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You’re havin’ a laugh, Arsenal I decided to hunt out funny Arsenal quotes to give us a bit of a break from all the doom and gloom at the moment. Arteta out, Arsenal are rubbish, the players don’t know how to play -until we win a few matches and then we are the greatest again. We are the team with the best average points ever in the English top flight, we have the longest unbroken spell in the top flight, we have a gold Premier League trophy, and the first successful foreign manager in English football. We also have some funny men. I bet you didn’t know that Arsene Wenger couldn’t count – “Manuel Almunia took the criticism and responded with one word – his performance on the pitch.” Arsene Wenger uses five words instead of one” Or his grasp of English “Where his balls go, you will be quite surprised.” Arsene Wenger on Denilson’s attributes His knowledge of economics “The Germans do well economically and we respect that. They are the only ones that make money in Europe. That’s why we’ve chosen a German.” Wenger on why Mertesacker was asked to collect player’s fines. Eh? “l should invite you sometimes to come into the dressing room and look at the legs of Alex Hleb after a game. You would be amazed.” Arsene Wenger His knowledge of biology “I’m amazed how big Patrick Vieira’s elbows are – they can reach players 10 yards away.” Arsene Wenger I guess they were elastic Ray Parlour’s cockney accent gave a few problems “Ray is without doubt the funniest player l’ve ever trained with. lt’s so important to have players such as Ray involved with the group, for his contribution on the field and spirit off it. I only wish I could understand more of what he says.” Gilles Grimandi on Ray Parlour Go on, say something, Ray “I can understand everyone apart from Ray Parlour.” Junichi Inamoto Merse probably only knew about betting shops Paul Merson: “Who the f*ck’s that?” Nigel Winterburn: “Bloody hell Merse, it’s Nelson Mandela.” It's Nelson Mandela, Merse David Dein had practical problems and a surprise “We nearly didn’t sign him because the letters did not fit on his shirt.” David Dein on the signing of Giovanni van Bronckhorst “I ran home immediately to my wife in excitement and said, ‘I’ve seen the nearest thing to a Brazilian footballer you’ll ever see in our Academy... and he’s from Lewisham!’” David Dein on David Rocastle Wrighty is right and Adams is honest about Dennis Bergkamp “Dennis Bergkamp is such a nice man, such a tremendous gentleman, with such a lovely family. It’s going to be hard for me to kick him.” Tony Adams on going up against his Gunners teammate on international duty “If Dennis Bergkamp was in Star Trek, he’d be the best player in whatever solar system they were in.” Ian Wright Bodily functions please the fans according to Ashley Cole “He only has to fart during a warm-up and they’re singing his name from the rafters.” Ashley Cole on Freddie Ljungberg It’s hard having a member according to Charlie George Maybe, Charlie “As for that rumour about me having an erection while I was lying there, that’s b*llocks. I never got an erection after scoring a goal.” Charlie George on his famous celebration after scoring the 1971 FA Cup final winner Arsenal people definitely suffer with biology Reporter: “You’re eyes are streaming – are you all right?” Mel Charles: “I’m OK. I’ve just got clitorises in my eyes.” The Gunners player suffered from cataracts Or maybe Grimsby, Nick? Journalist: “Where would your next move be?” Nicklas Bendtner: “If I could decide: Real Madrid or Barcelona.” Bendtner again – unfortunately no-one else “If you ask me if I am one of the best strikers in the world, I’d say ‘yes’ because I believe it.” Nicklas Bendtner You are some funny guy, Nick “Everything I do I always feel very confident. Whether it’s tennis, badminton, football, whatever. I just go out there and think I can do it and most of the time I can. What I’m good at I don’t mind saying because it’s not a secret, is it? Nicklas Bendtner The greatest striker in the world, although this seems like a terrible picture of Thierry Henry At least he got this right “I want to be top scorer in the Premier League, top scorer at the World Cup and over the next five years I want to be among the best players in the world. Trust me, this will happen.” Nicklas Bendtner I believed this one “l am not going to leave. Never. I am staying here for life.” Thierry Henry stays at Arsenal shortly before he leaves for Barcelona Ah, no, Theo Boo hoo Theo “I played so badly that even my parents booed me off when I was substituted.” Theo