Sylvain Wiltord: 10 Years Since Old Trafford

I’ve written about Sylvain Wiltord before here, because I never thought he was very good. But Twitter, in the shape of @goonerdave66, tells me he scored a hat trick on Friday for Nantes at the age of very nearly 38. Dave thinks Wiltord was, maybe even is, very good. I disagree. Even after he (Wiltord,…

Arsenal History: Peter Marinello – The New George Best

Peter Marinello signed for Arsenal in January 1970, for a club record £100,000. The best part of three years later this feature appeared in the programme for Arsenal v Norwich on 21 November 1972, a League Cup Fifth Round match. By that time Marinello had already made 11 league appearances that season, equalling the total…

Alan Smith joins Arsenal – then plays against us!

Twenty-five years ago, before transfer windows were invented, Alan Smith signed for Arsenal from Leicester then was immediately loaned back to them to try and save them from relegation. As it happened we then had to play them, and this piece from the Easter Monday programme on April 20, 1987, has Smudger telling us how…

RDM

There’s something slightly odd about Roberto Di Matteo’s head. His eyes are too far up. They should be more in the middle. Like this: Though there is a slightly unfortunate resemblance to Graham Norton.

‘Arry Redknapp’s ‘Happy Memories’ of Arsenal

“Arsenal are the club I supported as a lad and I have many happy memories,” said Harry Redknapp as he visited Highbury on October27, 1987, for a Littlewoods Cup tie as manager of Bournemouth. “You always have a feeling you can beat the Tottenhams and the West Hams but Arsenal have a little bit more…

The Chelsea Quiz – Are You A True Blue?

As we all know, Chelsea are now the biggest club in London, as evidenced by their long and glorious history, stretching back almost a full decade, and their list of titles that is as long as Sheffield Wednesday’s and nearly half as long as Everton’s. And their position as England’s first franchise club, formed to…

How Many Arsenal Shares Does Alisher Usmanov Own Now?

Alisher Umanov, the world’s 28th richest man according to Forbes, richer than anyone else in either Britain or Russia, has a few Arsenal shares – but how many? According to Arsenal’s website, as at 13 April, the answer is 18,455, or 29.66% of those issued. And according to the Plus Markets website, no Arsenal shares…

The Gooner issue 224: Anger Management column

For me, time for blogging lately has become like the g-spot: very hard to find, though probably still worth the effort if you do. In the absence of enough hours to write my definitive piece on why Messi is the greatest player ever, but also isn’t, here’s my most recent column for The Gooner issue…