gaspar.

Even a short list of the other notable signings Edu is credited with includes Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalahes, Martin Odegaard, and Jurrien Timber. No wonder we all gasped when news broke that Edu was leaving us.

When he slammed the door shut behind him (did he really say enough by way of explanation?), I felt the familiar pang that grips my chest every time I see Emile Smith Rowe (ESR) running proceedings in a Fulham shirt.

Then we had to read the story that former Arsenal midfielder and academy coach Jack Wilshere had joined Norwich for his first coaching role in senior football.

Yeah, ok, it’s a good opportunity for him; ESR wasn’t getting first-team minutes; and Edu has ambitions beyond London’s N5 postcode. But it

isn’t coincidence that two of these stories broke during a prolonged difficult period on the pitch.

Big departures make me nervous. Names like David Dein, Robin van Persie, Thierry Henry, Cesc Fàbregas, and Mathieu Flamini all quickly spring to mind.

When clubs loosen their grip on recruitment and retention, it leads to an abundance of mediocrity. At the game’s highest level, the only criteria for adding a player, executive, coach, physio, etc., or not renewing a contract, is to make success on match-days more likely.

If the business doesn’t eventually lead to that goal, it shouldn’t happen. The acquisition of midfielder Rice was a prime example of that. Getting Raheem Sterling on loan probably wasn’t. And you can’t tell me that we’re better off without stalwarts Wilshere, ESR, and Edu.

Creating competition for places only works if the right personnel are competing.

Look at the left and right sides of our team as examples. To simplify the argument, Trossard was likely bought to put a rocket under Gabriel Martinelli, whose career has plateaued somewhat over the last couple of seasons.

Sterling gives Arteta another left-sided option, while Trossard’s role has become confused, with injuries complicating things further.

On the right, everything goes through Bukayo Saka. Always has. Always will. Yet, that’s the area of the pitch where we consistently look the most dangerous.

In Arsenal legend Ian Wright’s autobiography, he talks about the end being nigh for George Graham when he, ‘…was starting to sign players that many people believed weren’t the kind of players to take Arsenal forward to a Premier League title'.

'I don’t mean to be disrespectful,’ Wright continued, ‘but the fans all know who I’m talking about: Chris Kiwomya, Glenn Helder, my dear friend Eddie McGoldrick, Pål Lydersen. Not just the fans, either. Inside Highbury a lot of the guys were thinking, ‘How are we going to kick on with those kind of players coming in?’’

The chapter goes onto talk about, conversely, the mega impact signing of Dennis Bergkamp, under the management of Bruce Rioch, who, ironically, Wright didn’t seem to like at all.

I’m not suggesting we’re at the Kiwomya, Helder, McGoldrick, Lydersen (my father, Dave, 74, and I still agree to this day that he took the hardest free-kick we ever saw at Highbury,

albeit straight into the shins of the defensive wall) stage, but the recruitment barometer is always there to measure where we’re at. And it’s flashing red.

It’s also fairly unclear if Arteta is totally wedded to his theory of having multiple players in every position.

He keeps adding defenders and left-sided clones, yet Saka and Kai Havertz will apparently be resources enough where they play. With the former, it works every time; with the latter it is, sometimes, £60 million down the drain.

Arteta probably doesn’t know exactly what his best Arsenal team is.

He would argue top-level football demands at least three players competing for most positions, even if, in practice, he means only some positions.

Trossard’s inflated role in our recently injuryravaged squad, is just one example of why we need to revisit our access and egress, policy before it’s a case of shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted.

If another trophy hiatus looms, more and more people will circle, trying to tempt further precious assets away. And their replacements will be harder to attract.

Sober reality

The last international break was bad enough, before Harry Kane turned spokesperson for England, and slammed team-mates, including Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, for withdrawing from the squad with injuries. What tedious commentary.

Worse, his claim that country should come before club was totally baseless, and a sentiment shared by nobody.

As the media, starved of proper football, gave the non-story more column inches, I decided to disconnect my Wi-Fi until another international void was over.

I had one job to do first — buy my niece, Eloise, an Arsenal store voucher for her 19th birthday. Having checked out, I was scrolling through the headlines on the site and stumbled

across the most excruciating video imaginable, featuring former player Ray Parlour giving a tour of London Colney, as it used to be called.

