Oi Theo, Where's Charlie?

I've never been one for hanging out with footballers. Maybe it's my punk rock roots but footballers, to me at least, or just normal guys doing a job I would kill for but that is no reason to put them on a pedestal despite what players, agents and the media would like. Of course in this I realise I am part of an ever shrinking minority. Where once I saw a badge and a profile in the matchday programme now people see social media profiles and selfie opportunities.

I'll never forget the first time I met a real life professional footballer. Glen Johnson his name was and he was the goalkeeper for my local team at the time Aldershot. I was 13 and a half years old and he had come to my school for some kind of event or other so I shyly approached him and asked if he would autograph the programme from the last game I had seen, Aldershot v Doncaster in 1978. If any programme collectors have come across this particular programme autogtaphed it is mine and I want it back!

I probably only asked for Johnson's autograph because he once played for the Arsenal. Actually, he was on the books of the Arsenal, he never played in the first team but he was my first autograph and so will have a special place in my football memories.

I didn't rub shoulders with the great and good in football until about eight years later. Arsenal played a couple of friendlies in the Republic of Ireland so I gave up  my summer hols to go over the Irish Sea for the first time. I took the train to somewhere near Swansea and caught the ferry across to somewhere near Waterford and then hitched north along the east coast of the Republic.

The scenery was beautiful and I stayed in some lovely old youth hostels as I did my best to keep my expenditure low. George Graham had just taken over the Arsenal after the debacle at the end of last season when Don Howe quit after it was revealed the club had been sounding out Terry Venables to take his place. In had come Graham, a legend as a player with the club who had been doing a fine job with Millwall and suddenly supporters were feeling optimistic about the new season.

I stayed a couple of days in Dublin at a youth hostel which wasn't too far from Shamrock Rovers' home stadium of Milltown. So close in fact I could walk between the two and arrived just as the bus was disgorging the Arsenal team. While I was excited about the arrival of Graham I was unsure what it meant for Charlie Nicholas, a cult hero on the terraces who never quite fulfilled his talent on the field but scored often against Spurs which was good enough for many of us in those straightened times.

The players got off the bus and made their way to the main entrance, stopping along the way for the odd photograph with supporters. I felt that was beneath me so plucking up my energy approached our new assistant manager Theo Foley. 'Oi Theo,' says I, 'where's Charlie?' He blew me out. He wouldn't even acknowledge my presence and headed straight for the dressing room. Fuck you thinks me, I've come all this way to see the Arsenal, my Arsenal and you who have only just arrived, can't even be bothered to acknowledge me. Fuck you.

We won that game 2-0 and with the next friendly in Waterford I bid farewell to Dublin's fair city and hitched south west through Naas for the second friendly. I'd learnt my lesson though and when I arrived there I just ignored the players when I saw them outside the stadium.

The next time I came close to the Arsenal team was two years later on the other side of the world. At the end of George Graham's season I decided to go to Australia for 12 months and was happily beavering away in Sydney when I heard the Arsenal would be playing in a 6 a side competition in Brisbane in the middle of 1988. I did what any self respecting Arsenal would do, quit my job and moved north to a city I had lived in for three months at the start of my time in Australia.

Arsenal were in Brisbane with Manchester City and Nottingham Forest along with three state teams and I went to each of their games at some arena in the city. Soon after the competition had finished I got sacked from my job and kicked out of my accommodation and thought sod it, I'll go back to England. A travel agent booked my on a British Airways flight to Singapore and the next day I caught a bus out to Brisbane airport.  I checked in and soon found out I was in the same departure lounge as the three English teams and indeed the same flight. So there I am milling around the lounge with the Arsenal players looking smart in their suits. Most of the players were sat in small groups talking among themselves or listening to their walkmans. One player I noticed was by himself. Gus Caeser. Hah, I had seen your debut pal at Old Trafford. I had also seen him live on TV in the League Cup Final against Luton Town, the bugger deserved to be on his own.

I remembered by encounter, or lack thereof, with Theo in Dublin and didn't want to be blown out again so I made no effort to talk to any of the players. Inside I was hoping to be sat in the same row on the plane but that wasn't to be. Instead I was sat next to some whiney backpacker who whined all the way to Singapore. I remember thinking sitting next to Caeser would have been an improvement!

Now of course there are more choreographed opportunities to meet the players on highly choreographed public events and of course they don't appeal to me. Players come, players go. Theo has gone but I am still here supporting the Arsenal from near or far. I may not have seen the likes of Thierry Henry or Robert Pires play for the Arsenal but I did see Dessie Gorman in the red shirt and no one, not even Theo, can take that away from me!

