Gf60 concludes his series of Arsenal League triumphs with a look at the 26th May 1989;
When the South African Broadcasting Corporation decided to suspend normal Friday night TV programming to bring us the match live, some magic just had to be afoot. Football in the then rugby dominated, white supremacist South Africa? Take off Afrikaans programmes for Pommy football? Pull the other leg!
But the rumour was true. My friend Mike and I made up one of the smallest contingents of Gooners watching the game. We were, still are fanatics. Moving to South Africa had never dimmed the anticipation of reading a favourable match report, or watching an occasional pirated copy of Match of the Day and, total bliss, a full showing of Cup Finals. (OK so we forgot Ipswich and West Ham)
Our wives were banished to the kitchen to natter. This was serious men’s business. We settled back, six packs of Castle lager, crisps and biltong ready at our sides. And the game started.
I can remember but one Liverpool shot in the first half, from Rush, which had it been a foot either side of John Lukic would have taken the net with it. Suffice to say it was a mean enough shot to empty the fifth of the Castles and open the last. Our normal intake was four for the whole game.
Replenishments were hastily summoned; the wives poor Annie and Sheila were still discussing knitting or whatever women talk about at times of great husbandly stress. We weren’t very communicative. 2 goals in less than an hour? Our external composure was brave. Internally we were cotton wool and Castle.
We looked at each other and smiled. What else but faith kept Arsenal supporters supporting through the barren years? And, prior to both the double in 1971 and today, there had been many years of despondency and unrewarded faith.
Why were the beers having so little effect? A sympathetic comment or an involuntary movement of the feet accompanied every pass. McMahon was roundly cursed on many an occasion. He was covering every blade of grass and putting in crucial tackles, single handedly taking away OUR League title.
And then Nigel swings in a left footed free kick from the right. Tony goes sprawling. Smudger gets the faintest touch with his head. Pandemonium. We didn’t quite kiss and cuddle but it must have been close. But, what’s this? The ref is chatting to the linesman, both looking very serious. They chat forever. What did they say to each other? I’ve watched a replay many times and the only thing I know for certain is that lip reading ain’t my forte.
The finger points to the centre circle. 1-0 to the Arsenal. And the time ticks on. One not enough but sufficient for some silly sod on the commentary to mutter words to the effect that Arsenal may take some consolation from the win but they won’t win the league. Kevin Richardson goes down injured. We go past 90 minutes. Rueful looks at each other.
And then…Lee to Smudge to Micky….
Collectively the two of us have covered more grass and kicked more balls and made more tackles and drunk more Castle than any player on the pitch. We try to stand but someone or something had cut our legs off at the knee. We just collapse and cry. We’d done it.
(This was originally published in an anthology of Arsenal supporters and players/officials thoughts “It’s up for grabs now”, compiler Greg Mitchell 2005)
And on behalf of all PA posters, commenters and the hundreds of daily lurkers out there I wish you a very happy 75th birthday for June 29th – have a virtual cake on us –
Positively Arsenal 
Arsenal LadiesVerified account @ArsenalLadies 2h2 hours ago
#LisaIsAGunner
Announcement 👉 http://arsn.al/5TiIOW
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seemingly Arsenal are set to announce the appointment of Ex-Newcastle & Crystal Palace Goalkeeping Coach, Andy Woodman, as a GK coach to our U23 keepers
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My God, Mister you are such a delight to read. It’s testimonies like this, the passion, the so obvious love for the club that makes me always bless the day i found Arsenal and then PA, and
the fact that i am part of both. Thank you for all you guys do here.
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December 2015 is the only month in which Alexis has not featured in a competitive game since joining Arsenal in July 2014. #afc
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Wow, wow, wow!!!
What a superlative, tingle in the neck read! There are no words that do it justice – maybe hallelujah??
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Ivan doing his Q&A with the supporters groups(and/or ASB) this evening
he told them that extending Arsene Wenger’s contract was the right decision if not a popular decision
also we have added some top quality people in backroom. Contract negotiator, fitness man etc. ‘More in weeks ahead’. Lots of investment says Ivan on stats, fitness building, scouting, academy – all have more employees than 4 years ago. Club has Invested millions in Conley and Hale End to improve the club.
