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Gooner Issue 240 on sale tomorrow

Plug for the printed version

17 January, 2014 9:00 20 comments
Gooner Issue 240 on sale tomorrow

Front cover of the new issue

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Ah yes, the curse of The Gooner cover. So Olivier Giroud is on there with the message ‘Keep Calm and Stay Fit’. What are the odds on him getting crocked v Fulham then? Arsenal seem to be losing a player every time they take the field lately, but fingers crossed. Then again, some might say it’s what’s needed to force Arsène to splash some of the cash in the bank on a forward. Less then two weeks left to do the shopping…

So, what’s inside? Well author Jon Spurling warns of the dangers of not investing at the right time, pondering what might have happened if Arsenal signed Nicolas Anelka from Bolton when they had the opportunity in January 2008. Another author appears in the issue too – Patrick Barclay has done an interview with us to promote his new book on Herbert Chapman, which we will carry a review of next week on this website.

There is a tribute to Arsène Wenger’s staying power in light of the recent statistic that the tenures of all the current other Premier League managers combined are less than his at Arsenal. Also, a look at the likely impact of Josh Kroenke at the club now that he has joined the board of directors. We pay tribute to Joe Baker, a favourite striker of a number of our older readers.

There is also an article appraising Theo Walcott, written before his injury v Spurs and updated after his withdrawal from that match put him out for the remainder of the campaign. A trip report from the game in Napoli gives us the full lowdown on the treatment of Arsenal fans and the risks of travelling to the San Paolo independently in a taxi. There are pieces expressing dissatisfaction on two topics – early leavers and players that cheat.

There are also all the regulars including ‘In the Away End’ which peeks into the opposition chatrooms before and after the recent FA Cup game v Tottenham, Arsenal Programmes Through The Years looking at 1974-75 when colour first appeared in the programme, The Spy, Mickey Cannon, Anger Management, Talking Reds, Inbox and more.

Almost forgot to mention that our special feature this issue is ‘Turning Point Matches’ – games that changed the course of a season, for better or worse. Remember, all material in The Gooner is exclusive to the mag and not available online or elsewhere. It costs £2.50 and your support by buying a copy will help us to continue publishing in tough times for printed media.

Issue 240 of The Gooner can be bought online here. It will also be on sale at the forthcoming homes matches against Fulham, Coventry and Palace.

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20
comments

  1. BADARSE

    Jan 20, 2014, 8:18 #44414

    maguiresbridge, ta for response chum. Haven't been there but know a little geography. Have a few friends the other side of the border and visited a few times. A nice land. Reading is a passion to me and I love the Irish writers, have many heroes. If you haven't done so I recommend you read 'Round Ireland with a Fridge', by Tony Hawks. It says more about the Irish than any official tracts.

  2. maguiresbridge gooner

    Jan 19, 2014, 19:52 #44404

    BADARSE, My handle is taken from the village i'm from in Northern Ireland with plenty of gooners, it's about an hour and fifteen minutes from Belfast international airport on a good day but a lot quicker at the times i'm heading up the road to catch the first flight out for a match.

  3. BADARSE

    Jan 19, 2014, 14:50 #44393

    Well said maguiresbridge. Is your handle to do with the Emerald Isle, or a street name? Just curious. Ron add the pessimism/cynicism from this person here to most things that we have left for the youngsters today. Babies wanting to be pop idols-no one wants a step up in education, or to improve. Schools and unis actively advising females against careers in the sciences. TV of the lowest order (in general) led by the flagship SKY. Corrupt politicians and police. Pretend security everywhere controlling and misdirecting. Then there is football! Football can only reflect the causal effects of the changes that societies bring. Sadly they bring a level of vacuity and non-connection, plus an, 'I want it now, I'm worth it' mentality. We sold the kids a pup, and we're having to live with the consequences. Still as always, 'Good Old Arsenal!'

  4. maguiresbridge gooner

    Jan 19, 2014, 14:18 #44391

    BADARSE, I'm not getting carried away just yet but if/when it happens i'll be there good and early in order to bag the best view and yes will be quite happy to keep a few spaces.