For The Arsenal, Charity Begins At Home

With the Arsenal no doubt counting their coffers after a highly lucrative pre season tour of Australia and China now seems a good time to look back at a tour from a different age and what happened to those proceeds. 

For Arsenal fans in the late 1950s we were no longer the power we had once been and we were in a trophy drought that would extend right through to 1970 when we lifted the Fairs Cup on that famous night at Highbury against Anderlecht. But while we may not have been challenging for trophies our exploits in the pre war years meant Arsenal was still a name to be reckoned with in Europe and most years saw us heading across the channel, none of this private, branded aircraft.

In 1959, for the second year running, we spent part of the pre season in the Netherlands where we played a couple of friendlies against local opposition before beginning our league campaign with a home loss against Sheffield Wednesday. 

8 August v Sparta Rotterdam 2-2 (Danny Clapton, Gerry Ward)

12 August v ADO Hague 7-0 (David Herd 3, Danny Clapton, John Barnwell, Joe Haverty, OG)

Nearly GBP 1,000 was raised on the tour and the above image shows how the money was spread around a number of charities with a fair whack going to military and police charities as well as schools, youth clubs and churches. 

Nowadays of course the Arsenal have their own charity foundation with its work being felt far beyond North London with club ambassador Ray Parlour recently in Indonesia opening an all weather pitch in North Jakarta but it's good to know the Arsenal have a fine, long tradition of giving back to local communities. Indeed just last week the football club hosted a number of fireman who had been kept busy in the recent Grenfell Tower fire.

Bloody Technology

Nothing new with technology or people's reactions to it. How many times have you been to a game and been surrounded by people filming, snapchatting, vlogging or whatever. A whole generation growing up focused as much on their gadgets nestling in their palm as the action, if there is any, on the pitch.

It seems like football clubs have conceded the terraces, ok the stands, to the corporates and the techies and the rest of us, that is those who actually wanna watch the ebb and flow of the game and even create a bit of atmosphere come way down the list of priorities. Gripe against the modern game over. For now.

Back in 1962/63 it seems people were less tolerant of the latest technology invading their terraces. Some supporters it seems had the temerity to take their transistor not only into the stadium but also listen to the damned thing. For those who think the 60s were people who voted for Theresa May the transistor radio was a small portable tinny sounding radio people would press against their ears to keep up with the latest news. Or, on match day, the results from around the country.

In the days before ear plugs the noise could be quite annoying and I imagine older fans would tut-tut at the uncouth youth with their trannies and moan about the young generation, hence the request in the programme, this clip comes from Wolverhampton Wanderers on 27/10/62. 

One wonders how they moaners would view the selfie generation. Scratch that. How would the trannie holders view the selfie mob?

To be fair fans had good reason to have their minds elsewhere while watching the Arsenal. We had won the first two games of the season before embarking on a hapless run of one win in 12 games. How bad were we? We had even lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday. We haven't lost at home to them since.

For the Wolves game the programme is considering the FA Cup and opines 'There is an equally strong view that never again will a second division team win the Cup.' Shut up!

Elsewhere in the programme a special mention goes to the Chief Honourary Steward Claud Stevens who had recently celebrated his golden wedding anniversary meaning he had got married back in 1912. A marriage that had survived two world wars plus god knows what else. I wonder how he felt about transistor radios/ 

I'll close with one of the Do You Know questions that were a feature of those pre Google days

'Father and son who followed each other in the same paid position with a football league club had 82 years of aggregate service with the club. Can you name them?

John Cartwright's Short Lived Spell

A few days ago I thought I would pen, sorry type, something about John Cartwright, a coach who had a short lived stay at the Arsenal in the mid 1980s. After my research was done what should I see but a couple of coaches I respect saying good things about the said Cartwright on social media.

Given his short spell with the Arsenal there is little out there about him but it is certainly a surprise to see even his wiki page is light on detail. An almuni of a West Ham side that was known as the academy for the number of thoughtful players and coaches it produced, Cartwright achieved little as a player but made a name for himself with his work at Crystal Palace. He also spent three years in the Middle East with Kuwait and were he to return there today would probably find the infrastructure little changed.

