Seven Kings Gooner1 
Ed’s note – Last week, I posted an articled titled ‘Are Arsenal’s values synonymous with success?’, concluding that ‘to me, the Arsenal values espoused by the manager seem to be used as an excuse for failure’. There were some interesting and sympathetic comments, although significantly, not one that argued the values being current espoused can lead to success, or that they were anything but a recent interpretation of the club’s so-called values. There was one comment though, that received a lot of positive reaction and it was suggested that it was worth an article in itself.
So with apologies for repetition to those that have already seen it, but the thoughts of Seven Kings Gooner1 justifies a wider audience…
For me the real missing factor that made Arsenal so different was Highbury, leaving that hallowed plot has torn up all the things that made Arsenal a special club. The Art Deco design, the marble halls, the glasshouse where the managers and coaches sat, our floodlights were not hundreds of feet in the air but fixed to the fascia of the east and west stands. Not an advert in sight at the ground or in the programme, and what a programme, the best in the league with it's photos from the previous week’s action.
A marching band - at West Ham the band would stroll out carrying their instruments and a folding chair, plant themselves into a corner of the ground in rough circle and more or less in time would proceed with "Bubbles" then finishing on roughly the same note the "musicians" would traipse off to the four corners of the stadium to polite applause. We had a precision marching band for god’s sake, then at five to three Constable Alex Morgan would perform his magnificent rendition of "My Way".
We had an underground station named after the club, a club crest that belonged in ancient heraldry and a succession of great captains who knew and understood why Arsenal were so different. The club had a commissionaire on the door and lords in the boardroom. When a Blackpool player thought he was being funny, as he was ushered into the temple of football, by asking if "his lordship was attending today's match" with a straight face our uniformed greeter told the player "that his lordship only attended important matches". Said player visibly shrunk a few feet!
We had so much at Highbury and then to crown it all we played a whole season undefeated in the league. Now at the “Bird's Nest" it is just about the money, no characters in the team, strong personalities discouraged by current manager and a club captain is no longer required.
We are run top to bottom by the boss's mate who has thrown away all his love of winning trophies for vice-like control and has developed a propaganda department that would make Pravda look like amateurs.
If I had a time machine I would set it for a Saturday afternoon in November, sometime in the 1960's at five minutes to three just to hear "My Way" sung by a policeman who means more to me about Arsenal in singing his party piece than the whole current management and board put together. Highbury RIP.