  5. Ron

    Jan 19, 2014, 13:06 #44389

    Afternoon BADARSE - Its fine matey. My post sounds destructive of yours. It wasn't intended to be. I get a bit defensive over JB anyway. The true 'King of Highbury' he was for me, as i cut my teeth as a fan and couldn't that mid 60s team test the faith, made worse by that dysfunctional rabble up the road having their only ever little 3-4 season spell as North London's best! I suppose we embraced footie then with wide eyed innocence and once gone it's never retrieved is it. I'm not of the view that the TV and celebrity driven product today gives kids the chance to absorb what the game's really about, doesn't allow them to take in the fantastic quality of other teams and their players and importantly does not allow them to have their own heroes. Mt Dad always said to me, that 'when you get beaten, give credit to the other team if they beat you well and notice their players as well as well as ours'. We could hardly help it in those days could we mate! To expound the same approach today makes you 'negative' or a 'moaner' or even worse, 'a closet spud/chav etc etc' and far worse. Its quite sad.

  6. BADARSE

    Jan 19, 2014, 12:37 #44388

    Morning Ron, I see you've finished your boiled eggs with soldiers and decided to pitch in. I reread my post and though it doesn't state whether George Eastham and dear old Joe Baker could cut it in today's PL it sounds vaguely negative. It isn't meant to. Your salient points, along with westlower's view of George, are very positive and persuasive. I would want to believe them to be true, though have reservations. One thing is certain, both were amazingly wonderful players. George a true artist, and Joe a skilful warrior. Loved them both, AFC through and through. We never had the term of Gooner back then but retrospectively I have no hesitation in bestowing the honour on both.

  7. Ron

    Jan 19, 2014, 11:51 #44386

    Joe Baker would light any modern team up given todays training, conditioning and diet. Its always a trap to fall into to suggest such and such player wdt do it in todays game. Wd many of these lightweights today have prospered back then? Both questions are redundant and indeterminable as conditions and methods are so very much different today. I cd base an argument saying that todays defences due to rule changes and outlawing of tackles are so porous that the likes of Baker would score even more freely.'Hold up' play you say? There wasn't much hold up play in the mid 60s. There didn't need to be. Teams all played with 5 forwards, often two wingers, 3 half backs and 2 full backs. The latter defended only, 2 of the half backs probed, tackled and prodded supported by cart horse (often) centre halves. Wingers hugged touchlines and fed the striker and inside forwards like Eastham schemed and scored heftily themselves. A CF like Baker, cd drop off and support or just be in the box as was his primary job. Leeds changed things tactically via the cynical but vile Revie in the later 60s after the World Cup following Ramsey consigning orthodox wingers to become unfashionable as the game lurched into 442. Other teams aped them, particularly Arsenal and Liverpool as it seemed the only way to succeed, as Italian football gathered momentum too by cranking up the cynicism. I'm biased as for me, Baker was the best striker we've ever had in my view and he played well and scored often in a team with embarrassing defensive ineptitude, but he was a man of his time. How we cd use his type right now! I m of the view great players of any era cd play in another era.

  8. BADARSE

    Jan 18, 2014, 22:11 #44374

    Did somebody mention my name? Oh maguiresbridge, naturally I disagree, but as you said, you knew and expected a response. Myself and westlower are not guardians of the keep, just have a similarly correct grasp of things, (only kidding). We are all still together chum, and don't forget I may need to call on your muscle to help safeguard my little grandsons at Islington Town Hall, if we can just pull it off. Hope you enjoyed your day westlower, nice result, nice position to be in.22 game assessment, still top!

  9. Westlower

    Jan 18, 2014, 19:27 #44372

    Is that THE ARSENAL on top of the PL with 51 points? Surely not! How did that happen then? Kos & Monreal outstanding today, Berbatov not sighted.

  10. maguiresbridge gooner

    Jan 18, 2014, 18:49 #44371

    Westlower, i take your point mate, and i knew somebody would come back and say that as i was typing it i thought it might have been BADARSE but not at all surprised it was yourself but that fact still doesn't change my opinion of them.