But it  is his time with the Arsenal that is of the greatest interest. It was 1985 and we were going into our centenary season. Don Howe was the manager at  the time having replaced Terry Neill in December 1983. Howe was reknowned as a coaching guru as well as an Arsenal man through and through and having seen the promise of a fine start to the 1984/84 season fade away to huiliation after humiliation, Oxford and York City away, he may well have decided to take a step back from the training and have someone else take up the slack.

Cartwright was a well respected figure having worked with an exciting young Crystal Palace team that was dubbed the Team of the 80s and while I don't recalling having an opinion about him either way I was like other Arsenal fans willing to give him a chance. Surely if he was good enough for Don Howe?

1985 was despite my rose tinted glasses not the best of times for English football. Heysal and Bradford hung heavy in our memories and psyche and attendances were low as fans feared getting a kicking at a game was not worth the expense of a day out watching your favourite team. Not me. I was at the peak of my Arsenal match going experiences and when we played Southampton on a balmy Tuesday night at Highbury I carried with my cheese and onion sandwiches that blind optimism recognised by fans around the world at the first home game of the season.

In the match programme that night Don Howe introduced Cartwright to us all. 'Our new coach ...has worked very hard with the players in pre season training,' he says in his notes. 'His arrival has given me a chance to stand back and watch...John and I both want the ball played forward early, to build our attacks quickly so we can knock the ball around in our opponents half.'

In those days we didn't have Gary Neville or Arsenal Fan TV to tell us what to think but I remember feeling a little concerned. We had Charlie Nicholas and Tony Woodcock up top. Hardly the best duo to go long to. To be fair David O'Leary wrote in his autobiography he knew Cartwright wanted the teenage bean pole striker Niall Quinn to start the season up front but Howe was reluctant to drop either of the established pair.

It was a funny time at the Arsenal. We had experienced internationals like Nicholas, Woodcock, Graham Rix, Viv Anderson, Kenny Sansom, Steve Williams and Paul Mariner while younger players like Martin Hayes, Quinn, David Rocastle and Gus Caser were knocking at the door. Even from the terraces we sensed cliques in the dressing room.

Cartwright was given a page in that opening day programme to introduces himself to the faithful. He said he had been involved in a battle to change attitudes since he arrived as he called for getting the ball forward quicker. An interesting choice of words by the new arrival.

In the excellent Rebels For The Cause by Jon Spurling it seems Cartwright didn't take to kindly to the old pros and the players responded in kind. Williams called him a bastard on more than one occasion while Sansom also let rip after imbibing a bit more than he should have. Nicholas said he learnt 'bugger all' from the experienced coach.

David O'Leary, perhaps with an eye more on tact than headlines, said he got the feeling Cartwright would have been happy if Nicholas, Woodcock and Rix were never in the side. However Nicholas, for all his faults, was the nearest thing we fans had had to a terrace legend for years and the club were loathe to go against the support in that particular case.

While the old hands rebelled at Cartwright, the younger players took to him. Paul Davis had been a target for the boo boys in previous seasons, fans disappointed he hadn't taken over the Liam Brady mantle probably said more about our desperation for quality than Davo's own talents but he credits Cartwright with the turn around in his form. 'John has been a big help. He likes to talk to players individually and he gives you a lot of confidence about what you can achieve.' Can I claim some influence in Davo's return to form? That first home game I was in the heart of the North Bank and before kick off me and my mates started chanting 'Paul Davis Paul Davis. He looked up and waved. It was a chune that hadn't been heard for a while.

Treading the middle path, O'Leary said he found Cartwright a nice man 'but I think he made enemies. He told it as it was.' Davo and Rocastle both appreciated Cartwright's efforts he added.

At the end of November Cartwright was given another column in the programme for the Birmingham City game, a game where their keeper David Seaman played an absolute blinder. After spending the previous months telling us how important it was to get the ball forward quickly he was now saying it was time to build from the back! I was confuded. Now I admit my experience in the Frimley Subbuteo League and my less than legendary deeds on the playing fields of Aldershot and Farnham didn't really qualify me as a coaching guru but why change horses mid stream? why play long for two strikers who lacked aerial ability for four months then change your mind just like that?

Cartwright says it was the plan all along. 'Last season we'd been too complicated, he said (a dig at Howe?), I want us to have plenty of variety. But it was important we got the direct approach sorted out first - then start to play out from the back.'

'Sometimes you have to belt the ball quickly up front, Other times you need to play it around before you can create a gap.'

Such a big deal had been made about going long, why the sudden turn around? Admittedly he had been denied the only experienced striker with aerial ability for most of the season with Mariner injured much of the time, and Quinn was not felt to be ready despite him actually playing, and scoring, in the next home game. 

