A bit of Arsenal history, as I’ve just found all my cuttings from 20 years ago (the first Premier League season, when of course all history started) after moving house. Things were not rosy in Goonerland. After a strong finish to the previous season, we had started the new season as title favourites. We hit…

At least that’s what just over 60 per cent of respondents in my poll think. The biggest single group think that he really wants to stay, but is holding out for more dosh, presumably because he thinks his market value is higher than Arsenal think it is. From his comments I think it’s doubtful that…

Any business, including football clubs, should constantly review its operations and make sure things are going as well as possible. Even if things are looking good you should still regularly ask the question, “Is there anything we should change? What can we do to improve?” ‘Going well’ is relative. Most clubs wouldn’t dream of sacking…

This is a piece from The Times yesterday, 6 December. I love it when commentators (in the journalistic sense) explain how Arsenal fans feel. You can barely find two of us to agree these days. Anyway, the premise here is that Arsenal are actually doing fine – we’re not like other clubs with their needy…

The Premier League started publishing fees paid by its clubs to agents from the 2008-09 season. This is the aggregated table since that time for all clubs who have been in the Premier League for any of those four seasons. No surprise that Man City and Chelsea top the table, and Liverpool have been trying…

The other day someone left a comment on a blog post of mine asking why some of us call our stadium Ashburton Grove. What the hell is Ashburton Grove anyway? I thought rather than just post a one line response, I’d have a look a little further back. Most long-time Gooners will know that Ashburton…

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about research that some American dude did into the best time to make substitutions. This concluded that if you were losing and wanted to affect the result then you need to make your first substitution no later than 58 minutes in, the second by 73 minutes and the…

Barely have we got used to purple and black, when this has appeared on the Arsenal Brasil site, predicting next season’s away kit. I should add that Arsenal Brasil seem to have some kind of hotline to Nike, because their predictions are usually pretty accurate. I don’t know how they do it, but they do…

This is my column from issue 229 of The Gooner, which came out for the Fulham game a couple of weeks ago. Last Saturday’s match against Aston Villa makes it still very pertinent. I have the privilege, if that’s the right word, of writing this after the defeat to Man Utd. Lost to Norwich with…