“Welcome to the Sobha Realty Training Centre,” Parlour beams, as drone footage captures the Invincibles star outside the door.

What follows is two-and-a-half minutes of TV tripe, sponsored by Lavazza (coffee) and Sobha Realty, the Dubai-headquartered luxury real estate company.

Poor Parlour looks incongruous as more maddening drone footage catches up with him in the gym, restaurant, briefing room, training pitches and even what he calls, “One of my favourite places” — the boot room.

Ray, I love ‘ya, mate, but I won’t be tuning into future episodes of ‘Sobha Realty's [F]Art of the Detail’. Sorry

BLUESKY THINKING OR THE X FACTOR?

THREADING OUR WAY THROUGH THE SOCIAL NETWORK SPLIT

Ian Jenkinson on social media’s increasingly fractured platforms – and which to chose

In previous articles for The Gooner I kept my finger on the pulse of the level of positivity (or lack thereof) that was floating around on social media from Arsenal fans.

For a long time during the banter era Arsenal social media wasn't for the faint hearted. Quite frankly, it was a cesspit.

But then we started to turn a massive corner with Mikel Arteta and showed signs of the team that went very close to winning the Premier League two seasons in a row.

The vibe was good. Especially on X, or Twitter as it was at the time, where Arsenal fans were delighted with our defensive solidity, free scoring and general style of play.

It was a good time.

However, trying to take a pulse on Arsenal social media today is a slightly different ball game. Today you need to have four pairs of hands and a lot of storage space on your phone to cater for all the apps you need to keep up to date with everything!

Twitter as we all know was taken over by Elon Musk and it quickly became an undesirable place to be and not just in Arsenal terms either. So many people started looking for alternatives.

At first the place of sanctuary was Threads and it all seemed ok for a while, but many people felt it just wasn't the same. The usability wasn't great and it felt a bit clunky and bland.

In the end, we were all just going from one billionaire's platform to another's. It just still didn't feel right.

A lot more recently there has been another exodus from X. Some big Arsenal accounts had enough and headed off for pastures new and lot of people followed suit.

The new place of sanctuary became Bluesky which at least from a user’s perspective seemed clean and familiar.

It should be no surprise it feels familiar as it was created by the original Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. However, Jack stepped down from the Bluesky board in May this year.

Hopefully all the moving around will stop now because I feel as though the Arsenal social community has been diluted down across all the apps and at the moment people don't fully know where to hang their hat.

In a silly way I liken it to the LIV/PGA Tour situation in golf, all the greats were in one place (the PGA Tour) and now they are separated, and no one quite knows which one to watch.

Ian Jenkinson @ArseCannonPics

It is a real shame that Twitter went the way it did because it really was an absolutely fantastic place to be and had a genuine, engaged Arsenal community.

It is incredibly frustrating trying to spin multiple social media plates and I wish we could go back to just one.

Certain factors turned X into a cesspit but maybe it will change into something palatable again but I won't hold my breath.

It got me thinking about a time before social media when the only time you heard or read other fans thoughts were by reading the likes of The Gooner or some online forums and actually having a chat with your mates down the pub or at the game.

At the risk of sounding old it was all a lot simpler. No silly arguments with people you had never met and more importantly - no bullying or discrimination.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good that has come from social media. I have engaged with and subsequently met some incredible people on twitter and made some lifelong friends so it hasn't all been bad.

It'd be a shame to lose that side of it but unfortunately when there is big money to be made there inevitably is discourse and it can destroy even the best of environments.

It is also telling that most Premier League players don't use any of these apps (Instagram aside). They avoid it all as they took nothing but abuse on them and you can't blame them really.

So where will it all end? Will we eventually need a separate device to just house all the apps like I said earlier?! I jest of course but we can't just keep hopping from one to another every few months.

I wouldn't be surprised if Elon gets his act together by realising his revenue is in danger and reverts back to some kind of normality but again I won't hold my breath.

Anyway, there are more important things to be thinking about, and that is all the stuff that happens on the pitch. The online stuff is just a side show and shouldn't be taken seriously.

Whatever happens online stays there, the main thing is that we all cheer on The Arsenal in the stadium and keep them well and truly in our hearts.

COUNTRYMAN’S COLUMN

Paul Brooker aka Countryman is back and shares his experiences following The Arsenal

Thiscolumn is all about the fan experience. Particularly the away fan experience.