The experienced players continued to be upset by Cartwright and his methods and it was reported some of then went to speak to vice chairman David Dein to voice their concerns. Despite being fifth going into the Easter games the club were reportedly actively looking for a new manager with Terry Venables high on their list. He however rebuffed their advances, annoyed at the way the club had gone behind Howe's back and in the programme for the Watford game a curt message from the chairman in the programme told us Howe and Cartwright had been released from their contracts.

At the end of the season Cartwright met O'Leary at the Football Writers' Association dinner. 'What was the point in staying? I knew I was on a hiding to nothing once Don went.'

Today Cartwright is involved with the British Council and still has a reputation for saying it how it is. His Arsenal entry on his CV is but a brief one but while he is thought to have upsent a few players all he was doing was starting a process that was continued by George Graham when he swept in to the marble halls ahead of the 1986/87 season. The old guard were on their way out. Reputations and high salaries were not enough to impress Graham and Woodcock, Mariner were gone before a ball was kicked in anger under the new regime.

Williams, Sansom and Nicholas didn't last much longer as Graham set about moulding a team around the bright young talents of Rocastle, Davis, Adams, Hayes and Quinn as he set about finishing the work Cartwright had started.

Joe Baker's Flurry Of Goals Lighten Up Mid 1960s

Joe Baker was before my time. Well before my time. But I was inspired to do some research about him by a brief exchange on Twitter so here we go. First up, what did I know without delving into the records? Well, he played in Italy, he scored heaps of goals for us, formed a partnership with Geoff Strong, was part of a side that wasn't much cop and played for us at a time when our second kit was white!

The 22 year old Baker signed for the Arsenal ahead of the 1962/63 season. It was to be a new era at the club with ex England skipper Billy Wright appointed as manager and Les Shannon as his assistant. It was also the season Denis Hill Wood took over as chairman after Sir Bracewell Smith had stepped down and Terry Neill was appointed club captain.

The signing of Baker added to this sense of a new era beginning at a club which had been dormant for too long. The English international was playing in Italy with Torino but jumped at the chance to sign for the Arsenal and soon struck up a lethal partnership with Geoff Strong. Considering the record transfer fee handed over the Arsenal programme devoted little space to his arrival, focusing on Hill Wood's elevation to chairman and Wright's appointment, relegating Baker to the final paragraph on page three with a photo on page four. And as for the official club photograph our highly priced recruit was sat on the grass in front of his strike partner Strong.

His debut came away to Leyton Orient, a game I always associate with David Stacey for some reason, in their first season in the top flight and of course Baker scored to ensure a 2-1 win impudently nutmegging a defender and driving home from the edge of the box. Next up was Birmingham City at Highbury and again Baker netted, this time on his home debut, as we beat the Blues 2-0. In fact the programme for the Manchester United game hinted at the need for goal line technology as it writes 'In fact few people in the crowd were certain who had scored because it was one of those occasions where the ball was bobbling about on the goal line and it was not possible to discern from the stands the precise moment at which the ball crossed the line.'

There then followed a run of five losses in six games though Baker continued to find the net, scoring twice in that poor run. After 12 games Arsenal were 15th with three wins and just nine points on the board, this in the time of two points for a win. Then came two phenomenal games when a Baker hat trick inspired us to beat third place Wolves 5-2 and a week later we drew 5-5 with Blackburn away with two more from Baker.

Our new signing ended his campaign with 29 goals in his 39 league games. Not a bad return while his partner Strong his 18. This set the pattern for his career at the club. The following season he hit 26 in 39 as we finished eighth 25 in 42 in 1964/65. His final season was 1965/66. We finished 14th and Baker missed most of the second half of the season, scoring his last goal for the club in a 5-2 win at home to Sheffield Wednesday. He had signed for Nottingham Forest in the February.

With the likes of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Ian Wright it's almost like we take striker hitting 100 goals plus for granted. Baker netted 100 in 156 games, a remarkable achievement in what was arguably a poor side. But as he headed up the M6 to join Forest a new team was coalescing around an Arsenal core with Bob Wilson, Frank McLintock, George Armstrong John Radford, Peter Simpson and Peter Storey gradually getting more game time. And we know what happened to them!

