I grew up immersed in radio. Probably as a result of being brought up by parents who in their turn were raised during the medium’s golden age. As with many people of my generation I swiftly tired of the feeble and inane antics of the gormless, coiffured imbeciles who polluted the airwaves from the studios of Radio 1. It wasn’t so much their crushing insincerity which so turned me off as their obvious lack of discernment, knowledge of and love for music. The very stuff on which their careers depended.
There were always exceptions, usually shunted to the graveyard shifts and all of whom no matter how dedicated and worthy slid into the shadow of one truly remarkable man. John Peel wasn’t just ahead of the curve, John Peel often decided what shape the curve ought to be. He was also honest, unfeigned in his enthusiasms and scathing in his dismissal of the worst excesses of the industry he had graced with his presence long before I became aware of his work.
I am in fact listening to one of his broadcasts from 1981 as I write this and he has just effortlessly and with delicious, well judged perversity segued from Scientist Meets Roots Radics into The Birthday Party as only he could. This is courtesy of a rather splendid blog called The Perfumed Garden and if you’re a fan I suggest you have a gander.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit this but I often didn’t bother to listen to his shows in the later years. I would sometimes catch him on Radio 4 on a Saturday morning when he presented Home Truths but oftentimes was stupidly casual where his music show was concerned. I assumed, well, I suppose I just assumed he’d always be around and I could dip in and out like a kleptomaniac at a Wilko’s pick ‘n’ mix stand.
Of course Peely upped and died on us in October 2004 and I was bereft in a way no ‘celebrity’ death has affected me before or since. It was a salutary lesson. Nothing is forever, no one will be a permanent fixture in our lives. That which we enjoy today will soon be the stuff of fading memory. Much, much sooner than we ever imagine. Who, for example, could have envisaged that watching Tomáš Rosický as he pirouetted through and around a hapless opposition midfield and defence would already be just so much nostalgia?
Football is an especially transient business with individuals and indeed entire squads seeming to evaporate into the ether. Given that we have all experienced this time and again and given that we have therefore a sense of the impermanence of the component elements of that which gives us so much joy, doesn’t it strike you as crazy that we spend so much of our precious time arguing, haranguing one another and worrying about what the irredeemably irrelevant such as Piers Morgan might or might not have been saying lately?
Just because Arsène Wenger has been around since the Pleistocene I fear that many people may make the mistake I made with John Peel and simply take the great man for granted. Those of us who revere him, those who for their own tangled, deranged and unhappy reasons detest him, both like to indulge in heated debate about what will happen when he’s gone. This and most other silly disputes are simply distractions and if we spend too long down such rabbit holes we may pop our bewildered heads back above ground one day to find the Wenger era is suddenly no more and instead of enjoying every single last second of it we were down the pub when we might have been sitting at home with the radio on.
The current Arsenal squad is a case in point. Already we have witnessed passages of play and goals to rank with the very best that Wengerball has had to offer. That we might be witnessing something special is transparently obvious and worrying about whether the run can last or whether Aaron can regain his place or if Jack’s loan is a precursor to his exit or if Hector will ‘do a Cesc’ is the most idiotic waste of the moment I can image.
Now don’t panic I’m not going to give you any Mindfulness psychobabble about ‘living in the now’ I’ll leave that to the next David Brent impersonator you end up trapped with on a professional development seminar at work. I’m simply aware that we live in age of multiple distractions and it is all too easy to spread the jam a little too thinly. Often I hear people say they can’t enjoy the game for fear of losing and the resultant fall out with mates and colleagues. I myself have missed goals while furiously typing to nobody at all my thoughts on some irrelevant detail during the build up.
If we don’t enjoy every single second of Mesut Özil, every moment of a resurgent Theo Walcott because we’re too busy fuming at the brainless questions some semi literate hack spewed at Arsène in the recent presser then we will regret it. Trust me.
And so to today’s feast of football fun. Swansea have, lately, been like the head of a Playmobil figure trodden on by the bare foot of a hungover divorcee the day after his kids went back to their mother and Brian. In our last five meetings we’ve only beaten them once and in the last three home fixtures they’ve beaten us twice and drawn once. If you want to go right back to our first Premier league encounter with the chaps from Dylan’s ‘ugly, lovely town’ the stats show an absolute balance. A perfect tie, with both sides winning and losing seven and drawing two.
Can we tilt the see-saw our way this afternoon? Hell yes. Of course we can. Can they frustrate us once again? Well, it’s sport, everything is possible, no matter how apparently unlikely. I say unlikely simply because no matter how well Swansea have faired against us historically, this season they are on a dismal run of form. Taken over the previous six matches the form table shows us at the top and our visitors anchored to the bottom.
