Kevin Whitcher
First the bad news. Since 2001, the price of the regular 48 page issue of The Gooner has remained at £2. We could not hold off forever and this season, copies will be £2.50. 12 Years and well over 100 issues without a price rise isn’t too bad. Additionally, for the last couple of seasons, The Gooner has been all colour, as opposed to having only 16 of the pages in colour as we used to.
Also, there are some would-be readers out there who do not realise that everything printed in the Gooner is exclusive and critically not available to read elsewhere. The articles and columns do not appear on this website. So you are buying something that features unique content which you will not get anywhere else.
So what do you get for your money in 2013? Well, issue 236 has the return of Dwight Hart-Lane, and with Spurs visiting Arsenal during the issue’s lifetime, a five page look back on 12 Arsenal v Spurs League matches from the past. ‘In the Away End’ focuses on Spurs v Sunderland from last May in the Spuds’ fans forums. There are pieces on the dilemma of what to do with the hoard of matchday programmes built up over the years, but rarely touched, and the merits of changing the football calendar so the season runs from spring until autumn.
We have a feature on Arsenal wearing yellow and blue, reflecting our front cover, as the club return to their traditional away colours. Our series about players on the stadium cores reaches Rocky Rocastle. There is a view on what it is to be a Gooner from a supporter who saw his first match in the 1950s, and a piece by a season ticket holder that moved to the lower tier last season, and this summer decided to move back upstairs. We begin a new regular series on Arsenal programmes through the years, starting with 1970-71, and the landlord of the Tollington pub is interviewed about life on matchdays.
One of the leaders of the Black Scarf Movement offers his thoughts on the direction of the club, whilst another writer discusses how much he really misses football in the close season these days. We also have a piece on taking a son to his first Arsenal game… only it ends up being the Arsenal Ladies!
There are also the regulars like ‘Talking Reds’, ‘Mickey Cannon’, a new diary feature entitled ‘Arsenal Day by Day’, ‘Anger Management’, ‘Inbox’ and ‘The 91st Minute’.
On a normal matchday, you should not be able to approach the stadium without passing one of our sellers on the way. We might be a little light on sellers over this weekend, but certainly the most busy paths to the ground should be covered. If you fancy becoming a regular or semi-regular seller, can work this weekend and are not obsessed with getting in for the 2pm game that does not feature Arsenal, send me an email today (Friday) to [email protected] with a contact phone number and I will get in touch later. We pay commission based on issue sales, so you can make a few quid. Sunday has sold out and Saturday will see a healthy crowd, so there are going to be plenty of fans to sell to. There are a couple of guys who got in touch via Twitter yesterday who I will also get in touch with later today. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you!
Issue 236 is available by mail order here.
DIGITAL ISSUES
The Gooner is also available in digital form, through The Gooner App on iPhones and iPads, the Exactly App for Android devices and now Kindle Fire owners can also get their fix by searching the Amazon App Store for The Gooner.
You can also subscribe at www.exacteditions.com and read it through your internet browser as well as receiving a code which will enable you to access issues on all the above devices.
All digital subscriptions include access to our digital back issue library which dates back to August 2010.
