The Bluffer’s Guide To Highbury – pt 2

Part 2 of this feature on our old stadium, originally printed in The Gooner issue 162 as we prepared to move. Last time we looked at the East and West Stands. But wait! There are four sides to the stadium. Here’s everything you need to know about the other two. The North Bank (Stand) The…

The Bluffer’s Guide To Highbury – pt 1

The original version of this appeared in The Gooner issue 161 in 2005, as we prepared to leave the great old stadium that many thousands of us had grown up with. It has been updated with some new information.  The Bluffer’s Guide to Highbury – part 1 Everyone knows Arsenal’s ground as ‘Highbury’, and this…

Transfer Window Madness

All right, this madness is just mine. But remember when things actually happened in the transfer window? Remember when we were newly installed in a 60,000 seater stadium and it still seemed like yesterday when we last won a trophy? Remember when David Dein wheeled and dealed on our behalf? Let me take you back…

Golden Years (or: Where Has Our Yellow & Blue Kit Gone?)

“Umm-ba-ba-ba-baby, umm-ba-ba-ba-baby, golden years,” warbled David Bowie back in 1975. Coincidentally some Arsenal fans seem to think that was a golden time for Arsenal – well, the 1970s in general rather than ’75 in particular, which was one of the two consecutive seasons we were closest to relegation in the last 100 years. The start…

Motivation, by A Wenger

Remember when one of Arsene’s motivational letters to his team was found in a hotel, discarded by a careless player? (Reported here in the Guardian.) I immediately wrote this which was printed in The Gooner issue 189.  Around the same time, interim Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear lost it completely in a press conference – so…

Cashing In: Arsenal’s Ever-Growing Cash Balances

My recent post on Arsenal’s finances  generated a lot of interest. Following this, John Pickford has delved deeper into Arsenal’s recent balance sheets to look in particular at the amount of cash the club holds. If you’re interested in the ownership of Arsenal, want to know more about Arsenal’s finances or just want to ensure…

Mental Strength

As we face Man Utd today, here’s a piece about mind games I did for The Gooner issue 155 way back in 2005. Fergie was the king of mind games then and he still is. Wenger’s own mental strength is not on the same level as it used to be, I fear. I’ve got to…

Spurs IQ Test

I do like to take the mick out of Spurs. I can’t help it. This was some mickey-taking I did for The Gooner issue 166 back in 2006. It’s still largely applicable, though they have made an appearance in the Champions League now and obviously we haven’t done so well for trophies ourselves lately. For…

Arsenal’s Finances: The Plain Truth

I’ve noticed there’s a lot of rubbish on Twitter about Arsenal’s finances. If you’re too busy to sort the wheat from the chaff yourself and you don’t know which tweet is fact and which is fiction, here’s a simple bullet point summary. A quick edit on 22 Jan: this post was read by over 18,000…