Stan Kroenke spoke to both the players and the press last week (31 October). I don’t know what he said to the players, but I’ve seen the full transcript of the press chat. As a week has gone by, the value of this ‘news’ has dissipated, so I will quote some of what Stan said…
When Tottenham played their first league match of the season against Man Utd it wasn’t a surprise they lost – Man Utd have finished above Tottenham in the league every year since . . . I dunno, the last Ice Age, probably. But the Spuds were forced to play without one of their best players,…
This letter was written by Gooner ex-pat Clive Hill, former season ticket holder, and sent to the AFC Board in the aftermath of the 8-2 defeat at Manchester United. One month on, Clive has not had any reply. With the club’s AGM imminent, it is perhaps a timely reminder of the feelings of many fans…
From The Gooner, issue 114, September 2001: I got my love of Arsenal from my dad, a lifelong supporter himself. My younger brother was also brought up correctly, but my sister, two years older than me, decided she had to be different. As soon as I was into football in a big way she looked…
On Friday, Evening Standard readers were treated to an exclusive column by Fat Sam Allardyce – oh what joy! What have we done to deserve such favour? Regular readers of The Gooner will know my opinion of Fat Sam is so low it’s barely measurable. Fat Sam professes West Ham to be ‘lucky’ that they…
In 2006 a few Gooner writers and the Editor got together to bounce ideas around for the magazine, and I suggested “101 Reasons Why Arsenal Are Better Than Spurs”. Brian Dawes (@Gooner48) immediately said, “No – 1,961 reasons!” So that’s what we did. The feature ran for a couple of seasons on the Gooner’s inside…
This was published in The Gooner issue 101 in January 2000. In 1971 Charlie George was trying to look like David Bowie. But then in those days a lot of young footballers wanted to look like rock stars. George Best started it a few years earlier, when he rejected the footballer’s regulation short back and…
Younger readers may not remember that we used to have a player called Tommy Vermaelen, who mysteriously disappeared a very long time ago. No one knows where Tommy is, but can you find him in this picture of the Arsenal squad doing a bit of training? Tommy’s French friend Arsene has been looking for him…
As you’ll have noticed, Robin van Persie, Arsenal captain, is currently sidestepping any questions about a new contract. He says he’s happy, fully committed, and also far too busy with these two 90 minute matches every seven days to be even thinking about a new contract, this just wouldn’t be the right time. All the…
The problem with Arsenal’s defence is one of two things: either they are just not playing very well at the moment, or as a unit they’re simply not very good any more. In other words, it’s a loss of form or a loss of class. I’ve had an interesting Twitter exchange for the last couple…
angryofislington 