Who is Alisher Usmanov? He’s a billionaire from Uzbekistan in the former Soviet Union, though often referred to as Russian, who owns half of Red And White Holdings, along with his partner Farhad Moshiri (whose Wikpedia entry is sadly out of date). How rich is Usmanov? Very rich. Estimates of his wealth vary, but it…

May 8 is the anniversary of Arsenal sealing their first Double in 1971, as Charlie George lashed in a 20-yard shot to beat Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley in extra time. To celebrate that fact, here’s an interview I did with Charlie a few years back, when he had just released his autobiography.  This first appeared…

I keep seeing the question: What would you rather have, Champions League qualification or win the FA Cup, or both domestic cups? Well the question is a stupid one. I’d rather win the domestic cups one year and then have a crack at Champions League football the next year. And if we didn’t win the…

Arsenal ticket prices inevitably go up (every season these days in Club level), but don’t worry, because they’ve installed a new computer system to handle the demand! Here’s a picture of the new computer from an Arsenal programme in 1983, along with the delightful eighties perm and glasses on ‘box office girl Sue Compton’. I…

Who are the true Arsenal legends? Words like ‘legend’ and ‘hero’ are bandied around too easily these days, along with ‘World Class’ and ‘Let’s watch X-Factor’. But some do achieve true legend status in the history of the world’s greatest football club, so here’s my definitive list. My criteria for legend are either a huge…

The commonly accepted story is that the first substitutes during competitive football matches were used in the qualifying tournament for the 1954 World Cup, with the very first being Richard Gottinger of West Germany (who replaced Horst Eckel) in their match against Saarland on October 11, 1953. (Saarland is part of Germany, but in the…

Former Gunner Brian McDermott, now manager of Reading and amateur Matt Lucas-alike, is interviewed in the London Evening Standard today. The interview is by Mihir Bose, who is not only a Spurs fan but normally dimmer than a three watt bulb. On this occasion he has started his piece with the important stuff, though: McDermott’s…

Harry Redknapp is a funny looking bloke. Even funnier if you squash him up a bit. You can squash Fat Sam too. Strangely, this makes him look like Kenny Dalglish.  

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,…

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…