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So, why no statue? 722 appearances for Arsenal, a record that may never be beaten, the quickest to reach 100 appearances, 200 appearances and 400 appearances. He has 2 league titles, two FA Cups and 2 league cups. He turned down terms from Manchester United as a kid to sign for Arsenal because his dad was a Gunners fan. As a kid of 17, he made his debut and played a massive 30 times that season 1975/76 which is remarkable seeing as teams are very reluctant to play kids in central defence. Look what Arteta did with Saliba, for example. We could meet here in future Arsenal still employs him as a club ambassador and he will be 67 on May 2nd which means for a period of over 50 years he has mostly worked for Arsenal. He came through our academy very young alongside Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton. Yes, newbies, great players did come through our academy in the past. Time for a statue, yes? He played in probably our two greatest matches He played a central role in two of Arsenal’s greatest matches, the 1979 FA Cup final against Manchester United where we were cruising 2-0 until Utd got 2 late goals and we looked beaten until Liam Brady went at Man Utd, ghosting through them like they didn’t exist, slipped the ball to Graham Rix, who crossed it to Alan Sunderland to score the winner. 3-2 to the Arsenal and a game that is forever etched in the minds of fans. A young fresh-faced kid from the academy And of course, the famous battle of Anfield, where George Graham put O’Leary at the front of a 5 man defence as a sweeper to make sure we didn’t concede and make life impossible. Liverpool were the best team in the world at the time and nobody went there and beat them 2-0, but Graham had a plan to frustrate them and O’Leary was key to that plan. We got the two goals, the final in injury time, to deflate the KOP and Liverpool, leaving them collapsed on the ground, stunned and disbelieving. It’s a shame that so many of my ASCB colleagues were too young to experience those magic moments but at least lots of you got fairy-tale Wenger times to give you some idea of the excitement those two matches generated. A dedicated Arsenal fan David O’Leary was an Arsenal fan all his life, unlike his two famous Irish compatriots who were at Arsenal at the same time, Frank Stapleton and Liam Brady who supported Manchester United like many Irish kids at the time. Stapleton left for his boyhood team when Arsenal wouldn’t pay him a salary commensurate with his status as a top player and international. Liam Brady was offered an incredible sum by Juventus when he left but O’Leary stayed to become Arsenal’s top game player, leaving at the very end of his career for Leeds where he only managed 12 games. O'Leary snuffed out Mario Kempes in the 1980 European Cup-Winners Cup What was he like as a player? Pretty much undroppable as he got to partner many top centre halves such as Peter Simpson, Willie Young, and Tony Adams, who benefitted from O’Leary’s ability on the ball, his quick pace and quick brain to complement their more direct physical game. He kept the legendary Mario Kempes quiet in the 1980 European Cup Winners Cup final and of course scored the decisive penalty against Romania in the 1990 Italian World Cup to allow us to progress to the quarter finals. He could play for Mikel He was cultured, a ball playing centrehalf who would fit perfectly Mikel Arteta’s belief that players should be quick, aggressive, skilful, and capable of adopting different roles. Goals were not his forte as in 722 games he barely managed double figures. He kept a lot out, though. He always had a great keeper behind him as well, with Pat Jennings, John Lukic and David Seaman minding the net. Arsenal fans were unhappy when he celebrated a Leeds win over Arsenal to give the title to Man Utd So why does he not have a statue? Fans were very unhappy with him for celebrating a Leeds win at Elland Road in 1999, when as manager of Leeds they beat Arsenal 1-0 thus handing the title to Manchester United. In this he has parallels with Jack Charlton who famously beat England as manager of Ireland and the English FA never forgave him. I always thought that was harsh as a professional should always try their best for their sides and their job is a simple one, to win. Why you shouldn’t celebrate a win seems a little strange to me. Our most devoted player One day, I believe it will happen, though. He is, after all, our most loyal servant as a player. He won trophies, and still carries the flag for us as an ambassador. He has always been seen as a gentleman and I have never heard a former colleague speak a bad word about him. Jack Charlton never worried about celebrating a win For Ireland his record was tarnished by his relationship with Jack Charlton. Charlton disliked ball playing defenders, preferring players to boot the ball up the pitch for players to chase rather than fiddling about trying to find an accurate pass to a player. Charlton thought only as a defender and that was always his priority – defend. He rarely played O’Leary which meant he only got 69 caps when I am certain he could have been amongst our highest. Mick McCarthy, playing at a much lower level than O’Leary, was preferred as he would regularly boot the ball into the stands declaring the opposition won’t score from there. A clean player as well What we are left with is one of the most gifted central defenders Arsenal has ever had, the man who played the most times, won lots of trophies at a time when Liverpool were dominant, and never got sent off, in fact was rarely booked despite playing against many great centreforwards at national and international level. A true Arsenal great by any metric you can find for a central defender. Still an Arsenal man today I asked earlier is it time for a statue? Yes it is. And happy birthday, David O’Leary.

