FROM THE SHED. Fred Paxford, Gunner aged 82.
Afternoon! I just got back from a spot of fishing, caught me a small Trout, and a Perch,but I put them back though, having been through them war years as a nipper, I like see things alive not dead. But that’s my business even if you thinks Im a queer sort.
Anyway, I like to come up here to me shed and have a good ruminate away from this noisy world of ours and open up me flask and have a cuppa and a couple o shortbread biscuits. My nephew has one of them computers like you lot, and he showed me what all you have a chat about at PA. I used to like a drop of IPA, but after the Cup Final 1950 I jacked it in.I put me lawn mower over the front room carpet I was so drunk!Mugs game. Although I still have an Arsenal mug, while we’re on the subject-so to speak. But I like having a read of what you’ve got to say,or my nephew reads it out mostly of an evening when he drops by or sometimes on a Saturday lunch.
Anyway, I fancied chewing the fat with you about these here AAA. Daft as a brush some of them! Now what would you say if you saw me in me braces shouting up at the clouds on a rainy day flapping me arms and legs and cursing to the heavens asking wheres the Sun? He’s mad Im? Well thats what I think of that lot.Once the games over, there’s no need to get all hot and bothered under the collar,there’s nothing you can change is there? Anyone can look back in hindsight and be an expert. Life barmy, that’s the way it is.And if youre barmy too then you can get up to all sorts of tricks and thats no good is it? Things are always a changing,you only need to look to the weather to understand that!But this lot, well they moan themselves potty after a game.As if they could do any better! I met Cliff Holton twice, and that Jimmy Logie, but I knew I could never do what they did.Cor, what players thems were. But I would never have told em how to play. They would have boxed me ears!
Perhaps Im getting a bit soft in me older years, but I always thought being supporter was to cheer the lads on? Mind you its nothing new. There’s always been the moaning types. Moaning their boats races off as if we all want to hear!
If I were cussing at me taters like this here AAA lot do at the lads, me taters would never want to grow,let alone come out of the earth.You see, I water and look after me taters, and me flowers and give em a bit o encouragement.You should see my greenhouse. If you come around next summer, I’ll give you a few tomatoes,won a few prizes in me time.But do you get what Im saying?Not rocket science is it!?
But these Anti lot seem a bit wet behind the ears. Expecting fireworks every weekend, I mean the other side wants to win too! Cor, bit of s shock them boys from Leicester aint it! And Im not too happy about Spurs, but weve seen em fade away plenty of times havent we?
My nephew said that Ozil has been getting a lot of stick and the Welsh lad,Aaron. I suppose the Anti lot wouldn’t know a great player even if they dropped in their laps! Shame her Majesty cant sort it out,her being Queen and all and a Gunner to boot.Mind you I voted Socialist myself back in the old days, but that Thatcher started all this here greed and them fly by nights Blair and Brown, they finished off Socialism and finished off what Thatcher started. None of em care about gardens much,car parks more like.What a shame!
But that Ozil, hes bloody marvellous. Dont you just love watching him play? I like all the lads,but that Joel Campbell hes one to watch too.Old Wenger hes done a good job, going to be tough one to follow! And that spanking new stadium. I’ve never been me self, as I live out of town now, but I certainly went to Highbury more times than I can recall.In the end I got fed up of getting soaked down the Clock End and went up into the West stand, which is funny, as it was standing in those days.I enjoyed all me games. Wasn’t all roses thats for sure. We had it made in many respects since Wenger came along.
Do you think these anti brigade blokes actually like the game?
Mind you, them newspaper fellas, they like stirring up a heap of trouble dont they? Some of em dont like our club for sure!And some of them silly celebrities. Thems not my cuppa you know. My nephew likes to keep me informed of them silly sods and I think he tries to wind me up! Load of old codswallop!
Well looks like it might rain, and Ive kept you long enough and I’d better get on me bike and get home. Im reading a good book at the minute by JPG Lewis,” the complete illustrated history of concrete”. But if you fancy another chat,just give me a shout, Im often up at me shed hiding from all this here ‘much ado about nothing’ thats in the world today and sometimes it can get a bit lonely.But Ive enjoyed me chat with you.
Cheerioh!
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks Fred. Fancy a brew?
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Ha! Great stuff. Do you have a donkey in that shed? To pin the tail on like.
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“Do you think these anti brigade blokes actually like the game?” Nailed it in one. Top work FP. Its all a question of upbringing I suppose.
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I bet you were a demon with your rattle Fred !
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seriously good read that.. somehow has a calming effect knowing so other people out there actually think through!.
some fo these “anti-lots” are an embarrassment to all things arsenal, make no mistake….
