The mid 1990s weren't the best time to be an Arsenal and it seemed a nadir was reached in the 1994/95 season with the Tuesday Club in full flow, George Graham being sacked after the bung allegations and losing the European Cup Winners Cup Final in Paris. We finished 12th in the Premier League, below the likes of Queens Park Rangers and Wimbledon and all in all a Gooner's lot wasn't a happy one.
For some unknown reason the powers at be at the Arsenal decided what the team really needed after that season was a trip to the far east sponsored in part by a tobacco firm and so it was the likes of Tony Adams, Ray Parlour et all were unleashed on an unsuspecting public in China and Hong Kong.
First up was a game against Beijing Guo'an in the Workers Stadium, Beijing. A programme was prepared for this game but unfortunately for collectors few saw the light of day. Apparently the Chinese government had imposed some restrictions on tobacco advertising and while Beijing were able to source a new sponsor for the back page of the programme to replace the cigarette firm last minute technical issues meant there was not enough time to publish enough programmes for the game.
A handful were printed but were destroyed though one did turn up on an auctioning website back in 2009 with an estimated price of 1500 quid! Funnily enough as I research this piece a well known Arsenal memorabilia dealer is advertising a ticket for the Beijing game on ebay looking for 29.99!
I was living in Bangkok at the time but there was no question of me flying over to China for the game; I was struggling to afford my drinking habit in the flesh pots and dives as it was. Ray Parlour didn't have such worries and later on during the tour when the team got to Hong Kong a night out proved very expensive for him and some of his team mates and he was left with the lawyers' bill after a few beers in Wanchai got out of hand!
Anyway come the new season and there was a new look at the club. Bruce Rioch had come in and two high profile signings, Denis Bergkamp and David Platt, were grounds for optimism. Little mention was made of the the Chinese trip, an interview with Parlour in the Inter Milan programme says nothing (!) and only the pre season friendlies were deemed worthy of mention, not some far east jolly that only provided negative headlines! It wasn't till the third home league game of the season, West Ham United, that mention was made as the editor Kevin Connelly interviewed a gentleman who helped organise the games. Presumably, though no mention is made in the article, said gentleman was involved with the tobacco company?
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