There was one more highlight for Baker in that final season. The club went on a pre season tour to the Caribbean playing a number of games in Trinidad and Jamaica. Arsenal beat Jamaica Sugar estates XI 12-0 with Joe Baker netting six goals. Interestingly manager and assiatnt Wright and Shannon gave themselves run outs while proper Arsenal people Wilson, Armstrong, Don Howe and Terry Neill also played. 

So what kind of player was Baker? Arsenal A Complete Record describes him as a little unpredictable while a feature on Arsenal's top marksmen that was featured in the Arsenal programmes in 1979/80 says his 'tremendous speed and cracking shot were a menace to defenders. He was described as 5 foot 8 inches tall but that didn't stop him kicking off with Liverpool's giant defender Ron Yeats one year. Then there was the time he replaced the injured Jack McClelland between the posts one year, conceding five goals in the process. 

I guess with the emergence of John Radford the club felt there was no longer a need for Baker and hindsight suggests the decisions made proved correct. However at at time when the club was poor on the field his goals in the early to mid 1960s, a time when that lot up the road were in the ascendancy, gave the hard pressed Arsenal fans something to cheer about.

Happy Memories From Goodison Park

I woke up in time for the second half of Arsenal's loss away to Everton last night and wish I hadn't bothered. It seemed to be one of those games we have always been capable of down the years. The apparent like of fight and desire to get among the opponents. From Terry Neill to Arsene Wenger via George Graham I have seen Arsenal teams put in listless shifts like this. I guess it's just a football thing though we do seem to be afflicted more than others and as an Arsenal fan I would of course say that!

It hasn't always been like this of course. There have been some wonderful triumphs at Goodison Park in recent years under Arsene Wenger, though the only time I have seen us there under his tutelege was a 2-2 draw back in 1997 when I felt paying 23 quid for a seat was absolutely scandalous! Again in my defence I had been away a long time!

One game that does stick in my mind was January 1989. We were top of the table at the time, two points clear of second place Norwich City and seven ahead of Millwall. Note the date. This was after all three years before Sky invited football and seven years before Wenger invented Arsenal.

Everton were 10 points behind us in sixth but Goodison was never a trip to be taken lightly. And anyway the Toffees had twice been champions in 1985 and 1987 so were packing a greater recent pedigree going into this game. 

34,825 filed into Goodison Park that winter Saturday, their second biggest home crowd of the season at the time, to see the Arsenal make it six consecutive wins. Paul Merson gave us the lead running on to David Rocastle's diagonal ball. Rocky was provider again when Smith headed home his 17th in all competitions before Kevin Richardson drove the ball home from close range to complete the victory.

We were imperious that day and one of my abiding memories is of the Everton fans applauding our lads off the field at the end of the game. Unfortunately a week later we were held 1-1 by Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury and George Graham responded by taking to team to Bermuda for some sunshine and a couple of friendlies.

The season would end on a high of course as we went to Anfield and won the league, Michael Thomas and all that.

Boot & Bootboys

1966/67 wasn't a good year to be an Arsenal fan. England may have won the world cup but there was no knock on effect for the Arsenal despite winning their first three games of the season. They followed that with one win in 13 and crowds dropped to the low 20,000s.

It was also the season when Arsenal debuted in the League Cup and despite overcoming Gillingham after three games they succumbed at home to West Ham 3-1.

For some reason best known to the club they did away with the white sleeves for the second consecutive campaign and just wore a plain red shirt while the away colours were white.

The picture comes from the programme againt Liverpool when Arsenal were held 1-1, George Graham scoring for the home team. Interestingly it seemed the atmosphere for the game was less than genial prompting one irate gent, a Mr McNally from Suffolk, to write into the club complaining about the actions of some of the fans.

Mr McNally was nothing less than 'utterly appalled' by the actions and antics of some of the Arsenal support and the club seemed to agree, replying to his letter in the Nottingham Forest programme that they hoped the yobs would 'stay away...Arsenal can do without their financial support'.

As for the guy in the picture. His name is Mickey Boot and he played just three games that season, plus one as a substitute. And that was all he managed throughout his Arsenal league career; his first game came in the League Cup tie at home to West Ham.

He made his league debut against Newcastle in October 1966, scoring the first goal in a 2-0 win. He was kept in the side for the next game, away to Leeds, and scored again but it wasn't enough to stop us falling to a 3-1 defeat. The next game, a 3-2 loss at home to West Bromwich Albion was his last start for us and a substitute appearance at home to Leeds marked his last appearance for the Arsenal.

After a spell in South Africa and the English non league he moved to Australia. And Arsenal? They somehow finished the season in seventh!