Walcott on playing for England U21s Our real hard man “The trick was to get in early as possible, hit them hard, give them a good wallop, make them feel as if they’d been in a car crash or hit a brick wall.” Peter Storey We love you Arsenal, we do “Once it was lucky Arsenal. Then it was boring Arsenal, but now we’ve got a real problem because we’re in danger of being liked.” Peter Hill-Wood Eh, yes? “Our objective is to keep Arsenal English, but with a lot of foreign players.” Peter Hill-Wood Don Corleone playing against Arsenal “It’s a bit hard to play like a gentleman with someone closely resembling an enthusiastic member of the mafia swiping his studs down your legs, or kicking you up in the air from behind.” Did Don Corleone really play for Italy? Eddie Hapgood, playing for England in a bad-tempered match against Italy at Highbury Never any problems at the back, Tony “When the captain said there was a problem at the back I thought he meant me and Steve Bould.” Tony Adams after an Arsenal flight was delayed Correct, Dennis “Dennis Bergkamp told me the Dutch always thought of the English as strong but stupid.” Tony Adams It’s a wonderland, Perry Perry Groves - he played every position except no.7 “Kenny Dalglish came on at the same time as me and everyone expected him to win it for Liverpool. But here I was, a ginger-haired nobody, setting up the winning goal for Arsenal.” Perry Groves on the 1987 League Cup final win over the Reds I will leave you with this one The late Peter Hill-Wood “Call me old fashioned, but we don’t need his money and we don’t want his sort. They only see an opportunity to make money. They know sweet FA about our football and we don’t want these types involved.” Peter Hill-Wood after reported interest in the club by US businessman Stan Kroenke

Should we have stayed at Highbury? Quite a lot of you have been at the Emirates. You know what it is all about. It is a commercial wonderland. No matter how much money you have you could spend it there. So c’mon, you have won big on the lottery and you decide to bring a bunch of your mates (15) to an executive box for a big match day? £13125 will leave your pocket which is close to a grand a person. If you decide to let them buy what they want from the Arsenal store that could be any sort of figure. Throw in five star hotels and limousines you could be looking at £30,000 to £50,000 for your day out. And do you want the bad news? I had a look and most are sold out. You have to go on a waiting list. The Captains lounge - one of the many executive boxes The Emirates is a goldmine. Highbury was more like a copper mine. The Kroenke’s expertise is in sports centres that are also shopper’s paradises. They have the largest collection of them in the States. And hey, the ground has capacity for up to 75,000 for which an application to expand has been handed in. No doubt there will be more executive boxes bringing in lots more dosh if successful. A good big guy will always beat a good little one Highbury’s capacity was 38,419 but without anywhere near the footprint of the Emirates. The huge panorama surrounding the ground makes all sorts of possibilities for extracting money from fans. Highbury made $171.76M in its last year in 2006. The latest year for which we have figures for Arsenal is 2022/3 and it is £464M. The current rate of exchange is approx. £131M so you can see something like a 3-4 times rise. But last season we had Champions League football and again this year so the figure will be a lot more. The tight pitch at Highbury There is no argument. The Emirates brings in a lot more cash. It puts us up with the big boys. If we had stayed at Highbury the Kroenkes would have had to find ways of making money from a much lower match-day base. What do the fans say? What about from a fan's point of view? Highbury was more fun for me. It was smaller, more intimate, and the players were nearly in your face. The Emirates is much bigger including the pitch and it is harder to see what’s happening at the other end of the pitch. As against that there is much more happening there, it is easier to buy food and drink and go to the toilet. Arsenal Souvenirs are to be had in abundance. Little chance of meeting the players at the Emirates It is definitely harder to link up with players. At Highbury players would hang around for the fans after a match and you could even find them in the pubs afterwards. Good luck with trying that nowadays. The trophies say no What about trophies? The Emirates has a very long way to go to catch up with Highbury with 4 FA Cups and 5 Charity Shields over 18 years. We do need