At the end of October and the start of November we had four away games in a row. Preston, Newcastle, Inter Milan and Chelsea. I didn’t make Newcastle or Milan, but I was at Preston and Chelsea. Here’s some reflections.

Preston North End

It was a long old trip to Preston from Cambridgeshire as the road works just kept coming. We eventually arrived and got to the ground just 20 minutes before kick-off, scuppering plans for a pie and a pint with a mate who’d gone on the club coach.

My last visit to Deepdale was in 2017 and, just like then, it was a misty night as we walked up to join the 5,650 other Gooners.

Incidentally, for those who say they can never get to away games, you could have bought a ticket for that away end on a silver membership and zero credits.

For me the game will live long in the memory, for being in that noisy, rollicking crowd (so Paddy got up made an appearance, always a sign of a happy Arsenal crowd), and for the coming of age of Ethan Nwaneri.

High up in the Bill Shankly stand we were right behind that wonder goal as it arced its way into the top corner. Bukayo Saka came on and Ethan was going over to him at corners and telling him what to do!

It was also lovely to see the debuts of promising young gunners, Tommy Setford (a confident young man!) and Ayden Heaven.

I have to say it was so nice not to have VAR. It was a low stress, confident evening all round.

Deepdale is a tidy little stadium, although challenging for me, in row 36 behind the goal

with steep steps with no guard rail to hold onto. I understand they were selling Invincibles beer, badged with both Arsenal and PNE logos and a commemorative cup.

A nice touch, although we sadly had no time to sample it.

Another other nice thing happened at the end. We allowed the steps to clear before cautiously climbing down and noticed Lewis Skelly and Setford making their way towards a small group of lads at the bottom of the stand. It was obviously their mates or family.

The stewards allowed the Arsenal players to climb over the low barrier and join them (incidently the Preston stewards were terrific throughout, smiley, polite and helpful – West Ham take note and think on) to much cheering and backslapping. Great stuff. Our young players are a credit to themselves and us.

So off down the M6 again and horrendous traffic. Google Maps was on the naughty step. We got home at 02:30 am.

Stamford Bridge is in the strangest location for a football ground.

A few weeks ago, I was walking through what I described as “the mean estates of Tottenham.” Well, SW10 is a whole different animal.

I always drive to football, mainly because, living in the country, it’s cheaper (for two), takes the same time and is far more comfortable than crowded tubes (the queue at Fulham Broadway is off the scale and you are cheek by jowl with Chelsea supporters).

So, using my usual parking space App, I found an excellent parking spot at the Chelsea Design Centre, just off the Kings Road. It was a gentle 20 minute walk to the ground (and I walk slowly, with a stick).

It really gives you an idea of what living in this part of London is all about. Instead of housing estates, or terraced housing, we walked past art galleries, chi chi restaurants and furniture shops

where the answer to the question “how much is that?” was “if you need to ask sir, you can’t afford it”.

Most football grounds are in working class, or what used to be working class areas. Certainly not Chelsea.

The strangest thing is that you can’t see the ground until you go through the turnstile. No floodlights, No stands, nothing.

To get to the away supporters turnstile you go past two massive five star hotels until you get to the gate.

Once inside, as we were very early, we made the mistake of buying a pint as we watched the early game. £7! Holy Mary.

Much hilarity amongst fellow Gooners at Tottenham handing a first win of the season to Ipswich at the Toilet Bowl. My old Dad (RIP) would have said “that’s stopped them farting in church” using an old London expression for being disrespectful.

Chelsea

Into the stadium proper and once again we are in the penultimate row in the Shed Upper, over the corner flag.

But in the bus stop you seem much closer to the pitch than at Newcastle or West Ham. The seating is also comfortable and safe rail seating, with an excellent view.

The away support, as usual, was magnificent. I know I always say that but they really were, aided by a crinkly tin roof above us. Singing and supporting the whole game.

Havertz’s and Gabi’s songs got lengthy airings but there were two new ones that I really enjoyed.

The first, I thought, was a witty piss take of the PGMOL. I think, but am not completely sure, that this was after, at Cucurella’s urging, Oliver booked Havertz for bleeding.

It’s all about you

It’s all about you

Michael Oliver

It’s all about you!