He said we are looking to sign players of quality who will be in the starting team and not just squad men.
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Gazidis suggests “most” Arsenal fans wouldn’t want Usmanov type owner & is optimistic we are “standing on our own two feet”.
AFC_Andrew @PR_WhoRu 45s45 seconds ago
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AFC_Andrew @PR_WhoRu 2m2 minutes ago
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AFC_Andrew @PR_WhoRu 3m3 minutes ago
Gazidis says he doesn’t agree Kroenke takes money out of the club. Gazidis heckled & says it’s more value if people listen to him.
says Kroenke doesn’t take money out of the club. Advisory fee shouted & Gazidis will now examine it.
Gazidis says Arsenal have been using KSE’s services “year after year” & it was “good governance” to value him & pay him for his services.
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Akhil Vyas @10akhil 2m2 minutes ago
Ivan says KSE have many available services & #AFC would be silly not to use it. Chairman chose to pay KSE & Stan saw situation & changed it
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the ASB are in meltdown over Ivan’s comments
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Gazidis says we are “actively” speaking to various options. Not interested in “depth” but starters in the first 11.
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Graham Perry stood up for over 5 mins giving praise to Arsene Wenger, says everyone isn’t against the club, he ended up booed & clapped in equal measure.
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Akhil Vyas @10akhil 58s58 seconds ago
Ivan says going into the new season arguing isn’t productive & begs people to be united into the new season.
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ASB tell Ivan that they want David Dean back at the club, that he would mend the divide between the board and the fans. laughable
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Q&A over, cue ASB meltdown, and loads of uber bloggers putting up their dissatisfaction on the web, their fake outrage
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Walid Arsenal @1Walid1 21m21 minutes ago
Ivan Gazidis: I don’t understand the argument that Stan Kroenke is only interested in making money. If Stan wants to only make money the only way to do that is by making this a successful club.
The idea that Stan invested hundreds of millions to just make money is preposterous
good man Ivan, call them out on their stupid soundbites
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ivan stated once again that the Junior section at the Emirates has never sold out, and he ask fans to get their children involved — so much for the young generation being priced out of going to games
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Gazidis says his aim it the generate the pride “I am ashamed to say some of you are not feeling” in a way consistent with “club values”. (nice little dig there ivan, good man)
Gazidis says he’s working every hour & we’ll soon see it in terms of player front. Ambition it to get up to 85-95 points. – (new signings on their way, good good)
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Arsenal start preseason training on Monday, and Alexis and Mustafi will be involved in the Confederation Cup final on Sunday, its total madness, International football fixture list is just plain crazy
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Two weeks today Arsenal play our first preseason game of the summer, in Australia.
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jeez there are some real knobheads at the Q&A, Ray Parlour answering questions now and he is asked if Arsenal brought back the Tuesday Club now they’d win the league & all the Yer Da’s are going mental for it.
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ha ha ha, someone at the Q&A asked a question about “our worst season in living memory”, and he was talking about last season, ha ha ha, the poor child.
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the most expensive team of all time
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a bit odd but there did not seem to be any questions at the Q&A about contract extensions for Alexis, Ozil, ox and others
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Livers Delivers @Sir_Livers 51m51 minutes ago
Ivan Gazidis – “Arsene Wenger, for the many not the few”
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Ivan Gazidis “We have invested £40m in building a new medical facility and training facility”
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Gazidis – “a catalyst for change”
New contract negotiator hired
New fitness expert hired
New goalkeeper coach hired
more new staff promised in “the coming weeks”
medical center upgraded
academy center upgraded
extra scouts hired
extra staff in many sections of the club hired
Arsenal after a few high quality players for the starting 11, not squad men, and deals expected to be done in coming weeks.
ASB response “ivan you liar, ivan you fraud, Ivan with same old spiel”
translation of ASB response “we want wenger out”
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Ivan Gazidis…..what the fuck do you do?
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the ASB really are incredible, their football knowledge is vast, imagine their knowledge even stretches to knowing how good or in this case how bad a goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman is, seemingly he was a disaster at Newcastle and also at Crystal Palace. Now I pride myself on having a fair old football knowledge, but it pails in comparison to the ASB, all I knew about Woodman was that when he at Newcastle he was said to be responsible for getting his then 16 year old Son Freddie to leave Crystal Palace and sign for Newcastle in 2013. By the way Freddie won the Golden Glove as England won the U20 World Cup this summer.