the Premier League and the Champions League to sit nicely in our trophy cabinet, and many times as well if we are to say that the move was a success. Wenger and Dein - the creators of the Emirates and the saviours of Arsenal The crucial factor is that Arsene Wenger and David Dein knew that the Emirates move was a strategic necessity. Billionaires and oil rich states were coming into play and Arsenal needed to compete. We were the second best current team to Manchester United when we left Highbury and now we are the second best team to Manchester City so it could be argued that, even in a football sense, we are starting to catch up. The move was essential. Our final Highbury years were the greatest The situation looks worse, however if you look at the 18 years of the Emirates against the final 18 years of Highbury. 5 League titles, 1 European Cup-Winners Cup, 5 FA Cups, 1 League Cup and 4 Charity Shields plus one drawn. Add in two doubles and a double League Cup/Fa Cup in 1993 and we surely have a long way to go. I would love to swop the Cupwinners Cup for the Champions League trophy I think it is fair to say that without the revenues of the Emirates, we would have no chance of matching the Highbury achievements of their final 18 years. We do seem to have a lot of strong elements in place to make the next 18 years as strong as those years. I would certainly take those records, particularly if you exchange the Champions League for the defunct Cup-Winners Cup. The Emirates is in a world of its own The Emirates will never have that close atmosphere of Highbury. It looks very different, it feels totally different, and the sound levels from the fans, now that we are winning, is raucous and pulls us all together. The Emirates is still new, shiny and very big. It is the base on which we can now spring forward. Will the Kroenkes ever make the Arsenal stadium better than the Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles which cost them $5.5 billion? In short, it is very hard to make any real comparisons between the two. We had to make the move. We made the right one. We are still in the same area. Islington is still our home. Arsenal is Arsenal and we have shown that our ground is not us, just a part of us. We are Arsenal, we have the best ground in the UK, the best fans (mostly, I don’t like the out brigade or the only support when we are winning brigade) and I think we might just have the best team as well. It is a good time to be an Arsenal supporter.

The greatest English stadium and it is ours I have no idea how many of you Gooners out there who read my stuff have been to the Emirates. There is something like 1000 supporters in ASCB. I would say, judging by the amount I have seen, that quite a few have made the journey. I wonder how many have been to other stadiums in the UK? Probably not so many. Herbert Chapman likes looking at our magnificent stadium Today I want to praise the Emirates Stadium because it is unique. It is in the middle of a very busy part of London and close to the centre. Highbury was great, lively and yet impressive with its marble halls and the closeness of the pitch. However, the Emirates has everything, a museum, a huge shop, an extensive box office, lots of stalls and bars selling all sorts outside and long bars inside to cater for the food and drink of 60,000 spectators. It is a big operation and you become an essential part of the match day experience, you help to create the atmosphere and help Arsenal to win. All of our history can be found there What is it like? There are many statues of our greats, and, as you cross the bridges to get into the main hub, nonstop photos of major figures, past and present. The history of the Arsenal is all round us, everywhere we go. If you go there with a knowledgeable Gooner, such as myself, you can learn what it is that makes Arsenal great just by asking questions about everything you see. In my opinion this is one area in which Arsenal are the best. We have the most tributes to the club on match days because we have a huge area around the stadium. I don’t believe any other club in England has such a panorama. The Henry statue - a great meeting place Another fantastic aspect is if you arrange to meet anyone, there are plenty of excellent meeting points. The statues are the obvious ones, take your choice of all the Arsenal legends commemorated there and take the opportunity for selfies as well. Have your picture taken with the master himself, Arsene Wenger, or Mr Arsenal Tony Adams, or our greatest, Thierry Henry. Mingling with the fans is the greatest experience Outside the