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Do these donkeys really have tails? Thanks Fred for providing proof that they have been around forever. Human nature is human nature. Greed, selfishness, whatever. Puts the recent antics by AST and Red Action in full perspective.
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What a delightful post, Fred.
Keep it up, you have a talent for it!
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I do feel that the major downside of the development of the internet, twitter and mobile phones etc has led to a society that not feel they can have their 15 minutes of fame, but that they deserve their 15 minutes of fame.
Would them idiots on AFTV rant to one another the way they do, if there was not a camera there to capture, would that mug dress up like a pirate if he was not going to be picked out by the SKY cameras at games, would the banner spanners be up to their antics if the media were not taking photos and looking for interviews. Its all about self promotion. Becoming a celebrity fan is more important than actual football, don’t some of them charge other idiot fans for autographs etc.
Look at AISA, AST and even RedAction, now, compare them to the good intentions they were set up for, but as soon as they got a little bit of fame, they can’t help themselves, their egos have grown bigger than their common sense.
Imagine your reaction, if five or ten years ago, you were told that supporters groups, shareholder groups, and a club funded action group whose mission statement is to “improve stadium atmosphere”, would all be between them, lying about the club, always negative about the club, and calling for fans to boycott a home FAC QF. You would, like myself, never have thought it possible.
And along with those groups, we have the internet full of people who claim to love the club, but who constantly post hate towards one or all of, The club, the owners, the manager, the players(some more than others), and towards other fans who support the club.
15 minutes of fame, my dick is bigger than your dick, me, myself, and I, want want want. We really have not developed well as a society or a species.
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BTW eddy – I don’t know if you have solved for WordPress puzzle but the other suggestion that might help is if you make sure your browser is the most up to date version – no idea why but that is the explanation for some WordPress function use problems apparently
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Damn fine read Fred!
Eddy-spot on with the 10.52 post!
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“The Complete History of Concrete”….absolutely, fucking brilliant…
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Fred, you have 8 tears on me but our thoughts are remarkably similar! Lovely reminisce. Thanks
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“The Complete History of Concrete”
Any book that starts it story with and set around about the time of the casting of the pantheon roof sounds good to me.
Of course Highbury was a modern day pantheon for the masses with its gorgeous steel/ironwork covered up with all that lovely Art Deco stuff. Mmmmm. It’s exciting stuff.
Of late I’ve been taking nice pictures looking through the curtains that surround the new Arsenal stadium complementing all that sexy bare concrete. And, they’re very nice drapes. Simple. Attractive. And, whisper it, far less soulless and corporate then the Phillips sponsored LEDs that surround the adidas’ team stadium, the piss taking over the top masonry coliseum proposed in w. London for Roman (the designer must be pals with someone who runs a kiln?)…yup. Modern football. Where’s the joy eh?
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Ed, most of the people at the top of AISA, are good lads and not at all reactionary.
They have a good link to the historical society and Untold and shouldn’t be lumped in with payton and the ast.
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AISA allegedly also proposed the statues so they’re not all gloom and d**m.
Been nice if they’d proposed some trees for the Grove concourse too, eventually. I’m sure you can get some smaller trees about the size of Tony Adams sneaked in here or there without restricting emergency access. I have a dream.
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Trees and plaques in bas relief? The trees would calm people down? Interesting idea though fins!
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real green living breathing trees! That’s my hope. I’ve thought about writing to the man like Stan on this urgent pressing matter, but, i’ve just been distracted by this side splitting story about the man who more then any other did the most to ensure that we all will be paying for tottenham’s new stadium:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35772202
Oh my giddy gawd. It’s too funny.
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Do it fins!
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I wish AISA would campaign about the font used for the quotations that adorn the outer walls, which doesn’t do them (or the stadium) justice. As for the other protestors, I think they have got themselves so agitated they no longer know what it is they are protesting about. The manager? The players? The pricing? The allocations? The owner? And much of it seems to me a kind of rerun of late adolescent student politics, a generalised discontent against the man. Except without the style of Dewey Finn.
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That was a great read.
“Daft as a brush some of them!”
One little sentence that tell us all what we need to know about ’em.
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They may be good lads Ian but last week I received an e mail for them , and it may be you received the same one, in which they set out a number of proposals that they wanted the club to take up. I copied it on here.
Every single proposal involved season ticket holders, and every single proposal involved the costs for those season ticket holders being frozen or better still reduced, lower subsidised costs for ST holders to watch away games, more events be organised by the club for the exclusive attendance of season ticket holders, and to allow greater flexibility in opting in and out of holding an ST for ……… you guessed it – ST holders.
