Mike Francis
How are your Fantasy League teams doing so far? If it’s anything like mine, an Andrei Arshavin style four goal blitz from Alexis Sanchez tonight – without the four goals in our own net obviously - would go down very nicely indeed.
Our Gooner Gems article in the latest issue of The Gooner features Fantasy League which is now into its 25th season and is run by Arsenal fan Andrew Wainstein. The article can be read here, but it’s not the first time we’ve spoken to Andrew. He was our “Gooner on Parade” in issue 53 of The Gooner way back in 1994 when Fantasy League football was still in its infancy but was sweeping the nation. Here’s what he had to say at the time…
When did you love of football and Arsenal in particular start?
Not that long ago – around 1978. I went to a few games that season, but I was a bit young for the Cup Final that year although I did go to the next two and had a season ticket for the 1980-81 season. My support probably peaked three or four years ago, not that it’s gone down since then, it’s just turned a little bit sour because of the way the team has been playing. I was actually born in South Africa and we didn’t move to this country until 1976. My Dad had supported Arsenal through newspapers in South Africa and then the whole family moved to London in 1976 and they just happened to be our nearest side. Until then he hadn’t even known where Arsenal was, so it was like a natural progression.
Whereabouts is your season ticket?
It’s always been in the Upper West purely because it’s the family one. I’d much rather be in the North Bank. Occasionally, if I can get rid of my ticket I will get a seat in the new stand. The atmosphere at away games is really good, but at Highbury it’s dead and the West Upper is even worse. I haven’t been to that many away games this season although I did go to Liege, but the one I remember most from last year was the cup replay at Leeds. It was the best game for years and I was so close to not going. I had to have my arm twisted for which I was very grateful.
What is your earliest memory of Arsenal?
It’s so vague it’s probably wrong. I think it was against Villa sitting in the Lower East and Rix scored from long range. I think we won 3-1 and it was probably a league game in February or March 1979.
Do you view matches differently because of your Fantasy League involvement?
I think it depends on the game. Since I started Fantasy League we haven’t won the league for which I feel slightly responsible, so if it’s just a run of the mill game in the league where we’re not anywhere near the top, I do think about the assists too soon after celebrating the goal. I’d like it not to be, I’d really like to get it out of my head but it’s very difficult. I like the fact that Fantasy League doesn’t include cup games so there is still something is basically sacred. Having said that, I’d like to think that if we were on for the championship I would Fantasy League into the background.
Which Arsenal players are in your own Fantasy League team, what’s it called and why?
The team’s name is “Great Halibut of the Seventies” for no other reason than it has a nice ring to it. I got pipped on a lot of Arsenal players so I’ve actually only had one player for most of the season – Nigel Winterburn – which I was quite ashamed of, but I’ve recently added Ray Parlour. In a way, it was slightly deliberate because I thought we’d sign someone and I thought everyone else would have their quota of two and I’d be able to pick up Roy Keane. Then I thought, I’d be the one to get Dickov in the New Year when he’s on a hot streak, but of course you never know how the season is going to pan out. So I got Parlour, who I can’t say I’m overly excited with, but Winterburn has been a brilliant buy and he’s one of my favourite players.
Are there any Arsenal midfield players worth having
I’m a big fan of Merson, but I never really have a chance of getting him in the auction because everyone knows that I like him, so I end up getting frozen out as the bids go up and up. I’d love to have Limpar because I think he’d be a great Fantasy League player… if George ever picked him! Apart from that Parlour’s the next best. Jenson got his first Fantasy League points after a season-and-a-half at Leeds just before Christmas.
Given your Fantasy League managerial experience, what advice can you pass on to George about creative midfielders?
The top midfielder last season, although he’s probably a borderline midfielder, was Le Tissier and he’s probably on course to finish top again. As far as a proper central midfielder who creates, there is only one candidate and that’s Gary McAllister who I believe we were in for when left Leicester. We’ve found that most of the successful Fantasy League midfielders are wingers, which isn’t necessarily what Arsenal are after, but then maybe Merson or Limpar could be played for a decent run in the central midfield. I think that’s a possible answer, but they’d obviously need a more defensive partner like Jensen or Hillier alongside them.
When and how did Fantasy League start?
