Arsenal fan.

I went first to Arsenal as a Junior Gunner in 1980 (I still can’t believe my parents let me go and stand with my mates in the North Bank, especially when the likes of Millwall came to Highbury). After that, I was a season ticket holder for the next 25 years or so - firstly in Highbury and then (briefly) the Emirates. I emigrated to New Zealand last year and can’t say I miss that much about London or England, but one thing I do really miss is the Arsenal.

Some great memories include:

- Of course, Mickey Thomas’ goal at Anfield (the greatest memory of all)
- Being in Paris for the Champions League final, and nearly winning it (and we probably would have if Henry’s legs hadn’t already gone when he had that 1-on-1 with the keeper)
- Bergkamp playing against non-Leaguers Cheltenham Town - it really seemed that he had arrived on Earth from a different planet.
- 11 years of watching Wenger’s teams playing beautiful football.
- Countless trips to Wembley and Cardiff.
- The whole of the Arsenal away crowd being charged by a single tattoed skinhead at Elland Road. He lost.
- Being able to laugh at S**** fans for the last 20 years.
- Countless others, including great Wrighty and Henry goals, Tony Adams clearing into row ZZ, hearing the crunch of bones as a Winterburn tackle went in, Overmars flying down the wing, Seaman’s ponytail, nothing ever passing Petit and Viera in midfield, Robbie P and Cole interchanging on the wing, Fabregas hitting a slide-rule pass, etc etc.

Some thoughts on the club are:

- I feel that Arsenal is unique among the big clubs in retaining its core values. These are encapsulated by Arsene Wenger, but also by the Board. However, external pressures are gradually cranking up and I feel that it’s only a matter of time before the Man Utd-loving oligarch gets his hands on the club and we go the way of Chelsea and Man City.

- On the subject of replacing Arsene Wenger, am I missing something here? Replace him with who? Peter Reid? Bryan Robson? In building the new squad (and forgetting just for the moment the silverware and pleasure his teams have brought us in the last 11 years), Wenger has produced miracles to get us to where we are on his budget. Semi-finals of the Champions League, in the CL again next year, with the best youth team and youth team policy in the world. Sure we had a disappointing season and, of course, we are all used to trophies but it’s a tough league and there are much richer clubs around than us. He deserves at least another couple of years to see if the team can really gel now and win something. He also needs the Board to front up the money and put the first team players on attractive contracts (which is partly why we had problems last season). Of course we also need to buy quality in a few key positions this year, particularly centre-half and central midfield.

So looking forward to seeing who we will sign over the next few months and if we can challenge next year. I don’t think we’re as far off as some people think, but we need to start well against the minor teams to build some confidence, as we are more fragile than the other contenders.

Cheers

David