Not a mention of any other type of arsenal supporter, red, silver or a delicate mauve, independent or otherwise, match-going, non match-going, even from Blackburn (!)
If I were a cynical person I would say that AISA, good lads though they may be, are no more than a pressure group that is interested in promoting on an exclusive basis the interests of season ticket holders.
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That’s a beautiful article. Thanks.
Sorry I haven’t had the chance to thank and comment on the last couple of posts.
Steww. Thanks.
A5 Thanks.
I’m still struggling with WordPress.
Shotta, I did see you tips for WP – a few articles back. Thanks.
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A5 @2:33pm – I don’t have to be cynical to conclude from the recent initiatives of AST, AISA and Red Action that they are now self-interest pressure groups working mainly for Season Ticket holders. These guys are smart enough to know that by driving down the price of a ST to below its true market value will enable them to make a handsome profit when they sell their ticket on the black or grey market. Like all interest groups they are simply manipulating the plebs who do not have or cannot afford a ST to protest prices knowing full well they will be the primary beneficiaries.
Fool me once, shame in you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
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Ein Schuss ein Tor Borussia!! Ei! EI!Ei!
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and another!
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und ein anderes!!
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shotta as I said on another thread, I really hope that now that away tickets will be £26 for Arsenal fans, from next season, that it is time that the club ensure that those using Arsenal Away Season Tickets, are the actual people named as the Season Ticket Holder, and anyone found to be passing on or selling on their match ticket, be no longer allowed a season ticket, and in fact I would hope the club do the same with home season tickets.
Of course their should be some way for a season ticket holder to pass a ticket on to a family member, but for it to be in the hands of anyone else, it should have to go through the ticket exchange.
Also anyone who fails to attend games on a regular basis should have their season ticket taken off them, unless they can provide proof of a legit and good reason for not attending.
There should be none of this loaning out a season ticket. Basically it should be use it or lose it.
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mills for a minute there I was getting worried for you, I thought you must have suffered a stroke, then I remembered our neighbors are playing in germany, and have left out a few of their stars
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No, still hanging in there Eddy! The first post in German is a chant BVB often sing.Pretty passionate fans.Not a bad club too.Its odd how many people look down on the Europa league but most teams have played in the CL at some point or another. But the old UEFA/CWC seemed to have more about them credibility wise?
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I noticed in the last couple of days, LVG tell Man Utd fans that “times have changed” and that they no longer should expect year on year CL football. Then Hiddink goes and tells CFC fans that “Chelsea are in transition” and that it could be a long road back to the top.
I find both statement very odd, after all, both clubs have changed manager in recent times, even more than once, both clubs have spent seriously big on the transfers, and as we all know that is the two answers to all of a clubs problems.
In the case of CFC, it is all the more puzzling when you consider that only 12 months ago Arsenal fans were holding them up as the very ideal of, a club, a team, a manager, an owner, –
a club with ambition,
a team/squad better than any other ever assembled in the BPL, set to rule the game for years to come
the very best manager in the world, modern, best tactician, seen what the team needed and went out and got it, in fact he assembled the best squad ever seen in the BPL, they were set for years, with the best Academy in England over the last decade, and with not only this great team/squad, but also almost 40 players out on loan, the future was blue.
an owner who spoke little, but who showed ambition by backing his manager with vast sums of transfer money, and only accepted the very best for his club.
So just why Arsenal are sticking with Wenger, and being run in this self sustaining way, is a complete and utter mystery to our fans, and although I feel their may be a flaw in the way Man Utd and Chelsea are going about things, I for the life of me can’t think what it is. So you can see why I get confused when I hear Utd and CFC fans on 5 live, and talkshite radio, demanding new managers, loads of new star players, and for the club owners to spend like never before, £300M, or £400M, even more if that is what it takes to make the fans happy, and give them bragging rights in the playground of the internet.
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TEAM NEWS: PER, GABRIEL AND RAMSEY
Arsène Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Watford:
on the team news…
We had a few injuries at Hull – Gabriel, Mertesacker and Ramsey. Mertesacker and Gabriel are very positive, there is nothing wrong there, they are both good.
on Ramsey…
There is a small alert, we don’t know how bad it is.
on Laurent Koscielny…
He is not far, he will have tests until Sunday, but it could come too soon. He has a little chance.
on Cech, Wilshere, Cazorla…
They are all progressing nicely, but this week and next week they have no chance.
Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160310/team-news-per-gabriel-and-ramsey#fLxiIQ0LVWweIJcY.99
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Matt Law @Matt_Law_DT 2h2 hours ago
Thierry Henry has passed his UEFA A licence coaching badge. From April 10 he can coach any team in the world https://www.instagram.com/p/BCyDSjNA1Hy/
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Eddy-good points on the 8.03 post.
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“It could well have been five. Dortmund did not disappoint” Clive Allen
First time I was up for watching football on the wrong day and the match is already over. *curses*
Fair to say that was a weaker squad then the ones AFC played against?
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Harry Squatter was on the bench for most of the game fins. I didnt look too much at the other players( I saw the info on a ticker). With Squatter on the bench must mean the Spuds are concentrating on the PL?
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With D Alli having been forced to play through a knock and now playing every game with a niggle when there have been players in the squad to rotate (madness!) there was less rotation in that Tottenham eleven then at first glance.
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They’ve been flipping not their FBs, almost as if they got the idea off someone, but Davis is IMO a better football player then Rose.
I guess I’m saying I don’t care who they pick!
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Still humiliating consider they are priding themselves as potential winners of PL and also as being second in the PL and above us.I thought the Europa League was supposed to be easy, and a lot of poop?
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A5, years ago two ARSENAL supporters groups were absolutely wrecked by the politics surrounding the club. AISA was one of the reformed associations but being a supporters club over many years obviously the people who devote alot if their time to running it are season ticket holders. Getting a season ticket many years ago when you could just pay on the door was a sign of dedication and not just of money like it is now.
AISA have been at the forefront of just about all good supporters initiatives over the years and have a good relationship with the club.
The tenner for teens was one of AISA’s ideas and obviously if you are putting forward fans feelings you will be seen as a pressure group but as a life member I can assure everyone they are more than that.
The act of creating the AST at a time when there was of alot of uncertainty around the club was in the interest of the club as a whole and all supporters. The fact that the primary function of the AST has long since past and do now their standing around street corners kicking their heels causing trouble is not AISA fault.
I received that email as well and thought exactly the same however I do understand that the idea of loyalty should be rewarded and the “football tourist” should not get first priority.
They regularly ask fans to give ideas to improve the viewing experience and will put them to the club if they are considered positive.
Please don’t put AISA in the same bracket as AST as they are quite simply not.
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The first email was about season ticket holders with subsequent emails to follow about silver and red members
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http://dailycannon.com/2016/03/banners-arent-the-problem-us-fans-are/?
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Arsenal U18’s lost 1-2 to Middlesbrough U18’s today, U15 striker Tyreece John-Jules played his first game at this level for AFC. Now that is a damn fine name for a footballer
Yassin Fortune scored the AFC goal.
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A remarkable post Fred, thank you, like a voice from history reminding us all of far simpler times …
Manure’s decline and fall was long ago predicted on here and at Yogi’s place. Any club that becomes reliant on solving their problems by chucking money around rather than properly planning and investing for the future is bound to come unstuck, eventually. That Chelsea have also hit the skids is a delightful season-long bonus, something to thoroughly celebrate and their likely failure to qualify for CL football next year alongside the loss of their best players means a return to the relative wilderness for them while we await to see if Roman still has the stomach to invest another 1/2 a billion or so to rebuild a squad with players prepared to miss out on Euro competition.
With regards both Tot and Leicester, both clubs are literally one or two injuries away from having their unlikely and unexpected progress halted. Whilst it would be ungracious to hope for the worst for them (yeah, right), statistically, if they had but a fraction of AFC’s bad luck on the injury front then they would not be riding nearly as high as they presently are.
The intense pressure of the run-in may yet throw up more surprises and not all of them to our disadvantage.
It’s such a shame our own fans have suddenly developed a passion for the politics of the banner when there is so much at stake, so much still to play for, so much still to win.
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Ryan Tomes @RyanTomes 4h4 hours ago
If I were Arsenal I would fuck REDaction right off out of it & get someone else in for match day displays.
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‘Arsenal Guvnor’ @ArsenalGuvnor 4h4 hours ago
Imagine Wenger spending 300Million in 2 summers and ending up 6th, knocked out CL group stage and struggling in Europa. #BeGrateful
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Fattcheeked @Fattcheeked 16h16 hours ago
Always dope to see “gooners” explain away other clubs’ issues with what they’d call “excuses” if it’d been Arsenal.
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Looks like the Newcastle supporters trust have got their wish. living the dream after getting rid of Pardeaú.
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Really what more can you say about the AAAA and their meme that AFC have the worst board (& manager and team…) in football.
Do they lie on purpose? Does anyone care?
Was the spectacle of the Newcastle fans turning on pardew and not the owner sad or funny? Did they forget what happened with Robson?
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