ground, there is the Arsenal Supporters club bar which is not only a very useful meeting point but also essential if you are to become a diehard Gooner. It is full of memorabilia from down the days and you may even spot a former top player there. The smell of the burgers is integral to the match day experience I guess most of you that go there come by public transport. There is a huge choice from the Arsenal tube station to the Holloway Road, Highbury and Islington, and Finsbury Road stations where you join the streams of fans chanting and singing. You can never lose your way to the stadium – you just follow the fans. As you get closer there are more and more stalls appearing, selling everything from burgers to scarves, caps, and programmes. The aroma of the food frying lets you know you are home at the Arsenal. You won’t starve and you could end up with more colour on you than any rainbow. I love that walk up to the stadium. I feel more at home then than maybe anywhere. The magic letters get you in All you need to do then is find your turnstile entry letter and there are sixteen A, D, E, H, J, K, M, N & S. which get you into the four stands The North Bank, The Clock End, The West and East Stands. Then you must find your seat but there are plenty of helpful stewards for newbies. It’s all easy. Get in early and there are no queues You first see all the food and drink stalls as they circle the entire ground. There are big queues but they move along quickly enough. You cannot bring alcohol to your seats, though. You create the atmosphere The Emirates is good for viewing in general but watch out if you are on the lower pitchside seats as often people stand for the entire match which means you also have to do so. I have a problem from a badly broken ankle three years ago and I struggle to stand for long periods. I am not tall either so it can be difficult to see. The higher stands are better for such practices as you have a better view of the entire pitch than when you are low where people stand in order to see better. I much prefer the higher stands. Pitchside can be tricky And the atmosphere? It just gets better every year. The addition of North London Forever to our repertoire means that excitement builds from when you hear the opening bars of Louis Dunford’s classic. The sound seems to rise up from the ground, through the stone, and you feel your heart lifting, you become an integral part of the stadium and the Arsenal. You are now Arsenal. You have a bearing on the outcome of the match. You are there to push your team on. You feel the symbiosis creeping into your body as you become one with the team, the crowd, and even the bricks and mortar of the stadium. You know you are home. More spaces = more success? There is talk of increasing the capacity to 75,000. The stadium is designed for many more as you can see where it dips. That can be built upon to make the capacity bigger, comparatively cheaply and quickly. I doubt if it could be done in the close season but I still feel that it could be done maybe by reducing the capacity and just having building works where the stands are being made bigger. Maybe six months might be possible in that scenario. It would just be the seats and the bars and food stalls underneath them. Arsenal fans can be fickle Of course, a bigger ground means that success must be guaranteed. Arsenal fans quickly slope away once we start losing. Not so long ago it was a lot easier to get tickets when we were high midtable. Now we are near the top everyone wants them. Our two main heroes need to be recognised at every match One thing I would like to point out and that is that without David Dein and particularly Arsene Wenger, it would never have been built but neither seem to appear regularly. That needs to change and they both need to be there and applauded at every match. Without them there would be no Emirates stadium and probably few of the many trophies and achievements that made us a great team. We must never forget that. Dein and Wenger - they are the Emirates Stadium To end on a positive note, we have probably the best stadium in the country. All around there is history, input from the fans (lots from ASCB), all kinds of everything in Arsenal accessories, fans from everywhere, some every week, some for the first time. All have that magical level of expectation that they are where they want to be, a part of the Arsenal, drinking in the sights and the smells, looking up, looking around, and being mesmerized by seeing their heroes outside and the real-life players battling for us on the pitch. We are home and we know it.