Happy birthday Dear Liamo/Chippy/Number 7 February 13th, 1973 is the day Liam Brady signed professional forms for Arsenal, on his birthday, after 2 years in the academy. Although a Man Utd supporter previously, he is an Arsenal legend now and always will be. He had 7 years as a first team player and a remarkable 18 years as head of youth development for the Gunners. That second career saw him bring through many players still playing for Arsenal today, and he was unusual in that David Dein appointed him in 1996 as an independent head of the Academy, not aligned to any manager so he could keep his job even if a new manager came in. Bizarrely that never happened as, although Bruce Rioch was still technically manager, he was a dead man walking as Arsene Wenger was set up to take over. Liam the boy And so two true Arsenal legends worked side by side for those 18 years, with Wenger proclaiming that the most important man at Arsenal was Liam Brady. Brady was keeping the competition high for the established players and, of course Wenger accomplishing miracles for the first team. I doubt if such an arrangement will ever happen again for such a long period. Always number 7 at Arsenal Now I know I reviewed Brady’s book not so long ago here, but I will keep this a bit different. Surprisingly, at least to me, Arsenal have only had 4 players win the PFA player of the year in Brady, the first, Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, and yes, you guessed it, Robin Van Persie . As it is voted on by the players themselves it is the top accolade. Liamo is also an English Hall of Famer since 2006 and the FAI Hall of Fame since 2001. There is no other number 7 He is also immortalised in the Arsenal song We all live in a Perry Groves World in which Perry Groves gets every position except number 7 which goes to Liam Brady. I was at the Emirates a few years ago with my son when he asked me who was playing number 7. I immediately replied Liam Brady and a few old-timers beside me chuckled. He is the only player in the world nicknamed after his fondness for fish and chips and seemingly, after his sojourn in Italy, where he acquired more sophisticated tastes, he is not so keen on this appendage, only allowing close friends the privilege. And hey, I think the only 2 players to have an FA cup final named after them were Stanley Matthews and the birthday boy, Liam Brady. Liam created the Late Late Show And, just to mention that final, which was a very late win for us, and which presaged the famous away day victory against Liverpool ten years later, there was one big difference, as we were one goal up for most of that match and one more got us the win and the title. However in that 1979 final Man Utd scored 2 late goals and we were beaten, deflated, with our heads on the ground until Brady ghosted through the Utd midfield from well inside our own half, shimmying past players as if they didn’t exist, then got to the edge of their box and whipped the ball out to Graham Rix who blasted it over to Alan Sunderland and miraculously, fashioned a win from defeat because surely in extra time an elated Man Utd would have defeated a deflated Arsenal? No, it didn’t give me that enormous high of winning the league by scoring more goals than Liverpool to win the title in 1989. That was an improbability that probably will never happen again but that final sure ran it close. A Perry Groves World In his time at Arsenal we had three Republic of Ireland players who were truly world class, Frank Stapleton, David O’Leary, our man with the top appearances, and the wonderful Mr Brady, still many an Arsenal fan’s favourite player – just ask Nick Hornby. And when both Brady and Stapleton left within a short time of one another it was, for me, the lowest point of my Arsenal life. Our two focal points gone, simply because we hadn’t the ambition to keep them. Arsenal were famous for being stingy with our homegrown players and kept the good money for transferred players. That team, with Brady and Stapleton, were on the verge of challenging Liverpool, then the dominant team in world football, and we just threw it all away. A bit like selling Saka and Odegaard today, but at least today we have a big squad. In those days the same players turned out every week, barring injuries. St Valentine Brady? I had a look to see how Liam did on his birthdays for us but it seems he only played once, a game against QPR on February 13th 1979 in which he chipped in with the first goal for a 2-1 away win. Seems his birthdays were not football days but as he was born the day before Valentine’s day I wonder if they would have called him Valentine if his mother had bothered to wait one more day . Valentine Brady? I am not sure that’s a top footballer's name. And his wife might have said, you have to spend the day with me romantically rather than going around chasing a ball on your birthday. I am not sure how Terry Neill, Jack Charlton or Giovanni Trapattoni would have taken that as an explanation. St Valentine Brady does look to have red hair? Incidentally both Bacary Sagna and Phillippe Senderos have their birthdays on Valentine's Day. Would Arsene Wenger have accepted that excuse from them? Women can be terrifying, you know. He played beautiful football The only time I met Brady was in Eason’s in Dublin (a major bookshop in Dublin) where he mistook me for a shop worker and asked me a question about a book on the shelf. I readily obliged anyway. It was the days before selfies and anyway I have never asked anyone for a selfie. You can eat all the chips you want now, Liam A happy happy birthday to so many fan's favourite player, to an Irish legend, the creator of the Arsenal academy in its modern version, and a man who will always be talked about as a top legend at Arsenal. 27 years, man and boy, dedicated to making Arsenal the best team in the land and almost succeeding. And maybe Wenger was right, the most important man at Arsenal during Wenger’s own glory years. And Liam Brady the man Happy 13th February, Liam Brady, the man who played the most beautiful football for Ireland and Arsenal. Update to the Table of Doom Table of Doom Fixtures Current Max Liverpool Man City (h) Spurs (h) Villa (a) 54 96 Man City Liverpool (a) Arsenal (h) Villa (h) Spurs (h) 52 97 Arsenal Man City (a) Villa (h) Spurs (a) 52 94 Spurs Villa (h) Man City(a) Arsenal (h) Liverpool (a) 47 89 Villa Spurs (a) Man City (a) Arsenal (a) Liverpool (a) 46 88 And so one change from last week – Villa lost and go bottom. If my target of 86 points to win the title is correct then they are close to dropping out. They have an away game against Fulham next and that does not look easy. The others would be expected to win, Liverpool and Arsenal away to Brentford and Burnley and Tottenham and Man City at home to Wolves and Chelsea.