A friend of my Dad’s did an American basketball league and he showed me a report and said “What do you think of this?” I went away and over a number of months came up with a scoring system that would allow it to be adapted to football. That was just over three years ago, but it took another two or three months before I was confident it would work, so it was launched in a very very small way for 1991-92. We had seven hundred people doing it for the first year and we’ve now got about 15,000, ignoring the newspaper leagues where you didn’t have to pay.
Radio Five’s Sunday morning Fantasy football show is presented by Arsenal’s most fervent critic of the moment, Dominik Diamond. How have you dealt with him when you’ve been a guest on the show?
It’s very difficult because I have to be very professional , wearing my Fantasy League hat and appear as neutral as possible. I actually shy away from club allegiance because if people found that the person who runs it is an Arsenal fan, they’d be saying things like “no wonder clean sheets are rewarded”, so I have to have a diplomatic silence which is probably not what I’d want.
Off the subject of Fantasy League, who’s the player you have most enjoyed watching in an Arsenal shirt?
The last few years it’s Wright - that’s easy - but before that I’ve always been a big Merson fan. I can’t really say Brady because I wasn’t as committed when he was at Highbury as I was in the late 80s and I might have been a bit young to appreciate his more subtle talent. He was a bit of an older fans player.
Which club do you dislike most and why, even if it’s the obvious?
Manchester United. The thing with Spurs is that you only hate them when they’ve above you or if they’re actually doing anything, but at the moment you just laugh them off. However United seem to get all the breaks and their fans are unbelievably arrogant. I hate it.
What are the best and worst moments you’ve experienced as an Arsenal supporter?
Anfield has to be everyone’s best moment so I won’t go over it again. Second best is probably the 1987 Littlewoods Cup semi-final against Spurs and up there would be the Leeds game last season that I mentioned earlier. That could be because it was only last season.
As for the worst I suppose Valenica even though it’s going back a bit. Somehow the bad moments aren’t as strong in my memory as the victories. I keep thinking of moments from this season such as losing at home to Villa but in a years time I’m not going to care about it. The Luton cup final was bad because we’d come from behind and risen to a peak. Even when we missed the penalty it was like it didn’t matter because we were going to win anyway. You’d gone from feeling so low to so high, but then that almost incredulous more than anything else.
What game have you missed and most regretted afterwards?
There’s one that always crops up and I always get ragged about it by my friends - the 4-2 at Norwich in 1987 when we were 1-0 down at half-time. I had a new girlfriend who’d come from Paris and she persuaded me that I was better off spending the day with her than going to the game. The consolation was that as soon as I heard the result I was so pissed off that I finished with her that night. A lot of people missed the Anfield game in 89 but I think I’d have been suicidal if I’d not been there for that one.
Have there ever been any moments when you’ve thought ”why do I put myself through all this”?
I suppose you go through it a bit after a bad result but within an hour after the game you’re looking towards the next one. I always think that Arsenal fans get such a great deal because they get the real storybook endings every time. You can never take away the championship in 89 or even last seasons FA Cup Final. We’ve got so much to be thankful for that we can never really complain.
If you could interview George Graham what would be the first question you asked him?
I’d ask him why his overall approach appears to have become so much more cautious when it used to be so cavalier. Is it deliberate or is just using the players you have available? It’s a long first question but it seems to be that he’s become scared of losing gmaes, which is a bit of a cliché, but it’s true.
Do you have any superstitions or lucky mascots?
Yes, I’ve got loads. I always wear a baseball cap to matches. I used to be much worse than I am now and would keep statistics on all my caps to know which one had the best record. I generally go to matches with a group of people and we’ve lucky restaurants and lucky pubs and things like that. I never video a game either, but that one seems to be quite common now so I don’t think it’s a superstition, it’s got to be true!
Do you like the way the ground has changed in the last few years?
I fell really strongly about the North Bank because apart from the tradition side, it’s just diluted the atmosphere the North Bank had because it’s now full of a real cross-section of fans, it’s not actually full of the fans who want to go there and sing. The team has got to be playing really well for the North Bank to get behind them. You saw that in the Bolton game. Although it was bad performance, in a way the crowd lost it because if our fans had been half as much behind us as the Bolton fans it could have been different. I thought the abuse of Campbell was absolutely terrible, in fact the people I went with came out of the ground and we were saying that we deserved to lose because fans who do that do not deserve any success. You just don’t do that, there can never be any justification for it.