Born to be a footballer. Liam Brady and I have some parallels. We are both from Dublin, we come from large families, and being almost 2 years older than me, we grew up in that same milieu of Irish nationalistic Catholic forces controlling a poor country on the edge of Europe. He differs in that his brothers are all older and several were professional footballers before him. His uncles and outside family also played sport at the highest level in Gaelic games so it inspired the title of his book Born to be a footballer. Johnny Murphy, David O'Leary, Frank Stapleton and Liam Brady as young Irish kids at Arsenal He bumped up against the same Catholic forces early in his career as, when picked to captain Ireland against Wales at under 15, his school, run by the Christian Brothers, refused to let him go to represent a foreign game. He was expelled and forced to find another school exactly when studying for an important state exam. This was par for the course in the 60’s and 70’s, and in every area of society, the Catholic church held sway. Not so chippy about his nickname Around the same time he was chosen by Arsenal, despite, typically of an Irish kid at the time, being a Man Utd fan. He recalls an early occurrence during this time when the chief scout at Arsenal, his parents and himself were taken out to a fancy restaurant in London. His mother looked at the menu and said “he only eats chips”. And his immortal nickname was born, from fried potatoes and not an ability to chip the goalkeeper. The name never went away, although, reading the book, I am not sure he particularly likes it. This is how to win an FA Cup He broke into the first team at 18, under the mentorship of the legendary Alan Ball, and it wasn’t too long before everyone realized we had something special. If you do nothing else, look at a Youtube highlights clip to get an appreciation of what he could do on the pitch. The art of dribbling around multiple players has gone from modern football as has the degree of ball artistry that we could see on a regular basis. There was an excitement when Brady got the ball, a cheer from the fans, and an expectation of something different. Watch him ghost through several players near the end of the famous Brady cup final of 1979 against Manchester United, as Arsenal were on their knees when Man U rattled in two goals late on to almost destroy us. He took the ball well in our own half, with nothing on and players with heads bowed, and cut through Man U, bringing the ball close to the edge of the box, whipping it out to Graham Rix on the wing, who fired it in to Alan Sunderland, and one of our most famous late goals was created out of Brady’s magic. Juventus wanted him and the Arsenal board were greedy We all loved him but knew Arsenal were stingy with money, particularly with home grown players. When he bravely moved to Juventus in the early 80’s, there was little personal anger towards him. We hadn’t done anywhere near enough to keep what was probably the best player in the league. And so he went to Italy for huge money and a team brimming with many world superstars, Tardelli, Rossi, Zoff, Gentile, Scirea and Cabrini were integral parts of Italy’s 1982’s World Cup winners and Juventus had the legendary Giovanni Trapattoni as manager. It must have seemed an extreme ask of a kid from Dublin but Liam became one of the fans favourites and is still loved there today despite being ousted after 2 years by the arrival of Michel Platini, then probably the best midfielder in the world. Brady and Juventus - a love story Brady was incandescent with rage when told the news and said he would never play for them again. But on the last match of the season, there was a penalty given, and Brady, being the penalty taker, was urged by his teammates to take it. He stepped up and scored to win them the title in his last significant kick for them. But you can still trace the bitterness in this book as he recounts the story. He loved Juventus, the fans, his teammates, playing on the biggest stage in world football at the time. He and his wife learned Italian, loved the country, the food, and their fabulous villa by the lake. And it was all snatched away. But he spent many more years in Italy and is an iconic figure there. Italy took football very seriously One aspect that struck me on reading the book was how different the footballing culture was in Italy. England were dominating European football at the time but Italy had already embraced changes which Arsene Wenger brought with him a long time later, a good diet, little alcohol, top training facilities, etc. English football dominated despite the fast food, hard drinking and basic training culture prevalent at the time. Brady reunited with Trappatoni at Ireland All aspects of Liam’s life are covered here, from the early days with Arsenal and Ireland, to Italy and back to West Ham, where he seems to have had a very positive experience, on to his managerial days. First at Celtic, where a combination of many