I hadn’t been back for some thirty years, but as I walked down the streets from the station I felt a familiar quickening of the pulse, a nagging mixture of fear and excitement that took me right back to the first time I made that journey, when still a small boy on my way to winter nets at the County Ground. I’d known then there was nowhere else I wanted to be, and I’d already written my future. County debut, county cap, playing for England. “Simples” as they say. And for the next ten years or so some of that at least came true, and Hove and that ground became just about my all. It loomed large in all I did, all I thought I was – and I was saddened beyond words when the dream faded. So I was chuffed to bits with my invitation to a past players’ reunion: drinks and lunch and do you remembers with a bit of Sussex v Derbyshire thrown in: what more could a poor boy want?
But seeing the ground again after so long came as a shock: it was tiny – or at least nowhere as huge as I remembered. And this got me thinking, because although I’d heard plenty of people tell me that their first school seemed small when they went back to visit, I’d always assumed it was because they were only children then, and as they’d grown so the school had shrunk, or at least seemed to shrink. A physical repositioning if you like, perspective inevitably shifted as the magic barriers of three, four and five feet fell behind. But this was something else: I hadn’t suddenly shot up in my late thirties, and I rather doubt if any shrinkage of the ground had taken place. But there had to be something to explain it, and I think it goes something like this. When something is important to us, like a job, school or hobby, it assumes a much greater significance than anything else in our life, and so takes up a disproportionate amount of space in our minds. When we move on, and other things replace it, some shrinkage inevitably happens: the proportions are altered and we see it as it always truly was – we no longer let our emotional state dictate dimension. Everything is relative I’m told, but I also like the way the human mind can bend time and space.
And I wonder if this is the problem for football fans when their club decides to move stadium? Does the ground that they remember from their youth still loom large in their minds, dwarfing the current stadium, however contrary to the physical reality that is? Will West Ham fans forever feel Upton Park as bigger than the London Stadium? Will City supporters remember Maine Road as somehow larger than the Etihad? Is Highbury greater than the Emirates for Gooners of a certain age? I think perhaps it might be – and there is something else too that I realised while talking to some of the game’s greats who had come to that lunch. The modern player just doesn’t compare to the heroes of an earlier age. As the Derbyshire attack laboured to dismiss fragile Sussex batters it was impossible to forget Khan and Le Roux, Wessels and Miandad, Dexter and Snow. Surely they would have been doing better? That is certainly how it seemed as one glass led to another, and I am equally sure that the footballing heroes of an earlier time are accorded the same rose-tinted privileges as the Tollington pints bolster the memory of those frustrated by Giroud’s failure to penetrate the two banks of five so irritatingly parked across the North Bank box. Thierry would find a way, Dennis would break the deadlock, Charlie would be flat on his back waiting for the plaudits.
And yet, of course, they wouldn’t – or at least not all of the time. Even the Invincibles spluttered and stuttered to disappointing draws, and I saw enough human frailty in those cricketers I mentioned to know that although at times they were brilliant, all too often they missed straight ones or bowled unaccountably short and wide. They too were compared unfavourably to their forebears, and perhaps that is the fate of us all – to never quite match up to what went before. And yet, and yet, the irresistible march of progress suggests that new generations frequently outdo the exploits of previous ones. Olympic records fall, coaching methods improve, players look after themselves properly, and I am as sure as I can be about anything that the bar in all sport is being raised all the time. Yes, the greats of the past would thrive if they could travel to the future, but they’d probably have to find new ways of playing to do so. As my children point out to me, the world I grew up in was black and white, and it seems to me that just about everything is better now than when I was a child – except, of course, my ability to have a child’s eye wonder at all that I see, and the energy and optimism to make of the moment something special.
