Introduction

There is a joy to football that transcends a mere 90 minutes on the field and that joy really comes to the fore the more you engage with your club. Every badge, every picture, every programme has its own story; in the case of programmes more than one. Watching a game on TV is fine but lacks the whole experience that goes with being in the stadium, travelling to the stadium in hope and leaving in despair, yet again.

I have spent several years trying to find an angle for an Arsenal blog that hasn't been covered before and now I think I have found one though it has taken me several decades and the arrival of ebay to make it happen.

Once I had an awesome programme collection. It's scope may not have been immense but from 1968 to 1992 the number of homes I was missing could be counted on one hand. But I did have some absolute beauties. A friendly away to Stuttgart in the mid 1950s signed by Gordon Nutt for example. Eastern Athletic in Hong Kong in 1981. Bill Harper's testimonial signed by three players. There were not many of them around and while I could have kept them I decided to sell the whole lot on the cheap and while I regret it I don not resent the chap who added them to his collection. One person's misfortune etc.

Yep, I was proud of it.

Thing is I moved overseas and at some stage I had a decision to make and it was perhaps one of the worst of my life. Those programmes represented a massive part of my life. Not just my life. Of the club as well. They are a history, a throwback to how things used to be before Sky, PR and spin took over the beautiful game and corporatised it on a par with a fast food chain or a budget airline.

You're not going to read match reports here. You're not going to find the latest players linked with the club and there will be no analysis of Aaron Ramsey's latest performance on the flank. And if you really want to know what Abou Diaby's favourite shirt is when is he doing the hoovering try google.

This is all about trivia. It's about past names, games and trains. It's about how football was enjoyed before the advent of billiard smooth surfaces, executive boxes and 100 quid tickets. Maybe it's of a more naive time. I don't know. But it's of a time I can recall and relate to even though I am thousands of miles from home and the number of times I have seen Arsene Wenger's Arsenal play in England can be counted on one hand