factors conspired against success, and then Brighton for 3 years. The Brighton years are a fascinating read of mismanagement at boardroom level as the club was laid low by greed. Brady did well considering all, but often had to dig into his own pocket to keep things going. He, however, kept in touch with all developments and played a role in getting the club back on its feet. He still lives there and is immensely pleased at how good management turned the club around to being probably the biggest success story, given their resources, in the Premier league. Anecdotal Bulgaria and other great stories Oh and by the way, there are several mentions of Bulgaria throughout the book as Ireland had them on the international stage, well worth reading. And also a good tribute to Paul Dickov, who Brady had at Brighton. He was full of praise for him. Brady always supported Arsene Wenger All the way through, there are references to funny and illuminating passages in his life. Pavarotti, silk pyjamas, Trappatoni’s 2 fingered whistle and his insistence that players must know their jobs and work very hard, his love of music, his “friendship” with Bono, the mentorship of Johnny Giles, his bizarre relationship with Jack Charlton, his media work and his struggles with Ireland’s most controversial football pundit, Eamon Dunphy, the early days with Arsenal, the amazing Irish connection, the amount of good friends he has in football, some surprising to me, and the list goes on and on. But don’t miss out on the funny story with Bruce Rioch. He spanned all our modern history The critical element to Liam Brady and this book, for football fans, is that he straddled all the important history, from Bertie Mee’s double to Terry Neill’s FA cup finals, both with the legendary Don Howe to guide them. Then the 90’s and the emergence of Arsene Wenger, with whom he built up a very strong partnership with Wenger famously saying that Liam was the most important person at the club. David Dein made an inspired decision to match Liam Brady with Arsene Wenger David Dein, the man who made the modern Arsenal, appointed Brady as Academy director in the mid 90’s, and insisted that Brady’s job was not to be connected to the manager’s, he could not be fired. He wanted someone who understood the continental values and culture that Wenger famously brought with him to change English football. The Academy kids could have continuity and safety because Brady was always a decent man and insisted on giving bad news to players and their families in person. All the Hale End stars bouncing bright for Arsenal now were first nurtured by Brady. Here he has produced a top class football book. It will stay as a classic of the genre forever, I feel. As a writer, a storyteller, an insight into 3 different worlds of football, the international, the pre-Premier League days of English football, and the all encompassing milieu and harsh cauldron of Italian football as it pushed along the modern game. Liam has shown a great talent as a chronicler of football and I hope he produces another tome for us to enjoy. But for us fans, it was the beautiful football he could produce, we were enthralled by the way he played, the grace, the movement, the balance, the goals, we couldn’t get enough of our wonderman. Johnny Giles said he was the most beautiful footballer Ireland ever produced, and I am going to say also for Arsenal. He was bello, stupendo, and in modo magnifico and definitely Nato per fare il calciatore.

The greatest of all time And so in 1953, we had more championships than any other English team with 7 titles and 3 FA Cups achieved in 16 competitive years between 1931 and 1953 with 6 war years lost. We were the best, the famous Arsenal and the only southern team, to that time, to win the league more than once. We were about to embark on an unprecedented spell of winning everything. And then it all went wrong, in a scenario so familiar to Gooners, just when it all goes right, it goes haywire. Because we settled into mid-table obscurity from that point, not frightening anyone except our own supporters. The Mee Howe dynasty brought us back to greatness Then we, rather strangely, appointed the physio, Bertie Mee, as acting manager in 1966 presumably waiting for a proper candidate to appear. But Don Howe was appointed coach and that surely was the key decision. Howe was a real football man, good with players and tactics and a vast football knowledge, a bit like Arteta in our time. The Chinese dynasty sounding combination took time to get going but in 1968 we got to the League Cup final against Leeds and again the next year against Swindon, when I first set my eyes on bonny Arsenal as my love. We lost both but something was stirring in that old sleeping beast. We won the predecessor to the Europa League the following season, meaning the long wait to be Arsenal again was surely over? Howe did Mee do it? The Double 1971 - the Mee Howe dynasty's greatest achievement And wow it was! The next year we captured the