But is also seems to me that Football, and in particular The Arsenal (for that is the club that has chosen me in later life) offer me the chance to become properly childlike once more for brief moments of time. Coleridge spoke of the willing suspension of disbelief, and this (for me, Glen) is the whole point of football and my enjoyment of it each match day. I could adopt a weary cynicism, reflect the game not worth stopping for, hector a few well-worn phrases and know the current cast of crooks and tarts are not fit to wear the shirt. But what on earth would be the point of that? Why make myself miserable each week, when I could be doing something better? So what I choose to do is to Peter Pan it, and see the team as I used to see my earliest heroes back in the 60s. Each time we play I enjoy the terrible nervousness that they will let themselves down and force me to explain to all and sundry how good they really are. I get caught up in it all once the whistle starts. I wear the shirt, and hold the scarf (ridiculous in a Berkshire suburban home, but there you are). I even make a mug of Bovril at half-time, which I enjoy every bit as little as ever I did on the terraces all those years ago. And I know too that thousands of real 10 and 11 year olds think that Mesut Ozil and Alexis are the stuff of legend, and that one day they will shake their heads at the stars of 2040 and reflect that they are just not the same. Things may come and things may go but the art school dance goes on forever, as some dismal prog rockers had it, but it is the on-going dance to the music of time that is so special and allows the terrible sadness of our little life seem sometimes not quite so sad. One day we won’t be able to watch at all, so why not gather our rosettes (whatever happened to them, by the way?) while we may and enjoy the sumptuous feast that our fragile heroes attempt to provide each time they pull on the famous red and white. Let the coaches and those who are paid to at least not make things worse deal with realism – but let me be young and easy in the mercy of time’s means – or at least for 90 minutes each week. Its not just London that is calling, but a brief oasis free from care and worry. Like out near neighbours, it is the gift that keeps on giving, and I, for one, am truly thankful still to be allowed a sense of life’s feast.
That exceptional writing was brought to you by our man @foreverheady
Positively Arsenal 
Bravo FH
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Tremendous.
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In fact I’d probably go further;
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Fine bit of nostalgia FH. How the memories flooded back – Doug Lishman, Don Roper, Jimmy Logie, Joe Mercer, Alex Forbes and the possessor of the hardest shot I can remember, Cliff Holton. I wonder how they might have coped today with training methods and diet?
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A nice dance through the music of some of your time FH! Sillery, Quiggan Stringham,Templar and that old reprobate Widmerpool (banned smiley and a wink) I’m sure would agree.
More please!
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Amazing. We are being spoiled this interlull. Brilliant humour and poetry too. Thanks to all, Mills and FH and everyone else too.
–
With the benefit of Supreme Commander General Hindsight’s lofty perspective I’d like to add Saint Cazorla’s name to the inspiring duo you mention above.
Arteta and Mertesacker brought in the required gr*t and gumption, and more. But in those dark dark days it was the magical appearance of those twinkle toes amongst the grime of the premier league, tearing up opponents like a ten year old playing for fun against the older kids that they are humiliating, game after game, that bought the smile back to many faces. Like Mean Lean I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed watching a footballer play as much as Santi Cazorla, primarily because watching him play football reminds me of my own childhood (I was one of the slightly older kids attempting to play D-fence against the North London Maradonna’s).
He was outstanding in recent matches before his injury, against Chelsea and others a verifiable Midfield General.
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I knew that was FH’s voice before I ever got to the end. Wow, are we blessed with some writers around this place. Bravo.
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A superbly captivating Post, FH, and one minute I was in Lilliput with tiny stadia and equally tiny people, and then catapulted into Brobdingnag with giant stadia and equally huge people, whereas, of course, you were experiencing quite the opposite in your own timescale.
Wow, Foreverheady’s Travels indeed, and the consequential matters you refer to as regards any major change in football demography as reflected in a change of ownership, a change of stadium or a change of location all taking place at a time of an individual’s personal growth or ageing.
I loved the prose, the timing and the content, and in addition, it gave us yet another insightful peek into the life of an ex-professional cricketer turned Arsenal fan.
It left me wanting more please. (lol)
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Tim that was sparkling, beautiful and hugely resonant. Thank you especially for that little bit of Dylan Thomas near the end. You are quite right in all you say. When I look at kids just starting to support I realise that this is the beginning of the golden age of football. For their generation will look back on this as the best of times with which everything else must suffer by comparison.
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Fantastic stuff,really enjoyable read.
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https://youtu.be/X-tlbY17yCM
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Granit Xhaka won his 50th cap for the swiss today
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a question for those that run this site, and write the articles for it
is it a site policy, or an undersight on the authors, that none of the articles include one vital piece of information when writing about anything Arsenal related, be that the club, the board, the manager, the team, the players(even when discussing their performance on international duty), the staff, the supporters, heck anything arsenal related. And that is that Arsenal FC have not won the league in 12 years. I know this to be vital information, as its included in all media articles, both written and spoken, and with no obvious reason to do so, I can only assume that the reason for its mention is cos its vital information. It does not happen for any other club, I don’t see 26 years mentioned in Liverpool articles, I don’t see 55 years mentioned in spurs articles(really odd that last season was not deemed their best chance ever to win the league, but oddly it was Arsenal’s, really odd). So despite my inability to understand why its vital information, it must be.
