Hello and how are you?
Good summer so far? Mine has been an oddball; wiping away the pooled tears from the champions league final loss, rankled by refs at the World Cup, more demise in the family, a freak pulling a gun (are you sure, it’s says here gub?) out on me in the park, some mad-hippy-oddball proclaiming to all and sundry in ear-shot that we are all going to (fkn) die ( hey man, whoa man, thanks man!), boiling weather, more boiling weather, even more boiling weather with extra humidity and high dew points, Ed Gein lookalikes in the park who look they might do an Ed Gein on yer grave, getting chewed up by the gosh darn skeeters( thanks coming over) and spending ages listening over an over to the Small Faces Immediate years, especially Ogden’s Nut gone flake ( the anniversary version with the Fly on it), and making a wrong turn and heading down bad-timey memory lane and having to do a quick three point thought turn and mosey on out of there and back to the land of normal and of course, wishing it was cooler.
What did you guys get up to?
Amazing how quickly that world of the Small Faces vanished, yet at school we were not taught even the most basic facts concerning how elements of life operate, and a major one of those is the constant state of flux and mutation we are in. Sometimes if we were prepared, or had some even tiny understanding, it might help, when one day you wake up and the worlds totally different to that which you were born into? “what the fork am I doing here?”
My first Community Shield was the Charity Shield ( and I suppose it always will be, just as it will always be the league cup) back in 1979.
The Alan Wunderland (as the Match annual later christened him)-led Arsenal, the 1979 cup final winning team, and took on super-star, mean-machine League winners Liverpool. I didn’t see the game; the kid next door I think was a Liverpool fan and he had a copy of the programme or got hold of a copy. I was really jealous at the time, as it had some fantastic pics of the lads, and I can still remember the captions from when he showed me, Pat ( Jennings) with the ball, Pat (Rice) with the cup, and some top images of Liam Brady with the lid of the FA Cup. I have a copy now and it’s still a favourite in my collection.
In our image-laden, spoilt, minutiae-covered times, this all might seem daft but, in those days, there just wasn’t access to endless photos of your favourite players, even if you bought Match or Shoot! Nor was there 24hr Arsenal news from thousands of outlets. Somehow as a fan you wanted to see more pics, more action, I mean there wasn’t even much football on the tv in those days, what were they thinking? They ( the powers that be) already knew where there’s Polloi there’s brass, having milked people dry for years. I suppose for good or bad we are now in the antithesis of that time? Still being milked of course.
Anyway, The Gunners got mashed 3-1, and went on to play fifteen thousand games that season and came out empty-handed at the end of it, and to make it worse, we waved Liam goodbye as he searched for glory in other climes. Strange how that game stayed in my mind, I can even remember seeing the highlights for the first time. It could have been a really high scoring game, it really could.
I’ve only ever seen one Charity Shield in the flesh, Liverpool v Everton (dang I can’t even remember but it must have been 84?) it was a pile of shite, we had got tickets for the Milk Cup final in 84, as our mates dad was a milkman, and that was a top day out, as we were in the Everton end. For the Charity Shield we were in with the Liverpool fans (wii golf bad shot sound). Plus, the bloke who got us the tickets had to bring his old man, who was a tool. He’d caused me some real poop a few years before for not addressing him as Mr. so, I gave him the old no speak. Up yours Mr. Even his son thought he was a tool.
Naturally like you, I watched every Community/Charity shield each year, but they now seem a massive blur. Digging out some on You Tube and the memories come flooding back, my memory needs a jolt these days, it took me three hours to remember my brother’s mate with whom we went to Sunderland -Arsenal with back in the 90s, so maybe it’s just older age. Or being thick as dung?
Of course, it’s an odd game, maybe the oddest of the year? Thank the stars that play with Sams laughing dice, that it’s not called the Super Cup in some cheesy, unnecessary rebrand, that just irks the old folk. Anyway, it is odd; you win and we all celebrate, you lose and out comes ye old excuses ” who cares, it’s just an over glorified friendly!”…
Should a team play hard to win or take it easy like Seaman did with the worst penalty ever taken in a charity shield game? Some say he’s still laughing about it. What can a girl do? Me no know.
Of course, to make matters worse, it’s against Man City, who must be still holding onto a case of the old green-eye after watching us win the league. Plus, there will be massive speculation as to whom plays, the stars that went the furthest in the World Cup still haven’t rested, so any shuffle around might bring some interesting variations for both sides?
Later, I knocked on the door of Statto HQ in hope of getting some figures, and they had pinned a sign up saying: “gone fishing”. But there was a ‘post it ‘next to it claiming that the Mighty Cannon has a 37.2 % chance of winning, and Man City with a 35.4% chance of taking home the shield.
Next up, the season starts, as we host a Friday-night fling with new boys Coventry City. Till then, COYG!
Mills
Positively Arsenal 