A wise lady once said to me: Unless you strive for perfection, you’ll never achieve it. And I think it was economist Adam Smith who said about 200 years ago something like: If everyone was happy with the poorest clothing, worst housing and meanest food, that’s all there would be. In other words, why put…

Raw data nicked from The Times (don’t tell them), totalled up and sorted into biggest to smallest spenders. No trophy for Arsenal again, and we had only the sixth biggest transfer of the 2013 window with the Nacho Man. Follow me on Twitter: @AngryOfN5

These are some extracts from a publication called League Football, ‘The official journal of The Football League’, that was given away stapled into various club programmes in the early 1970s. This particular edition was in the programme for Crystal Palace v Arsenal on October 21, 1972. It’s an odd publication, with a mix of general…

Arsenal’s wages are a source of endless fascination to many, especially with Arsène coming out recently and defending his ‘socialist’ model. All kinds of figures get bandied around as to who exactly gets what, so I thought I’d have a quick go at some elementary maths myself. (As that is the only kind I can…

Arsenal 5  West Ham 1 The Arse win! Not just win, but win convincingly despite going a goal down to West Ham, who looked dangerous early on. There were several good points about this match, and I’m not sure which was the best, so let’s have a top 10 good things in no particular order:…

No one’s interested in Arsenal news at the moment, are they? There isn’t any anyway, no one is being signed except an overpriced winger who was there already, and we’re losing most matches, so I’m not that bothered myself. I’ll talk about something else. A few months ago I posted this piece about Ray Parlour’s…

Arsenal have one point from three games, so I’m kind of off football, but in case you are still interested, here’s what The Times said about the Arse on Saturday. Apparently Walcott has a new contract. Really? They kept that quiet, didn’t they? I hadn’t heard a mention. Having stunned us with that revelation, it’s…

You’ve probably seen this. Some bloke was taken on a private tour of the training ground by the doctor and sneaked some pictures, including the list of fines for such things as being late for training, failing to provide urine samples (for monitoring hydration levels rather than Rio Ferdinand-type shenanigans) and bringing the wrong kit…

This is the programme from Cardiff City v Arsenal in 1980. I was thinking this was the previous time we went to Wales in the third round, but of course there was also the Wrexham debacle of 1992, so it’s just the last time we went to South Wales. I lived about 20 miles from…

As we sit in the middle of the transfer window, tumbleweed crossing the corridor outside Dick Law’s office and moths making a home under his telephone receiver, arguing about how many millions of pounds are available for the manager to spend, we need to pass the time somehow. I have passed some time considering the…