So before I finish this post, I must inform you all that Arsenal have not won the league since 1961, sorry that is wrong, thats our neighbors, Arsenal have not won the league since 1990, again sorry that is media darlings liverpool, so Arsenal have not won the league since 2004. Remember that, its vital information.
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Good point Eddy – and I for one will lobby the bosses here at the site for a clock widget to run at the top of every page counting the minutes since last we won the league.
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So steww I can expect you to include that vital information in all your future articles, its so important that we spread the word. Its been so remiss of Positively Arsenal to leave such vital information out so far. I really don’t know how we have survived thus far.
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Always remember returning home after the first term away at University when I was a kid and being shocked that home was half the size I remembered it being. So your wonderful article resonated from the first paragraph until the last and yes, I agree; today’s stars are indeed on a hiding to nothing and there’s very little they can do about it! Even if they win ‘the bloody thing’ (aka the League) it’s unlikely to measure favourably against the achievements of the stars of own youth. That said, it’ll still be a great day, whenever it comes!
Splendid article, many thanks.
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Look, let’s get to the core of this, Eduardo, you have been very remiss in your plea for an amendment in the terms and conditions of articles on this site.
You see, there needs to be an important addendum made to your suggestion — [we are going to win the Premiership in the near future – certainly sooner rather than later] – and we need to recognise that the media and rival fans will claim that we will win it against – ‘a group of poor Premiership challengers’ or that we will have been ‘dead lucky/cheat/referees favourites’ and there should be a caveat inserted that ‘we will definitely be the poorest championship winners – ever’.
None of us will give a stuff, of course.
For all Arsenal fans it will make the joy of winning the Premiership even more succulent — bring it on!! (lol)
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When the hell did all this happen? Heady you knocked the proverbial ball out of the park. No little singles here and there, no little stroking it in the gaps, no glancing of the stray ball down fine leg, no prodding, no blocking. You should just effing stepped into it with that broad bat of yours and hammered it out of the ground. I love it.
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BTW Heady, all cricketing metaphors aside, I loved the stylish technicians of yore. I was amazed that the often over-looked Larry Gomes could work a ball any where on middle and leg to wherever there was a gap, and that little master Gavaskar, whom I saw live twice, was an allround technician of superior talent. But the master blasters of the world were those who simply blew you away because they were forces of nature. I am showing my age, I know.
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Cricket,eh. It’s just not football in my book. Luckily, there was enough of the latter and the universal in there to keep me hooked. Good stuff.
Anyone interested in the fiendish scamp that is memory should have a look at the work of Daniel Kahneman. Fascinating and, I think, close to the weird, wonderful and a bit terrifying truth.
Experiencing Self vs Remembering
Self.https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory
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You are correct Eddy – we are individually and collectively not fit to preset a so called Arsenal blog. As punishment we shall have a week on ticket prices in order to make up for our feeble effort, with a solid follow up on Wenger and Ivan;’s salary, and Stan’s alleged provision of “services” to our club.
To all justifiably outraged Arsenal fans out there I say “This Is the Most Humble Day of My Life”
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I’d say ageing and sport has benefits and drawbacks. The benefits is that I can draw on a lot of past experience of games, players, results, (even referees) to put what I am seeing on the pitch today into context. While I still love football I am much less caught in the moment and can appreciate it more. I think the downside is that life’s experience teaches a person, well me anyway, that there is very little magic in the world. In my youth there were figures in football, sports, politics, the media who I genuinely looked up to, squared my puny shoulders in imitation of. There are no giants left that I can see.
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And I would not worry Shotta -first few times I saw Viv Richards I thought he looked a handy fielder, nothing more.
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A5(@10.45am)-very interesting thoughts Andy, what do you think destroyed the magic? And also what constituted a “giant”,and why is it no longer possible?
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I think “life” destroyed the magic Mills – just “life” ( banned rueful wink)
As for giants Looking back, as an example, at managers – men of the genuine stature of Busby, Shankly, Sir Alf, Stein, Joe Mercer, Bill Nick and Bertie, though Mr Mee was much lower profile, I regarded as honourable, intelligent characters whose football teams I might not like but as individuals I respected.
These were men of their century, forged in the furnace of Britain in the 20s and 30 and 40s.
