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1995-96 Bruce Rioch showed us a dark side to Arsenal The Dark season Bruce Rioch came in as manager. I can’t remember any fans being happy. He had done reasonably well in the lower divisions but nothing about him suggested he was a top flight manager. Ian Wright famously wrote in his autobiography that they didn’t get on. He didn’t like his dictatorial ways and Rioch also didn’t exactly play Wright too much and he only got 23 goals in all competitions, which was poor by his standards. But he did bring in David Platt who was superb and could score goals as an attacking midfielder. He added to Arsenal’s England regulars as well. He game had improved in Italy where he had come from Sampdoria, Juventus and Bari. Honestly, at the time, it seemed a great buy as he was at the top of his game. The brightness at the start All good here for Bruce Rioch But the real coup was Dennis Bergkamp, who in my opinion was the best ball player I have ever seen at Arsenal, eclipsing Liam Brady and Thierry Henry in pure footballing ability. He was a genius. You may never see goals like his again. The ball would stick to his foot like glue and he could do everything, left foot, right foot and his head. He was unbelievable for free kicks and brought a huge touch of class to the premiership. David Dein was instrumental in both buys and it seems Arsene Wenger was consulted about both. This was the strange part of the situation. David Dein had wanted Wenger, but foreign managers had never worked out before in English football, all had failed to a greater or lesser extent, and the board prevailed this time. Soon turns dark I would love to know whether many fans were happy with the appointment of Rioch as I never heard or spoke to any. It seems it didn’t take long for dissent to show in the dressing room as Wright was consigned to the wing and was very unhappy. Dein was close to all the players and always knew what was going on behind the scenes. Rioch was following George Graham, our best manager in my lifetime up to then. No easy act to follow. But he had a team full of eminent internationals, a leading stadium, and was heavily supported in the transfer market. Platt and Bergkamp were top notch, a real joy for a manager to be given. The light kept going on and off So what happened on the pitch? We had 3 draws and 4 wins in our first 7, so not too bad. Then a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea. We were ok but not really challenging and this was reflected in our mid season position of 7th. We improved a bit to 5th at the end but almost 20 points behind Manchester United on top. We were definitely underachieving since the Premier League appeared. We should never have been out of the top 3 with the team we had, but Graham struggled with the backpass rule and couldn’t get the players to perform at their best, and neither could Rioch despite the obvious strengthening with top players. Rioch was strict and had intensive training sessions which the players didn’t seem to like. Brian Clough, in contrast, believed that he wanted players to run on the pitch, not on the training ground and he believed the ball was an integral part of training. Clough’s achievements are legendary with small teams, Rioch would never come close to anything like it. Wright, and others believed in practicing with the ball, improving their skills at all times. Wright often stayed there all day, practicing free kicks, scoring, left foot, right foot, head. Bergkamp improved all the players The most magical of footballers He credits Dennis Bergkamp, however, for showing him a better way to train, in improving his skills, aiming always for improvement. Wright came late to top class football and always wanted to get up to the level of those around him. I guess he had a little of the imposter syndrome about him, that he would need to get better in case they realise he shouldn’t really be there. And this was the crux with Rioch, he didn’t seem to rate Ian Wright and he put in a transfer request. Wright needed the manager to believe in him and while he did have the skillset to play on the wing, it was never his best position and effected his belief system. Rioch had only one chance, really. The team needed to win. They didn’t. Not enough. A defeat and a draw to the Spuds didn’t help. Going out in the 3rd round of the cup to our old friends Sheffield Utd after a replay didn’t help and we didn’t have a Euro trophy to compete in. The League Cup was better but we were beaten by Aston Villa over 2 legs in the semis. By February, the only thing we had to play for was a spot in the Uefa Cup. He did get that in 5th although it was because Liverpool qualified for the Cupwinners cup and gave up their spot in the Uefa cup to Arsenal. There wasn’t lots of spots in European trophies in those days. Thrown into darkness So he had a transfer row with the board at the end of the season and was pushed out. He was probably the most unpopular manager in my time. One year for an Arsenal manager is unusual and those who have read all my columns up to now will know that I like that about Arsenal, we don’t fire managers quickly. We give them a chance. Rioch didn’t do all that badly, but a combination of Dein wanting Arsene Wenger in and the players revolting against Rioch meant Dein had his chance to get his man. Was Rioch given a fair chance? I guess not. But he didn’t achieve much in his later career and it was hard to see that he could achieve anything with Arsenal. Probably too big of a job for him but we will never know for sure. His legacy is Bergkamp, though, and that signing alone propelled us into a higher sphere. But he joins the ranks of managers who were given their one big chance but couldn’t take it. Sam Allardyce knows all about that with England and one day I might do a blog about managers that self-destructed. My final word is that Bruce Rioch would have felt that Arsenal would have given him enough time. He was wrong. Rioch got this one Wrong, not Wright Were Arsenal wrong? They had a new man waiting in the wings and next week I will talk about that new man and try to reflect how I felt at the time. Talk next week so.