The second is Jurien Timber’s new song , which I really like, and think will catch on. To the tune of September by Earth Wind and Fire.

Ohhh eh oh, We’ve got Jurien Timber

Ohhh eh oh He’s our Dutch defender

Ohhh eh oh he never gives the ball away!

I thought we made huge progress in this game and were the better side, especially in the second half.

Much of that was due to the return of our captain, clearly MOTM for me.

We’ve now played Villa, Spurs, City, Newcastle and Chelsea away. They all have to come to the Emirates after Christmas. I still think the title is on.

Going home, Google Maps removed itself from my bad books after Preston with a very scenic run through my home town from Chelsea. Along the river, past the lit up Chelsea Bridge, Sloane Square, Belgravia, Hyde Park Corner, Park Lane, Marble Arch, past Lords Cricket Ground in St John’s Wood and finally home at 930pm.

ARSENAL SUPPORTERS’ TRUST

Ownership, Representation, Influence

For just £20 annually, you can be a voice in making Arsenal a stronger club with true custodian values.

You can attend meetings with guests including representatives from the club, football experts and leading journalists. You’ll get the latest news on all supporters issues at Arsenal and a full overview on club finances.

The most important poart? You’ll be a voice that is actually heard by the club. Our surveys, meetings and feedback forms give you a direct input to the Fans’ Forum and Advisory Board.

The proof is in what we have already done:

Helping to stop the European ‘Super League’

Securing Government support for independent regulation of English Football. Safe-standing to be introduced at the Emirates Stadium for match-going fans, including facilities and atmosphere.

More than £45,000 raised for the Arsenal Foundation and Islington charities.

And we won’t stop there. Be a part of the club and its future. Be more than a fan.

To join the AST from £20 a year, go to: www.arsenaltrust.org/join

Diary of the Current Spurs manager 2024-25

A week in the whimsical chaos of the current Spurs manager as imagined by Alistair Coleman

Monday: Flamin’ Galah! I had a horrible nightmare last night about going on Masterchef and only being able to cook a sponge cake, and when I woke up I found I really had been on Masterchef and only being able to cook a sponge cake.

What makes it worse is that I - a fair dinkum Aussie - am only able to operate a barbecue so I am at a loss as to why I thought I could actually be a Masterchef.

Then Fraser Forster told me it was a joke video with some comedian impersonating me, and yeah nah he’s an idiot. He’s got two surnames for a start, and no first name.

Tuesday: I’m beginning to wonder what else I’ve done and forgotten all about it.

Turns out I went on Mastermind (one point on the life and times of Chris Waddle), Strictly Come Dancing (out the first week after doing that Raygun kangaroo breakdancing move), and been a manager in something called “The Premier League”, which I’m also not very good at. It is what it is.

Wednesday: To Gaffers, the secret social club for Premier League managers, and it turns out I really am a football manager in “The Premier League”.

I’m extraordinarily shit at it, and we’ve got a game at the weekend. A nice man called Mikel Arteta told me I was kicked in the head by an emu last week which might be causing my memory loss, but that’s drongo talk. Everybody knows emu disappeared after poor Rod Hull died.

Thursday: My taxi arrives early in the evening, and I am whisked to a West End theatre for “It’s a Fair Cop Guv”, the jukebox musical featuring songs by Stang and The Police. Apparently they had to use “Stang” instead of Sting because of copyright, and I am also apparently down to play

the role of Stang, and there’s a sex scene that lasts for four hours.

I’m not getting me didgeridoo out for anyone, so I fled into the night.

Friday: To the training ground for our weekly training session (twenty minutes of hitting the lads around the ankles with iron bars, keeps ‘em on their toes, and that’s all any decent footie side needs), only to be told by the club doctor that I’ve been having another of my episodes, probably brought on by the Masterchef, Stang, and that Strictly business.

He suggests I have a nice quiet sit down, which is for quitters and therefore un-Australian, and “could you possibly stop hitting the lads round the ankles with iron bars?, also un-Australian.

Saturday: Turned up at the Tottenham Hotspur Sponsored By Toilet Duck Stadium, and took my place on the bench, with another urgent memory tugging at my brain like Crocodile Dundee tugging at a koala (Are you sure? - Gooner Ed).

Then the penny drops - it’s the sixteenth international break of the season and everyone’s off playing in a friendly against a small roped-off area in eastern Europe disguised as the Nations League. Nice sit down, though.