So these ASB’s are financial experts, coaching experts, scouting experts, fitness experts, tactical experts, transfer experts, and now experts on goalkeeping coaches, why the fuck are they wasting their time posting endlessly on twitter and in blogs, they should be running Arsenal,
may have misspelt ruining
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TheContrarian @shotta_gooner 1m1 minute ago
IMO too many immature, attention seeking fans have monopolized social media and do everything to demonize the club.
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Some seem to think that backroom staff need to have been stellar players, Woodman is not a Mad Jens or David seaman when it comes to the top player front, but doesn’t make him a bad coach.
Not all backroom staff at the most successful clubs are household names.but some seem to want the Invincibles surrounding Wenger. As brilliant as those guys were as players, doesn’t make them good coaches, nor the right chemistry to work with Wenger, Sometimes, brilliant players make the worst coaches and managers, don’t they Tony, Stewart, Paul?
Cannot say I know much about him, but good luck to him
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ah more fake outrage from the ASB tonight cos Ivan said Stand did not ask for KSE to be paid for the services they provided and in fact Ivan said they are still providing.
We already knew that KSE did not ask for payment, that Sir Chips proposed the £3M payment, each of the 2 years. As he seen it as “good governance” for the club to pay a suitable fee for the services provided.
What Ivan told us new tonight was that it was Stan Kroenke who stopped the payments continuing, despite KSE still providing on going services.
Now we all know cos Arsenal have not seen fit to tell the ASB what these services are, they have decided that no services have ever been, or are currently being provided to AFC by KSE.
One other bit from Ivan that struck me was him suggesting that Arsenal fans do not want, and should not want Usmanov involved in the club. There was a real hint of the Peter Hill-Wood comment – “we don’t want his sort” – about it. Of course the ASB are showing their true colors, as they clearly want Arsenal to be owned by a Sugar Daddy. Sums them up really.
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The WOB seem to be in fear of Everton at the moment , apparently Usmanov will transfer his affections that way after Stan rejected his bid.
No disrespect, but if you spend your life worrying about Everton, perhaps time for another hobby, life, or something stronger
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Mandy isn’t it odd that Seaman, Mad Jens, Keown(after all it was he who led AFC to the CL final with his outstanding defensive coaching, even if it was just putting out the cones), PV4, TH14, big Tone, etc etc have utterly failed to rise the coaching/managerial ladder at any other club, its almost as if they might not actually be to coaching what the ASB think they would be if hired by AFC.
The ASB crave the return of Dennis Bergkamp, who has done sweet FA in the coaching world, in fact last season Ajax reduced his role with the first team, and he now works more with younger players, yet these same people would have a fit of rage if Arsenal hired Giovanni Van Bronckhorst despite him leading Feyenoord to the Dutch league title
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well Mandy, if Usmanov wants to head off to Everton, then the first thing he would have to do is sell all his Arsenal shares, something I would be all for. In fact I hope he sells them to Stan, and that Stan then forces full buyout of AFC shares, no more of these ego stroking meetings for the AST etc, no more making accounts public etc.
Look at the disrespect shown to Ivan tonight, not only on line, but actually at the Q&A, a fucking Q&A that the club honor these gits with, and they act like the scum that they are. Self entitled little pricks, its time Arsenal told them to fuck right off. As Ivan suggested tonight, they might learn something if they actually listened to what he said.
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Yes Ed, Ivan was on a bit of a hiding to nothing. Social media can be a good thing, but it can also fuel factually wrong witch hunts. A certain channel program has been getting way too much attention by putting out extremist views….seems the way the world is going.
Agree, none of those great players are tearing up trees as coaches. Great players often do not.perhaps they lack patience or empathy for developing players! Look at hoddle, Keane.brilliant players, but patient enough to impart their knowledge?
Some great players have done rather well as managers….Clough, Pep, Zidane seems to be doing ok, but then , you get the Wengers and fergies who were not the best players.
If , as the media have reported, some have put pressure on Wenger to bring in faces to appease the fans, then he is absolutely right to have resisted these populist moves. Paddy Vieira might sound more sexy than Neil Banfield, but there is no evidence he would do a better job.