Our King of Kings? How would you like to have a winger playing right now, let’s say his name is Bukayo Saka or even Noni Madueke and he becomes Arsenal’s top scorer and 4 of his colleagues burst into our top ten ever goalscorers because of all the assists he gave them? You’d love it, yes? Well, back when we were England’s greatest team in the 1930’s we had such a player and his name was Cliff Bastin. And I think there is a strong argument that he was our greatest ever player. Most fans have Thierry as the greatest Of course, Thierry Henry is regarded as our greatest. He scored 228 across all competitions. Ian Wright was next on 189 and Bastin trailing that on 178. And you look at the record and it says that Henry was with Arsenal for 8 seasons if you don’t count his late loan cameo in 2012, and 377 appearances. Ian Wright was only 7 seasons with us and 288 appearances. Bastin was with us from 1929 to 1947. He had 396 appearances. The record is clear, then. Bastin is our 3rd best scorer. This is just Gus trying to stir up controversy – or is it? He wasn’t even a striker There are all sorts of metrics that argue for Cliff Bastin and do not worry I will get to them. I am guessing that Bastin to most of us is a great name from the past but we know little about him. There is a lot to know. Jimmy Brain 139 goals First of all, he was a winger, sometimes an inside forward, and a right half, not a striker. The winger's job in those days was clear, get the ball across to the big man in the centre, Jimmy Brain, Ted Drake, Joe Hulme and David Jack who are all in the top ten of Arsenal’s top scorers. So he was there when 4 of Arsenal’s greats were also there. Henry only had Van Persie (8th) on the pitch with him rarely and Wright had none of the top ten with him. I think you have got to give the man credit to score so many from the wing with also having to supply four of our greats. Injuries and a strange little Austrian Ah, but he was with us from 1929 to 1947, 18 seasons, plenty of time to score goals? Uh, uh, wrong answer. Some Austrian messed up the world at that time. 1938 was his last real season and he was only 27. That final season was blighted by a leg injury which effectively finished his career. He only played 7 times after the war and of course, probably only got his game on his reputation and the death of so many stars during the war. So, it is fair to say that he would have got much more goals if he had been able to play after 27. Henry got 75 goals for us after 27 and Ian Wright got all his 189 over the age of 27. Are we starting to see that Mr Bastin was a bit useful? David Jack 124 goals He only needed 11 more to catch Wrighty and 40 more to catch Henry. 250 surely was not unreasonable and he would have been well out in front. And did I mention he wasn’t a striker? The Boy Wonder Another feat of his was being, at 19, a league winner, an FA cup winner and a full England cap and he is still the youngest to do that, although some of our academy guys might just pass him out. Of course, poor Ian had no chance of such an achievement not even being a professional until much later and drifting in a bad environment until finally getting his chance at Palace in his twenties. Henry didn’t come to Arsenal until his twenties either although he got a league title at Monaco and a full French cap in 1997 at 19. Wrighty could argue he was the greatest All three were penalty takers but unfortunately I couldn’t find out how many the Boy Bastin scored from the spot, however, penalties were a bit more rare in those days (no diving) and Wright on 26 and Henry on 24 suggest we could give him similar as all three had a fairly similar amount of years to garner spotkicks. So none had any great advantage from the white circle. He must have been the assist king We can probably suggest that his assists could well have been higher than the other two as that was his job and the boys around him are among Arsenal’s top scorers. In fairness both Henry and Wright had lots of assists but surely logic dictates that Bastin was higher? 4 players got into our top ten as opposed to none that could be attributed to Wright or Henry. Joe Hulme 125 goals One other point is top flight goals. Bastin had 150 and that was the record until Henry overtook him in 2006. So Bastin is still second on that metric. He was mightily impressive, you have to admit. Yes, Ian Wright could argue that he got his figures from far less games at 288 games and 189 goals giving 65.63%. Henry had 228 goals from 377 games giving 60.5%. Bastin had the least goals from the most games at 178 from 396 giving 44.94%. That leaves Mr Wright Wright Wright the clear winner. And I am sure he would have his champions out there among you as your favourite player. He will always have a great spot in my heart. Different eras but his greatness shone out In truth, the bare figures don’t give a true comparison as it was different eras, different opponents, different roles and different training but still I think we can take one thing for pretty much certain, that injury at a heartbreaking 27 stopped Cliff Bastin being our top scorer to this day and maybe forever. I remember interviewing Alan Smith last year and he spoke about how devastating it was to have to walk away at only 32 and you could see the hurt in his face as he recounted the darkest time of his football career. I would have loved to interview Cliff Bastin and to talk about how different his life would have been without the injury, and Mr Hitler if the injury had cleared up plus the combination of circumstances which conspired to make him just another of Arsenal’s great players and not the greatest. Ted Drake 139 goals So, all hail Cliff Bastin, a true candidate for our greatest ever goalscorer and assister. Up to 1991 you could have gone into his pub in Exeter and reminisced about the old days. And hey, let’s get that statue up at the Emirates to praise a man who only circumstances deprived us of being our king of kings. And yes, we would all love such a player today.