  11. BADARSE

    Jan 18, 2014, 11:51 #44367

    Hi R/K, interesting point. Just to put my spin on things. I lived through a very tangible period. 1968 saw a defeat to Leeds, then 1969 the Swindon defeat. Halfway through the Final,(the first leg we lost it). Then a magical tipping point occurred. The second leg saw us win it. As you so rightly stated a turning point. I see the scales, so finely balanced against us in what had gone before, just tip in our favour. The title victory at WHL the following season was a further example of those scales just edging our way, but the week wasn't out and at Wembley we had to come from behind as those scales again tipped our way. The next year and the lights dimmed with our Wembley defeat to Leeds. The following season we finished runners up, and on a grey S/F day at Hillsborough those very lights went out. The era had passed.

  12. Radfordkennedy

    Jan 18, 2014, 10:17 #44364

    Morning Brethren the subject of turning point matches is a good one,one which I think could make for a great debate, personally I cant look further than the Anderlecht final because of what came after,as far as a turning point game which for me signalled the end of a time where for several years id enjoyed that wonderful mix of majesty and steel,is a strange one because we ultimately came through the tie as the victor but that semi-final against Villareal I personally felt we could have easily gone down by 4 or 5,in fact I felt the same all those years ago against Sunderland in the semi -final in '73 that what had gone on before was starting to unravel,it would be interesting to read all your thoughts on turning point matches

  13. Westlower

    Jan 18, 2014, 9:14 #44361

    @Badarse, Eastham is as close a match to Ozil as you will find. Both great passer's of the ball, more brain than brawn. Now off to be a Clockender today. I'll take any win regardless of score!!

  14. BADARSE

    Jan 18, 2014, 8:11 #44360

    Morning westlower old chum. Am very uncertain that Baker and Eastham would cut it in today's PL. I loved their contribution, the type of players they were and the image as people they portrayed. Lone striker Joe may have managed, but was his hold up play as good as Olly's? George would have been muscled brutally. Instead of Mesut? He would have made a fist of it, but sustained it throughout a season? How tragic were he to magically return and become the new Diaby.

  15. Westlower

    Jan 18, 2014, 7:09 #44359

    @maguiresbridge, The second rate striker & the cart house have helped get us to the top in a sustained title challenging position. We should give credit where it's due! Sadly, as good as Baker & Eastham were, they never played in as good a side as the present one.

  16. BADARSE

    Jan 18, 2014, 2:21 #44357

    An early morning greeting to you SKG. Sadly I wasn't at the game. But what magical days they were. The past always looks better viewed from a long way off. We don't have the everyday flotsam and jetsam to get in the way, and our memories latch onto a more pleasant climate, as we see it, when we were younger and we had only just begun to prise the lid off Pandora's box. The innocence of the age was real enough though. 'Spin' was not a term then, even spin washers hadn't happened around at that time!Joe Baker was a very wonderful player though, and every Arsenal schoolboy's hero. He rattled in the goals so constantly and consistently. In a true natural goal scoring fashion. Flicked headers, angled shots, turning a defender and thumping the ball into the net. A real Big Gun, if ever there was. Gone, just like sand trickling through our fingers.

  17. maguiresbridge gooner

    Jan 17, 2014, 18:49 #44351

    The cover says it all really, the fact we may be relying on a second rate striker to stay fit, and a cart horse not to pull up lame in order to help us win the prem/silverware for the first time in eight/nine long years.

  18. Seven Kings Gooner

    Jan 17, 2014, 17:37 #44348

    Great Issue - started work later than normal this morning, just had to read it from cover to cover. Great article by Peter Le Beau recalling Joe Baker - Peter, I was at that Villa game when Joe finished his hat trick with a brilliant back header, over Sims, from an Eastham free kick. I was 12 and it was my first evening match, great memories. I do hope some other Gooners were also there, I do love to reminisce!

  19. BADARSE

    Jan 17, 2014, 13:52 #44339

    Yes it is good, just dropped through mine too Alsace.

  20. Alsace Lorraine de Totteridge

    Jan 17, 2014, 13:28 #44337

    And very good it is too. It has just dropped through my letterbox.