I have no clue what to expect from Swansea today. Their manager is untested in the Premier League but early indications suggest that he feels a lack of fitness to be at the root of their travails thus far. If so it seems unlikely such a concern can have already been addressed – these things take time. Also a side like Arsenal which often increases the intensity of their game the longer the match goes on is probably the last opponent Bob Bradley would have chosen to meet.
Performances following the hated international break can be patchy but are usually successful. Either way I intend to enjoy every moment. Each beautifully timed interception from Kos or Mustafi, each rapier thrust from Hector, every astonishing piece of control from Santi or Mesut. All of it, I will be watching as if it’s my last match, I refuse to be that guy who looks around in astonishment one day as he realises that the Wenger era passed him by. As good and as inspirational as this vintage John Peel show might be, watching highlights of an old game is no substitute for the visceral thrill of the real thing.
Positively Arsenal 
As Neville Cardus almost said, who can know football who only football knows? I defy anyone to find a better sporting blog this weekend. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. As Peel would have it, I expect this afternoon we might start quietly – but will get louder later on of course.
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For me the whole hideous international break is only truly over when Stew posts his latest penned masterpiece, and what a corker of a thought-provoker it is too. Well done Sir, you have more than excelled, once again.
I confess I along with many others fell into the John Peel trap of complacency and can only mourn my own lack of judgement as much as his early passing.
For me – and I’m interested in how many others can report the same – this did not happen with Arsene Wenger. I remember the George Graham years and the feeling of disbelief at his managerial passing and then the shock of the fleeting nature of the Rioch era. But from the moment of the club’s pre-arrival announcement of the strangely (but clearly aptly) named Frenchman I was riveted by the enigmatically mysterious Mr Wenger.
I just could not believe a club like Arsenal would appoint an unknown like Arsene unless they knew him to be a very special prospect indeed. The only fly in that particular ointment was the seemingly misjudged appointment of Rioch just months earlier.
The club was clearly either imploding or destined for unimaginable greatness! The arrival of Vieira and then Petit sat on top of the finest defence the world had ever seen with the Flying Dutchman finally getting his wings after a quiet start, meant the club was only ever going to go in one direction, as it turned out.
So 20 years later, I can truthfully say I’ve never paid so much attention to any other person in my life! And just as we all knew we were watching something almost uniquely special in the Henry-Bergkamp years, so today most of us are acutely aware that in Wenger we’ve lived through an unrepeatable roller-coaster of a ride.
And I’ve loved every minute of it.
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Good morning Stew, Radio Four on a Saturday morning was a joy, particularly Sport on Four with the incomparable Cliff Morgan. The excellent thing about Morgan was he was a tremendous interviewer whose subjects just happen to be sportsmen. I shall try and dig out an interview he did with Harry Gregg on the 40th anniversary of the Munich Air Crash and put a link up.
And now on a Saturday we have you.
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Steww,
What an absolutely sublime piece of writing! I will not respond at the moment to some of your salient and well made points, instead I will just sit back and savour some wonderful prose and well presented thoughts to help banish the excruciating football poverty of the last couple of weeks.
Yummy.
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We see people going in all sorts of different journeys in their support .It’s easy to take the wrong path. Lucky for us we have Stew, like an old grumpy collie dog, herding us in the right direction.
Wonderful blog.
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Sport on 4. Now there’s a thing. I’d quite forgotten it. What was the theme music?
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I dont know about sport on 4 but here was 2. Come back Mr Jones and Mr.Butler!
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Goosebumps Mills.
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Thanks Mills and suddenly green Cortinas and Silk Cut come to mind.
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Haven’t read others comments yet but that was bloody marvellous. Segueing from peel to Arsenal with a little help from Mozart. Excellent. Cheers Stew.
Brilliant start to my day. Not seen Arsenal live for a bit having been away for last two home games. Thoroughly excited about getting back today. UTA.
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On reflection, steww, there is very little to add to your engrossing article, other than to agree with your sentiment ‘to gather ye rosebuds while ye may’ and just absorb and enjoy Arsene Wenger’s wonderful Arsenal era before that rare man disappears into the mists of time – and let the future look after itself.
Too late for me to hear John Peel in life – I did not know him and now never will, but I will take every opportunity to watch Arsenal, to listen and to learn from AW, or as the Romans said 2,000 years ago, ‘carpe diem’ – seize the opportunity – and do not needlessly fritter away life’s special moments.
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Nicely put HenryB
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Steve I took the words from me. Absolute artistry Steww. Thanks. On the subject of Bob Bradley, does anyone have/ can work out details of the “first game in charge” managers that have had Arsenal for their debut? It feels like we have an unfair proportion but the feeling is backed by a faulty memory.
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“Nothing is forever, no one will be a permanent fixture in our lives. That which we enjoy today will soon be the stuff of fading memory. Much, much sooner than we ever imagine.”
Thank you Stew.