Some of our so called fans are very self entitled, they forget our manager has won 3 trophies in the last 4 years. The WOB consider these non trophies, yet include them and CS winnings when they big up Jose or Fergie. They would probably experience an unpleasant orgasmic explosion if our neighbours repeated Wengers recent feats
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I remember Johnny Giles saying that one of the best players of his era failed as a coach/manager cos despite all his football skill, and indeed deep knowledge of the game, he actually could not understand why “lesser” players could not do the things he could as a player, he could do anything with a ball himself, but he could not actually show or explain to another player how to do it. Giles and Liam Brady suggested that its one of the main reasons why so few great players make great managers, as natural skill is not something that can be taught, improved upon yes, taught no, and that many of the great players are great due to natural skills, and these guys actually don’t understand what it takes to improve less talented players.
Brady pointed out that very few great players become great managers, and those that do, usually are successes at big clubs who have great players, a la Zidane, and Pep. You won’t see a Pep or Zidane take on the managerial job at Watford and turn them into world beaters, not unless Waford get a super rich sugar daddy who buys the best players.
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Wonder who Giles was referring to. He certainly played with a few, would imagine Best, Law, Charlton, Bremner, Jordan, Clarke, McQueen, hunter….even Kidd and others, some of them became managers but we’re any of them greats?
Always had the impression Wenger likes almost street footballers, they have something already. Don’t think Wenger goes for over coaching and prescriptive tactics as some do, this clearly works for some, and less so for others. But when he gets it right
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my guess is that it was Bobby Charlton
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This Q&A with Gazidis is evidence that (some) Arsenal fans don’t deserve good things. It’s not like he (Gazidis) has to do it, nor are the club obligated to organize such an event, and then you get people acting like they are entitled to these privileges because they are fortunate enough to be able to afford a season ticket? Mature educated(?) adults disrespecting the club’s CEO because they didn’t get their way like the club is some kind of democracy? The club continue to conduct themselves with class while some fans(?) are desperately trying to sell it out for short term success?
As an Arsenal fan and an adult, I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivan Gazidis and the club for the behavior of some of these so called fans, and assure you that these are very much the minority.
Many of us understand the enormity of the task of ensuring the club remains competitive especially in today’s environment while still adhering to the core principles and values upon which the club was built; and greatly appreciate you, even if our voices are constantly being drowned out by the ungrateful bunch assisted by the media.
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” someone at the Q&A asked a question about “our worst season in living memory”, and he was talking about last season”.
I honestly couldnt believe this when I read this that you put up Ed. I still cant. The more I think about it the more I cannot believe it. What hope for the future? Poor Ivan.
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mills it was a fan of 50 years who said it, the grandson of a former Arsenal cup final winner, and seemingly he said the “most stagnant” season in living memory. still laughable
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well moses they must very much be a minority, cos if they are are cross section of the fan base, and this is reflective of the general population in England, then your government could never get away with the policies they implement as it just would not be stood for, not if people were as vocal as the ASB at the Q&A, after all how could they, if AFC can cause such outrage in so many, then your government would cause riots by millions
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Lee Jun-fan BAM AFC @The_Big_BossAFC 3h3 hours ago
Imagine being that Arsenal fan that hates..
The Manager
The players
The stadium
The badge
The kit
The positive fans
Imagine being that cunt
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…perhaps even more exasperating to me Ed,with that bit of extra info…?
Imagine last season without AFTV, without the banner aeronautical acrobatics display team, the endless negativity on twitter and on b(l)ogs.
The cup final was one of the most intense, gut swirling, gripping, celebratory, stunning, epic matches in whats going to be 40 seasons for me. One thing it wasnt, was stagnant!
Whatever last season was, it wasnt stagnant (imo).
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the full transcript of the Q&A
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2017/06/30/36736302/-
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but Mills the ASB says Ivan Gazidis is “utterly clueless”
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In their minds the ASB are here to liberate us all Ed, but their thinking seems many steps backwards really.
(Shakes head so much he could be in the Beatles).
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Lacazette close to signing with ARSENAL according to sky sports
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ian is that so more money is spunked on it on skybet
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chris willock signs for benfica
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