Sylvain Wiltord: He Wasn’t Very Good

My appraisal of Sylvain Wiltord, from The Gooner issue 122. I still can’t believe he was Arsenal’s most expensive ever signing for a while. This was written in Spring 2002, and a couple of months later he sealed the title win at Old Trafford. That wasn’t enough to change my opinion of him, though. There…

Practical Maths for Spurs Fans

It’s another Spurs piss-take! I wrote this over ten years ago, coming up to the 40th anniversary of Tottenham winning the League. I gave it to a website some Gooners had set up called Scum40, and from there it spread round the internet and then got printed in The Gooner issue 112. It even reached…

Fergie vs Hitler

As Sir Alex celebrates 25 years at Man U, there is no doubt he has been a pain in the arse for Gooners in particular for most of that time. I was more than fed up with him by 2001 when I wrote this comparison for The Gooner issue 117. Who should we hate more?…

Nostalgia: 1994 and 1995 CWC Finals

Ah, the good old days of European trophies . . . and last minute defeats to flukey goals by ex-Spuds. These appeared in The Gooner in issues 123 and 129 in 2002. 4 May 1994 Arsenal 1 (Smith) Parma 0 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final, Parken Stadium Copenhagen. Attendance: 33,765 This was the first time…

In The Away End: Arsenal v Leeds, 1977

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…

Football Hairstyles Through The Ages

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…