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well Steww as someone in Ireland my dalliance with BBC radio was, and really still is, for football purposes solely. And one of my big memories was bringing my radio outside to try and get a better reception as I listened to the closing stages of the 1980 cup winner cup semi final second leg away to Juventus. With the poor reception, the babbling commentator and the goal scorer being someone called Vassen, it was several minutes before I found out that Paul Vassen had put Arsenal into the CWC final. Its only in recent years that I can receive a good reception of BBC radio. So its only now that I can fully appreciate how bias and idiotic so much of their football coverage is. And I miss the days of the Littlewoods Cup semi final replay v Spurs, knowing a goal had been scored, and not knowing for several minutes by which team, only getting the first hint it was Arsenal by the disappointed tone of the commentators,
ArsenalAndrew I’m glad you mentioned it was “Arsene Who”, as Arsenal hiring Arsene Wenger had given me the chance to stop being annoyed at the sight of his name, in my younger days one of the football monthly publications I read from cover to cover was I think called World Soccer, my favorite articles were by Brian Glanville. Anyhow my first and foremost interest was in anything about Arsenal so I would read any obvious article that mentioned them first, then I would quickly scan the rest of the mag for a mention of Arsenal, and annoyingly each and every addition I would be fooled by Arsene, and it would be Arsene Wenger and Monaco, and the fine job he was doing there, and how Bayern Munich really wanted him. George Weah was the star. So when Arsene Wenger became Arsenal manager, he was not Arsene Who to me, but in fact a childish wish, that he would be Arsenal manager, so that when I quickly scanned World soccer, Arsene would mean an article about Arsenal was fulfilled. So “Arsene Who” to me, is a slight on the person saying it, showing that they were not well read in football outside of the UK, and I pity them for missing out on Brian Glanville’s thought provoking articles.
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I saw a statistic yesterday on Twitter (and it is therefore Holy Writ) that Arsene has faced eight previous managers in charge for their first game. of those contests the first, against Stuart Pearce, and the last against Slaven Bilic ended in defeat – the other six were wins.
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Great memories Eddy – thanks for sharing them. I too clearly recall not being able to hear the commentators in the pandemonium following a goal so not knowing quite what had happened.
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seemingly Zechariah Medley has left CFC academy and is playing today for Arsenal U18’s v Fulham U18’s
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Superb Steww.
Thank you.
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It certainly is the end of an era at Swansea.
This new manager prefers a more direct style to that which Swansea fans have been spoiled with this past glorious (for them) decade – credit where it is due to the Swansea board.
Will they give him the same affection that the football fans of Newcastle and West Ham showed towards the FA’s recent and spectacularly ill advised preference for their football manager? Only time will tell.
They’re still a good team, with good players, and it’ll be a tough match for sure not least as it follows the international interruptions. And they’ve lined up like Burnley did, with better luck, in recent times against the Arsenal. Whatever their new gaffer asks of them it won’t be a big change for them.
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lovely and brilliant post even by Stewws high standard. Peely was part of the funiture and the warning about our own French dresser is a real one, although I see no reason for worrying just yet.
I agree with the synopsis on the the trials and tribulations of todays game, it will by its very definition be difficult. swansea’s record at our place, returning keeper, new manager effect and the inter break are all warnings we will need to dig deep today.
From the games ive seen of our opposition thus far this season I think they have played well but just come up short and could easily have alot more points and notable results against city and chelski.
Weve had this before when all the omens were against us but this team seems to find a way. Alexis wouldn’t have returned until friday so may be on the bench today another stone in the shoe we will have to cope with.
Fab has been excellent and normally a returning keeper does well against us but score early and we can impose ourselves upon a side with little confidence.
COYG
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ED, the replays against leicester was when I remember sticking my head up against my old mans Bang Olevson radiogram brilliant days.
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I despair in my efforts to find a copy of Cliff Morgan’s interview with Harry Gregg from February 1998 – one of the best ten minutes of broadcasting I have ever heard, and I am sure I have head it repeated since, and it is unobtainable – the theme tune to Sport on 4 was Van McCoy’s The Shuffle
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A5 not the one you wanted but this from the independent
http://www.independent.ie/sport/breaking-bread-with-us-on-radio-for-the-last-time-26189299.html
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…after Vaessen scored the eerie silence of the Juve crowd made the commentary even more strange. Who was it that night? Peter Jones? imo that bloke was one heck of commentator. I recall him describe the Juve fans lighting fires on the terraces,off hand I cant recollect the stats, but they hadnt ever lost at home or something since 1340 bc. and were in a kasi of a mood.
Great night.Still got the ticket from the first leg although the match memories fading a bit,Highbury exploded when we equalised. Seem to recall it was 2 pahnd.50 in the stands. Seemed steep at the time-magic atmosphere that night too.Who thought we would beat the old Lady at theirs?