Matching characters like that against the shallow ( at best) and absurd ( yes Jose I do mean you) coaches today is ridiculous.
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Lest anyone misunderstand there is certainly one coach today who could stand alongside the very best of previous eras, and others who may grown into it.
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Andy Nic – Talking of a different perspective as we age, you all know how I have evolved into a somewhat data-centric observer. Over time I have less time for emotionalism, less capacity for the ebb and flow of hormones that come with every result. I am already exhausted emotionally after every game played by the Arsenal; cussing every miskick, every misdirected pass, every missed gilt-edged opportunity, every screw-up by the refs, and, most of all, pissed by the pundits who invariably propound all the non-factual bullshit about The Arsenal you can think of.
Give me a stone-cold sober analysis every time, no matter how unpopular it might be.
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Could make a great post for the interlull Andy!? Certainly the section on Giants?To me the Mou’s of this world will always be standing in the shadow of those giants you mention. Wengers integrity certainly is like a beacon in our shallow world and Im sure many people are starting to see this who might now have before.
I wonder how much our contemporary style of capitalism and coupled with internet has taken away much of the magic and away from our everyday relationship with nature itself? Personally I still think its exists8magical moments), but we have to dig deep and find it and suffer the slings and arrows that come with being of that way of thinking.Strange that romance is a such a dirty term but its seems so much more interesting than the fascism of competition.
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I love that bands songs FH- Cowtown is a personal fav!
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Adrian Clarke on form considering the best combinations in the PL – today Sanchez and Ozil;
https://www.premierleague.com/news/138068
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Thanks for that link Rich: absolutely fascinating (especially as right now I’m meant to be correcting a first draft about the “experience of wellbeing”!). And thanks to Mills for his Cows – and to one and all for your kind comments.
I think there are still giants, but I’m not sure they are to be found where they used to live. As leadership morphed into teamwork perhaps the real leaders are not quite so visible. There are hundreds I still look up to – but then I’ve always been the last in the crowd to know its raining.
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It is hugely difficult to know how Shankly or Busby would have coped in the era of 24 hour sports news, the ranting of the self entitled celebrity fans on social media, a camera pushed up their hooter every hour of the day, and fake Far Easter business men luring them to restaurants to catch them talking about things they should not.
I cannot imagine they would have liked it, or been much good at finessing the media. Alf regarded the press as vermin and did all he could to avoid them so I cannot really see him fitting in these days. But it is a different time and what would not have altered is that these, or so it appeared to me, had integrity, were sincere and straight when they spoke to players or the media.
Some were far from pure as the driven snow and Revie was accused of match fixing and his eventual exit from the England job was disgraceful, while Clough was boozer and ( apparently) bung happy.
Even so even with those accusations hanging the word integrity sticks.
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well just to explain why I mentioned the “vital information”, well with it being another long boring interlull, I was needing my Arsenal fix, and there on Newsnow was links to articles about Arsenal players on international duty, there was the Chris Coleman interview where he rightly claimed Ramsey would walk into any team in the world, there was a story about Alexis sitting out Chile’s first game due to injury, and there was a piece on Lucas Perez going back to Spain for a bit of R&R this week, and how he was looking at an early return. So 3 different media outlets, 3 different players, 3 different stories, and on the two injured players no mention of exactly when they will be fit, but apart from them being about Arsenal players there was nothing else to link the stories, it was 3 different journos who had wrote the articles, so why then did the words or a variant of the words “Arsenal have not won the league since 2004” appear in each article. Surely it can not be for the benefit of Arsenal fans, after all we all know when we last won it, we don’t have to be told, it had no relevance to the theme of the articles, so unless Arsenal FC has changed it name to Arsenal have not won the league since 2004, why does this line or similar appear in almost every article or even any media discussion about the BPL. Why does this peculiar action of journos and pundits etc only apply to Arsenal. as I said where is the 55 years for spurs, where is the 26 years for liverpool. We had the no trophy soundbite, but now its the league. why
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sorry that per photo should have included this message
Per MertesackerVerified account@mertesacker
Rehab couldn’t of gone better but now all packed and ready to come back home to the team! #ReturnOfTheBFG 🔴👊🏻
that pic follows up per putting up a video claiming to have run 20K on a threadmill to get his stamina levels up, he said 20K run, felt great and could have done 10K more.
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“It is hugely difficult to know how Shankly or Busby would have coped in the era of 24 hour sports news…and fake ‘Eastern’ business men luring them to restaurants to catch them talking about things they should not.”