Sunday: The lads are back from their friendly against a small roped-off area in eastern Europe disguised as the Nations League, all sporting hideous injuries that have me on the phone to the glue factory.

It turns out they’re all mightily annoyed that I forgot to send off their sick notes and they got stuffed for the whole ninety minutes.

I’ll forget my own thingy next… round thing… on top of my neck. HEAD. STREWTH.

The diary of a cursed Gooner

Alistair Coleman is the cursed Gooner, in this issue Arsenal agony meets drunken walruses in a surreal football nightmare mash-up. As you do...

International breaks, eh? You can’t live with them, you can absolutely 100% definitely live without them.

I write this during the third one of the season, with (somebody look this up for me, yeah?) at least another six to come, packing our best players off for the UEFA Nations League, which is a bunch of international friendlies wearing a cunning disguise of a false moustache and glasses.

The Nations League’s problem is that the official title, logo, and trophy that’s been based on a Wimpy ice cream sundae gives it a veneer of legitimacy, meaning that it’s harder for players to get away with a Giggsy:

“Dear Current Wales Manager,

Ryan’s got a sore leg and can’t make it to the Lithuania game. Hopefully it’s only a tweak and he’ll be back on club duty next Saturday.

Love from Ryan’s Mum x”.

Alistair Coleman @alistaircoleman

And that means we shake the magic 8-ball to see who’s going to end up crocked, and it comes up Saka! Rice! Odegaard!, and they all come back like they’ve been in a fight with a drunken walrus. And that simply will not do. After all, it’s our job to injure our players.

So if Mikel Arteta really wants to toughen up our first team squad by getting them into a brawl with a drunken walrus, then that is entirely our prerogative.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re not doing this already. Right now.

OK, probably not right now because the squad are off on an international break-yourlegs by order of UEFA.

Imagine! A late night corporate booking at London Aquarium, staff and security guards all paid off, and let nature take its dreadful evolutionary course. Our intrepid first team squad would not only be tougher, but survivors of hideous ordeals (for eg: wrestling

an octopus off its tentacles on Vodka and Red Bull) also pull together as a team in their shared trauma (also for eg: The Ord-EEL, which is something nasty with eels best left to the imagination).

And I’m not making up that business about shared trauma, as any student of the classics will tell you.

In this case, I’m talking about Speed (1994, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock), a proper lesson to us all about not letting your bus slow down.

This toughening up strategy is by no means new. Other visionaries have forced their players to listen to Nick Knowles’s Every Kind of People album (Burnley, who got relegated, but my fictional point still stands), while other previously sane clubs literally allow themselves to be subjected to a neverending whining noise, the end result of being managed by Jose Mourinho.

Of course, our current squad needs toughening up (we’re getting red cards for the most wimpish of reasons) and most of all we need someone up front who can actually score some goals.

The worst thing that you ever want to hear is “and standing in as striker today is a returning Gus Caesar”. Actually, “Sorry, but we are going to have to amputate your arse and swap it with one from a baboon” is marginally worse, but you’ve got to keep a sense of perspective.

But who should it be? Alan Sugar said he wasn’t keen to buy Carlos Kickaball when he owned Spurs, and young Carlos GREW UP TO BE LIONEL MESSI*, so best not ask his opinion, then.

It’s also not best to pick up a player because he’s banging them in like nobody’s business on an off-brand version of Football Manager, because you’re only going to embarrass yourself by asking the manager of Charlton Athletic on the availability of Bobson Dugnutt or Sleve McDichael and down that road lies relentless mockery.

With at least another 16 international breaks this season, here’s a handy list of things to do on an international break weekend:

• Go shopping

• Read a book

• Build a replica of HMS Belfast out of matchsticks

• Arrange all members of your family in alphabetical order

As you can see, each and every option is a complete nightmare, which is why we - as a decent, God-fearing (or indeed, your chosen deity- or no deity-at-all-loving) Arsenal supporting nation - should stand up and say a FIRM no to international breaks.

Come on Sir Keir, I know you’re reading this. Make that announcement.

DIAL SQUARE DIARY

A LANDMARK ACHIEVEMENT

Non-League Dial Square reached another famous milestone in November after becoming one of the first clubs to remain unbeaten at home for more than two years.