Worst radio memory (although lets face it theres been some choice ones)was the bloody penalty for York City in the FAC-my bro and I praying like mad that they would miss it.well they didnt and that was a deep humiliation.
Then the relentless replays v Liverpool in the 79/80 FAc semis. The relief of finally getting through.Second replay was one mf of a game.Liverpool were excellent although I recall the commentator going crazy when Price had the chance just before HT.At 2-0 we might of beaten them then and thar rather than another bloody draining game.Brady was pretty mediocre in those semis though,yet the Gunners were rock solid at defending. Brian Talbot-one great Gunner!I recall his last season with us (was it 84/5?) that he seemed to run more than any other.
To me we were just knackered in the 1980 Final.Plus the boiling weather.The bloody Irons knowing we werent going to do it.Liam doing the final lap of honour,then the horrible nightmare that was Valenica.I was staying in the Gower ( Port Eynon) at the time with the school, and the tools made us go to bed early. Anyway this shit on the other side of the dorm was a Spud and the git had radio commentary.And of course we lost and he taunted me like a bastard.I can recall sliding under the sheets and crying in rage,feeling the loneliest kid in the world and really,really gutted. It was my second season, I saw 70% of the home/Cup games that year and I loved those boys so much that if they lost I would go nuts and sulk like a tool. And what a season it was 75(?) games and nothing to show for it.
At the first game that season (my first too), we lost 0-2 to Ipswich and they paraded the FAC before the game. Seeing the ground for the first time,the smell of tabak and booze and seeing Pat Jennings warming up blew my mind.I will always love Highbury more, because of all those games that season and the endless blur (but never boring,even if we lost I didnt care just being there was so great) of others through the years.I can still feel guilty at giving Brady a bollocking in that first game- Im sure he could hear–I thought “should I really be doing this to such player?”.
Eddy-Brian Glanville theres a name from the past. Wrote a great book called goal keepers are different..can still recall the ending when the goalkeepers team are in the final…”me? I could keep a thousand corners out”. Another book that captures 70s football.
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Spoilt by all the great comments and memories today!
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Stew-we were all talking about Brian Moore recently, I thinking about him a bit last week, and imo what made him great was that he didnt have any moral undertones about players or the play as it was proceeding,and seemed to just describe the action. Too often now commentators are making all sorts of “insights” rather than just getting excited about the game and describing the play. If a player messes up isnt that part of the game? The great diatribe of moral examinations that seem to run across football if a players makes a mistake seem a bit over blown really. Moore kept it in perspective.
That guy loved a great game and his excitement seemed to rub of on you and made it even more special.
Many things are much better today in the game, but we did lose some stuff along the way that was better(imo).
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Quite agree Mr Mills. It’s the editorialising which makes the likes of Alan Green so appalling.
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Brilliant article. “Steww-pendous”. Thanks.
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Come on the Arsenal!
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Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Cazorla, Xhaka, Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi, Alexis
Arsenal substitutes: Ospina, Gabriel, Gibbs, Coquelin, Elneny, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lucas
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/20161015/team-news-ozil-starts#6Tm0POHcQ5bWHeFZ.99
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I don’t know of Peel, but any man who can appreciate when “Scientist Meets Roots Radics” has my vote. Brilliant stuff Steww.
PS: As for a_or_b’s Bang Olevson radiogram, the best I can remember is a Grundig and those glowing tubes.
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Hold on, Rick Bucklers the new manager of Swansea!
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Arsenal u18’s 1-1 Fulham u18’s
a late penalty for Fulham earned them a draw, only moments after AFC had taken the lead, seemingly it was a needless penalty to give away, as the attacker was going away from goal.
Josh DaSilva with the AFC goal
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a lot of our moves so far are breaking down once they get to Alexis
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Alexis a little off the pace? Or my imagination? Maybe just me wishing everything he does would come off but he slowed a quick counter with a poor ball to Theo and then held it too long in the next counter with Theo free.
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Eddy – seems like we’re seeing the same game!
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Love Iwobi’s awareness, boy plays with 360 vision of where his mates are, never gets sucked into a pointless pass.
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Alexis did a lot of traveling over the international break. Hope we can maintain our rhythm and intensity. It is hard with such a long break.
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Swansea’s tactics very clear. Need to snuff their counter before it starts. Dare I say it – Coquelin’s speciality.
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first time shot needed there from xhaka
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Shotts – that’s what I was wondering, maybe just a little jaded. Of course we have four centre forwards injured right now so options are limited.
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Bingo!
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Walcott makes it 1-0, wengerball that was not,
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THEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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Eddy – you don’t like Theo’s little finish there? Poacher’s goal.
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lofted alexis pass to bellerin who heads it across the six yard box, a defender chests it down and theo nips in front of him and finishes past fabianski
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Power outage on my side the 10 seconds after that fortuitous goal. You guys will have to keep me posted.
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