Thierry Henry said in a newspaper interview recently that if he wasn’t playing for The Arsenal, the only Premiership club he would consider joining is Liverpool. One of the reasons he gave for this is the fantastic atmosphere generated at Anfield when the fans sing their anthem, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone'.

For as long as I can remember, Arsenal fans have been looking for an anthem - something we can stand up and sing before a game to get everybody making a noise together and a song to sing when we want to lift the team. I’ve been at away games and been stirred by the home fans renditions of ‘Bubbles’ (West Ham), ‘Keep Right on to the End of the Road’ (Birmingham City), 'Marching Along...' (Leeds United) and the 23rd Psalm (West Brom). I’m sure other clubs that have equally successful examples.

The latest attempt by RedAction with new words to the tune of ‘Jerusalem’ seems to have fizzled out and I wonder whether that’s because that approach is misguided. I think it’s best to start with a song that’s tangentially linked to the club and not to mess about with the words at all – or minimally, if you have to.

The most successful anthems seem to have started that way. ‘Bubbles’ had a tenuous link to West Ham when it started 80 years ago, for instance. “You’ll never Walk …” was only sung at Anfield and not Goodison because it was recorded by Gerry Marsden who was a Scouser. The song is actually from an American musical.

All these reasons are behind my logic when I suggest that I have found the song that I think could work for us. It’s suited to mass singing and the words have a resonance for Arsenal. As we look down the road from Ashburton Grove, can we not see our old home in all its pomp? Are we not famed for having the best grass in the Premiership? Yes, I’m thinking of ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home’.

With the right coverage in the programme; co-ordination with the RedAction team; putting the words up on the Jumbo screens; and playing the backing track before kick-offs; this one, I think has the potential to take off. But it needs that sort of concerted action.

If it does, we at last have an anthem for all time. It stands happily alongside the examples I quoted above. I’d stand up and sing it before a game. And I’d be happy to have it played at my funeral!

I think the original words to the song are good enough but I’ve been told that some Gooners find them a bit too mawkish – so here is a version with minimal but appropriate amendments that, I think, follow the sentiment of the original and will stand the test of time:

The old home looks the same as I step down from the train
And there to greet me is my mama and my papa
Down the road I look and see my heroes, winning all their games one zero
I long to touch the green, green grass of home
Yes, they’ll all come to see me, all the Gooners singing sweetly
When, at last, I touch the green, green grass of home
Yes, they’ll all come to see me, all the Gooners singing sweetly
When, at last, I touch the green, green grass of home.