Better then Don Revie?
And his descendants. Foul spawn such as:
Don Portugeezah, Little Don Allerdici etc. (Darth Slurgus and Emperor Scudamore were on another, intergalactic, level) and last but not least the likes of FUFA, FC Bungaloana and FC Qatari hedge fund sans l’Seine.
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FH
Fabulous article, thanks.
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It’s cold outside lads, stay in here. The warmth is wonderful.
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Glad you found the link interesting FH. If it was your cup of tea then his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is well worth reading.
Now, while we’re discussing giants (and midgets), I’ve added another one to my Know Your Enemy folder : Jose Mourinho : up close and personal (Robert Beasley).
Phhh, what’s new? The man’s an utter twat…far from news but somewhat worthwhile to get such detailed confirmation from a different source.
The main benefit of the book is to gain insight into the football journalist game. It’s like you always thought, but more so, and with a book you get the chance to properly immerse yourself in the ways of it.
There is much confirmation to be had in how astonishingly grateful a journalist of the tabloid/hack variety is in anyone who provides them with good stories. Mourinho, through texts,emails and face to face meetings provided Beasley with an enormous amount of stories over the years. Adoration, gratitude and veneration guaranteed.
Combine this with Beasley (News of the World, Sun) being a huge Chelsea fan, and someone on the same wavelength generally as Mou, and there you have one constant stream of Mou love and Arsene/Arsenal hate in the media.
The book also firms up the thought that Mourinho and tabloid/hack/nearly all journalists in general operate on much the same wavelength as Mourinho. Given the owners of our newspapers, and the times themselves, an inevitability.
I think it was Eduardo asking not long ago on here how it can be that we receive such poor treatment from all quarters, including the press, and that could be the single biggest explanatory factor for it : they are twats, Arsene isn’t ; they are natural bedfellows of people like Mourinho, Arsene isn’t. The rest all flows naturally from there.
If playing the game involves feeding journalists their ‘scoops’ and ‘hits’, it’s almost certain this is just one of the ways Arsene has not played the game here.
So anyway, if like me you have this strange drive to augment your convictions that so and so is a twat, have a read of said book. Frustration awaits,though, as always in these cases…it’s presented so compellingly and clearly, for anyone to see, just what a twat he is…and yet people will not or cannot see it. Such is life.
Anyway, it has heightened to dangerous levels my desire to see us win this weekend. Though the price is that defeat is barely thinkable and barely bearable. Everything crossed.
FH, if you can approach that one free of worry and care, you’re a bloody marvel!
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Roll Up, Roll Up for the Magical Mystery Tour, step right this way;
An explosive and shocking biography of Jose Mourinho – revealing the dark side of ‘the special one’.
When José Mourinho announced his return to English football, it sparked celebrations from fans and press alike. As one of the most charismatic figures in the game, his reappearance could surely only be a good thing…
But is there a darker side to the Mourinho? A mischievous, scheming, even tyrannical quality to the man beneath the veneer of charm?
As part of El Pais, Diego Torres is one of the premier investigative journalists in Spanish football, and in this explosive biography of ‘the special one’ he uncovers secrets and lies that will change the way we see Mourinho.
From dodgy dealings to assassinations of players both outside and within his own team, and other shocking revelations, Prepare To Lose reveals Mourinho as a man far removed from the hero so many people consider him to be.
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I see Arsenal have updated their staff page and it now shows that Freddie Ljunberg is the u15 coach, with Trevor Bumstead now the u16 coach. Former Arsenal youth striker Adam Birchall is now Assistant Foundation Phase Coach,
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Andre Marriner to referee Saturday’s game between Manchester United & Arsenal. Does that mean we can not play Gibbs and Ox at the same time.
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this time last season Alexis played for Chile with a calf injury, and then missed 6 weeks of Arsenal games, he is clearly injured again now – he was wearing heavy strapping in training yesterday, and Chile play tonight, anyone expect him to not start.
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Having read The Special One, and despite Beasley and his co-tw*ts, I remain astonished that not only did the press give mou a free ride re the claims within the book, but that Manu still took him. After all, mou’s MO is laid out loud.
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The Uruguay game is tomorrow eddy 11.30 pm UK time – you can put the air ambulance back in the hangar
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I think its all a bit of a Chilean subterfuge – pretend to the Uruguayans that Alexis and Vidal are both crocked, wrap em up in bandages – then the match starts and KABOOM – hat-tricks all round
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