almost mystical double of league and cup, only won by the Spuds in the 20th century to that point, and something our great teams of the past could not do. The combination of Mee and Howe, accidental though it was, enabled us to get back to the top, one complementing the other as it is hard to see Mee achieving it by himself and Howe never had great success as a manager. That accidental pairing brought great rewards to the Arsenal and we were surely crazy to let Howe go to West Brom straightaway as Mee found himself out of his depth and we started another downward spiral, although we remained competitive for a year or so, almost getting relegated over the next few years. The Neill Howe dynasty - not so great Terry Neill was appointed in 1977, still Arsenal’s youngest manager. He brought Don Howe back and got us to 3 FA Cups in a row and a Cup Winners Cup Final, of which we only won the famous Brady final of 1979 against Manchester United. He had 6 Irishmen to choose from and that gladdened my heart. More crucially, the pairing got us back near the top again. But then, being Arsenal, we fell back to being mediocre. Our wonderful Georgey boy And so the next crucial time was the double winner George Graham taking over in 1986. He hadn’t managed at a top club and it was a definite gamble. But it worked! He won two titles in 1989 and 1991, the FA Cup in 1993, our second European title in 1994 with the Cup Winners Cup and our only 2 league cups in 1987 and 1993, The thing is that 2 events happened fairly close together, one was the creation of the Premier league in 1992 and Graham taking a bung in 1994 which led to him getting banned and losing his job. George Graham deserves a statue The Premier league also introduced the no backpass rule and this severely discommoded George as he liked to play it very tight at the back and his team were struggling a bit in the league. The thing is that he was a very knowledgeable football man and he may well have been able to put that right and Graham seemed to be the only one to get punished for taking a backhander as it was rife in football at the time. Possibly David Dein had a hand in this as he was generally regarded as the real creator of the Premier League and had a very prominent position within it. He may not have wanted to be tarnished by dirty dealings. But if Graham had not lost his job he could have been at Arsenal for another ten years or more if he was reasonably or very successful. The Arsene Wenger era would not have happened and the magical changes he wrought turned into dust. David Dein – the magician who made everything happen Now, I am going to take a jump backward at this point to talk about David Dein as I believe his time at the Arsenal to be crucial to Arsenal once again becoming a major force in world football. He became vice-chairman of Arsenal in 1983 until 2007 and proved himself a very knowledgeable football man who cared about everyone associated with the Arsenal. Most people accept that he ran Arsenal in his time. So, the appointment of George Graham was done on his watch to bring us the great times back, and he pretty much forced the appointment of Arsene Wenger through believing that English football had fallen behind the great teams from the continent of Europe in many areas, from training facilities, to medical practices, grounds, tactics, diet, etc. He pushed for Wenger to allow him to revolutionise English football as befitted its status as the pioneers of the Premier League. David Dein - at the heart of everything Arsenal Dein was very close to the players and staff at Arsenal, he was involved in every major decision, he pushed for top players to be signed such as Ian Wright, David Bergkamp and David Platt. He allowed George Graham the freedom to bring his tactical know-how, his discipline, and his ability to shape a team where he had the best possible player available for every position to make Arsenal once again winners. The new giants He did the same with Wenger, giving him the freedom to find the players he wanted, control over training, facilities, diet, pitches, and the holistic approach to football that garnered so much success. They worked as a double act, a sounding board for each other as Dein discussed team issues and Wenger discussed financial and control issues. And as I have said, most people credit David Dein as being the creator of the Premier League which gave Arsenal and Wenger the opportunity to take their place among the giants of the era in the new televised and analysed from every angle global phenomenon that is professional soccer. The European Cup winners cup - Graham's last trophy Next week, I will finish up with the Wenger era, the expansion of mega money in football, the creation of the Emirates, the overthrow of Dein and then Arsene, the doldrums following their departures, and the hopeful awakening of a new epoch for that grand old club, the Arsenal, under Mikel Arteta. And finally, I will choose my candidate for the most important era.