Robert Exley
(Ed’s note – For those that missed the first two instalments of this epic review, part one can be found here, whilst part two is here. Part four follows tomorrow!).
After a period of dominating European competition, the late 1980s had seen English sides isolated from competing with the continent’s best as a result of the aftermath of the Heysel disaster. Surreal footage of the night can be seen here with Jimmy Hill’s bon homie with Terry Wogan and Bruce Forsyth within seconds replaced with an ashen faced Jimmy accompanied by Terry Venables and Graeme Souness giving their opinions on the reintroduction of conscription and an endorsement of Spanish-style policing. It was bit rich for Souness to be preaching about the evils of violence in society as twenty four hours earlier he had nearly crippled future Arsenal signing Siggi Jonsson for having the audacity to nutmeg him during a World Cup Qualifier between Iceland and Scotland. To be fair to all three however, they were employed to commentate on a football match, but such was the horrors of the 1984/85 season they were forced to become ad hoc social commentators.
At around @22.00 however both Terry and Graeme called it exactly right on the fate of English clubs in Europe as UEFA enforced a ban on us which lasted for the following five years. For Arsenal in the early to mid-1980s, their absence from Europe was mainly self-inflicted. However under George Graham in the late 80s, as Arsenal’s young side began to take on and beat the best in England they were denied the opportunity to test themselves against Europe’s best. For English clubs, the absence was initially filled by tournaments such as the Screensport Super Cup, which involved the six sides which would have competed in Europe in 1985/86 (it was best summed up by Howard Kendall’s team talk to his Everton side before a group phase match against Norwich: ‘What a waste of time this is – out you go’).
Arsenal were spared participation in the Super Cup by virtue of failing to qualify for Europe that season, but the competition that was open to them – the Full Members Cup – they refused to enter. The history of the tournament can be summed up by this When Saturday Comes article, which states that it: ‘turned out to be so pointless that even Mickey Mouse thought it too vulgar to allow an association with his name’. The only people that did get excited about it was a Chelsea fan base so starved of success that their 5-4 victory over Man City in the inaugural final was met with the same kind of euphoria they probably felt that night in Munich in 2012, as well as Sky Television with this being their first real sports coverage before inheriting BSB’s portfolio with the 1990 merger between the two to form BSkyB.
In contrast, the two seasons which followed saw Arsenal in the final of the League Cup - a tournament which now, with the absence of European football, was assured of its elevation above the ‘mickey mouse’ status which it once held. However, England’s capitulation at Euro ’88 showed just how just how badly the domestic game was suffering from the lack of opportunity to face the continent’s best. Sensing an opportunity, in the summer of 1988 Arsenal’s David Dein and his good friend – Spurs Chairman Irving Scholar – teamed up with a group called IEP Tournaments to create the ‘Wembley International Tournament’. This was a two-day competition lining up the two North London sides against the reigning European Champions AC Milan (with the Dutch trio of Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard just weeks after their triumphant Euro ’88 campaign) and the runners up from the season before, Bayern Munich.
The first game saw Arsenal up against a Tottenham Hotspur side with £3.7 million worth of new additions – Paul Stewart from Man City and Paul Gascoigne from Newcastle United – funded by a new exclusive television deal the Football League signed with ITV. Arsenal in contrast failed to land a major signing over the summer, but still hammered their big spending rivals 4-0 with goals from Paul Merson, Alan Smith and two for Brian Marwood. The structure of the tournament had the losers up against the winners the following day and as a result Arsenal dodged AC Milan, who beat Tottenham 2-1 the following day with goals from Paolo Vardis and Marco Van Basten. Arsenal however were to take the inaugural trophy by virtue of their comfortable 3-0 victory over Bayern Munich.
Within two weeks, Arsenal were again to compete within another so-called ‘mickey mouse’ tournament – the Mercantile Credit Centenary Trophy – a one-off knock out tournament involving the top eight highest finishing sides from the season before, to celebrate the Football League’s 100th anniversary. Arsenal beat QPR and Liverpool to face Man Utd in the Final at Villa Park, which they won 2-1 with goals from Paul Davis and Michael Thomas. Only 22,000 people turned out for the final, however as seen from the post-match interviews from goal scorer Michael Thomas and George Graham (@15.37), this victory added to the confidence and winning mentality of a side aiming for a League title which was duly delivered the following May.
In between that final and Anfield on May 26th however came a friendly fixture against the French National side on Valentine’s Day. The idea of attending an Arsenal friendly at Highbury on February 14th reminds me of Alan Partridge’s anecdote about how his marriage fell apart not long after spending Valentine’s Day at Silverstone to shake Jackie Stewart’s hand and the attendance of just 21,785 probably reflected just that. The French national side were in a period of relative decline at the time, despite being twice World Cup Semi Finalists and European Champions within the decade prior to this fixture as they had failed to qualify for Euro ’88 and were struggling to do so for Italia 90 in a group from which Scotland ultimately made it to the finals. Arsenal did run out 2-0 winners on the night, the French side at Highbury however did contain both Lauren Blanc and Jean Pierre Papin who would go on to bigger and better things.