The club’s extraordinary run at Alwyns Lane, Chertsey, means they haven’t lost a competitive league or cup match at home since November 26, 2022.

Fittingly, it comes 20 years after Arsenal’s mammoth 49-match unbeaten run between May 2003 and October 2004, which remains a Premier League record.

Since moving to Alwyns Lane from Addlestone Moor in September 2022, Dial haven’t lost in 25 league games, drawing twice against Worplesdon Phoenix and Laleham & Kempton.

You have to go back two years (November 26, 2022) since Dial last lost at home 1-0 to Manorcroft United in the Surrey County Intermediate League (Western) Premier Challenge Cup.

It’s a remarkable feat for Dial player manager Steve Brown and assistant manager Matt Bunyan who have won 47 of their 56 league and cup games (at the time of The Gooner going to print) since taking charge on 28 December 2022.

During their reign, the Surrey Premier County Football League side have scored 109 goals in 24 league and cup games played at Alwyns Lane (as one cup fixture was played at a neutral venue). Very few football grounds in the UK have played host to more goals than Alwyns Lane in recent time, with Dial’s landlord, Chertsey Town, also crowned league champions in 2024.

Speaking of the club’s landmark achievement, Brown said: “There have been some great memories at Alwyns Lane, including an 11-0 league win over

Hambledon last season and a 4-0 win over CB Hounslow & Abbots this season. I’ll also never forget my late winner against Lightwater United, which went top bins. However, the day [20 April] when we were presented with the league championship trophy after beating Shottermill & Haslemere is certainly one to saviour.

“The groundsman at Chertsey Town does a brilliant job to prepare the pitch each week; it’s an unbelievable playing surface for our level of football and suits our style of play. I’ve been fortunate to play at some very good grounds over the years, and it’s certainly been a privilege to play at Alwyns Lane,” he added.

Dial are currently in poll-position to achieve their fourth straight promotion. They have already applied to join the National League System at step 6 – the 10th tier of the English football pyramid – for the 2025-26 season, should the club finish in a promotion-winning position in April 2025.

More news and fixtures are available on www.dialsquarefc.com

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Super Sub: Miles Saward

How did you become an Arsenal supporter?

I grew up in Islington. As a child I lived in Upper Holloway N19, then Holloway N7, and then Islington Park Street, N1. So going to The Arsenal was what almost everyone did.

I loved that it was just cash on the gate, none of the having to worry about Apps / Login / Loyalty points / online password reset / missing an online sale etc.

The only thing I had to worry about was getting a train ticket with everyone else when going to seriously intimidating places like Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough (our FA Cup 5th round trip up there back in 1977 was one crazy day), or collecting the cut out vouchers in the programme to guarantee a ticket in case we reached a Cup Final.

First Game…

November, 27 1971. Arsenal v Crystal Palace.

We won 2-1. I stood in The Schoolboys East Lower and went with my brother.

Cash at the turnstiles was 15 pence. Eddie Kelly and John Radford scored for The Arsenal.

What does being an Arsenal supporter mean to you?

For this issue we're featuring Miles Saward's Q&A on his life supporting The Arsenal

Being an Arsenal supporter also means friends...

So many over at The Arsenal. Before mobile phones we all just knew where to meet. Whether in the old schoolboys on the East Lower, or, as we got older on The North Bank halfway up at the barrier above the aisle that went across the middle. And then from about 15 onwards in the Clock End.

I loved all of those days. It all changed when stadiums went all seater.

I had to reset my thinking when the children

I think of Arsenal and to me it means family and friends. With that in mind the picture I have chosen was one from last season which includes my beloved mum in her 80s years, my son and my super grandson Jake and myself.

Four generations of Arsenal support…same family at the same game.

From the ages of four and six, both my son and daughter had season tickets, and we had many happy years pitch side front row, halfway line on West Lower until the last game at Highbury 2006 .

I loved the terraces, and it's a shame the younger generation don't get to experience it like it was.

These "Safe Standing " areas are a total nonsense

A token gesture for what, I don’t know, but really nothing like the real thing.

Wandering around the terraces, an hour or so before kick-off, ducking under barriers and finding mates to chat to was all part of the great experience.

See our first Gooner Fanzine of 2025 (issue 310) for Part Two of Miles Saward's absolutely brilliant Q&A with us

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