Nine weeks on from winning the title at Anfield, the Football season kicked off again at Wembley, with the four team international tournament now sponsored by Makita Tools. Arsenal’s first game would be up against 1987 European Cup winners FC Porto. London-based armchair fans however would have to make do with only brief highlights of Arsenal’s 1-0 win as London Weekend Television opted to show Liverpool’s game with Dynamo Kiev live instead. It was the regional ITV station’s twenty first anniversary weekend however, and subsequently it gave the whole weekend of programming over to its archive of repeats of shows such as Budgie, On the Buses, The Professionals and, while Arsenal were seeing off FC Porto, a compilation programme hosted by Brian Moore from one of Highbury’s new executive boxes called ‘21 years of London Football’, which in itself went on to become quite a popular VHS tape from the period.
If you’re tempted to surmise that Football has undergone enormous change since 1989, Brian Moore’s intro shows that the twenty one years which preceded it covered an enormous distance in itself (so glowing in his ‘Ron Manager-esque’ appraisal of 1968 is Brian that you half expect him to proclaim that even breaking wind smelt like perfume back in the late sixties). The programme ends with Arsenal’s victory at Anfield, a moment that was still fresh in the memory for many and 24 hours later, the final of the Makita International tournament brought the two together again in a head to head battle. From this footage you can clearly hear Arsenal fans taunting Steve McMahon with ‘one minute’, before a Steve Bould crashes in the winner with a header after 13 minutes.
Any claims that the Makita International tournament was a trophy that didn’t matter was not enough to stop a celebratory T-shirt going on sale around Highbury in the weeks that followed, paraphrasing that summer’s cinema box office hit, proclaiming it to be ‘Scouse Busters 2’. The following week LWT honoured Arsenal the full 90 minutes live, albeit in the early hours of a Sunday night schedule as they took on Independiente of Argentina for the ‘Unofficial World Club Championship’ (despite neither being Champions of their own continent) in Miami’s Joe Robbie stadium.
In recent seasons, pre-season friendlies in the USA have achieved astonishingly great attendance figures, some even in six figures. However, in 1989, to say the Americans didn’t ‘get’ this Soccer lark was an understatement, as the ground for this fixture was only one tenth full. Also, this article claimed Arsenal to be ‘FA Cup Champions’ and the American referee obviously went mad in the Florida heat, sending off Physio Gary Lewin, Gus Caesar for a first bookable offence, followed by Independiente’s Pedro Monzon being given a straight red for bringing down Tony Adams in the penalty area from what was hardly a goal scoring position, just a year before becoming the first player to ever be sent off in a World Cup Final as a result of a Jurgen Klinsmann bungee jump. In the event, Arsenal won 2-1 with two goals from David Rocastle. Just ahead of Christmas that year, Arsenal too were become ‘Unofficial British Champions’ by beating Rangers at Ibrox 2-1.
The 1989/90 however season turned out to be the final season in which English clubs would be banned from European competition, though for the 1990/91 season only two European births were allocated to FA Cup winners Manchester Unite and league runners up Aston Villa in the UEFA Cup with champions Liverpool facing an extra year on top as a punishment for their part in the Heysel disaster. In preparation for their European tour, Aston Villa took part in the 1990 Makita International tournament. However, with his thunderbolt of a debut goal, Serie A import Anders Limpar laid out the kind of test which awaited Villa the following season.
The early 90s supremacy of Serie A was underlined by the fact that Sampdoria became the first side to take the Makita International trophy from Arsenal, beating the Gunners 1-0 the following day. Five months on, another oddity from the period is a one-off friendly between an Italian League XI and a Football League XI, the latter included Arsenal’s Paul Davis, David Seaman, Lee Dixon and Anders Limpar. The Football League XI would lose 3-0; however the world at large most probably would have been more pre-occupied with Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf, which kicked off just twenty four hours later.
The powerful appeal of Serie A however was nothing new, as ten years earlier Arsenal had lost Liam Brady to the Italian League, where he would ply his trade for seven years back in the 1980s. By 1991, Brady was now retired and had entered management with Celtic. One of his earliest fixtures had been bringing the Celts down to Highbury to take part in the testimonial of his former team-mate, Paul Davis. Also returning to Highbury would be Charlie Nicholas, who opened the scoring in a 2-2 draw. The fourth Makita International Tournament would again involve Arsenal and Sampdoria, however the organisers would realise that the fixture was not enough of a draw to fill Wembley and instead moved it to Highbury.
Also involved would be West Ham, who Sampdoria destroyed 6-1 in the first game. Arsenal however secured a fourth straight final by beating Panathanikos 1-0 with a goal by David Rocastle. The final was noteworthy for being Andy Cole’s only starting appearance for Arsenal, as well as a Gianluca Viallli with hair scoring an incredible equaliser. Sampdoria however were to retain the trophy, defeating Arsenal in a penalty shootout.
For the next two years, the Makita International tournament would proceed without Arsenal’s presence. In 1993 Arsenal instead would compete in the United Bank International Soccer Festival in South Africa, beating Man Utd 2-0 at Ellis Park after being introduced to Nelson Mandela just prior to the kick off. Arsenal would return to the Makita International tournament for its final year in 1994, in the first game beating Atletico Madrid on penalties before seeing off Napoli in the final with a 1-0 win. The two years which followed the demise of the Makita International Tournament saw a great deal of change at Arsenal on the managerial front, which would herald a new era altogether at Highbury even with regard to how the club approached pre-season friendly fixtures.
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