Kevin Whitcher
Ok. So time to tie up a few loose ends, but first up some meat for this sandwich of generally unrelated paragraphs. And thoughts on the transfer window so far. The only completed signing thus far is the free transfer of Stephan Lichtsteiner. A good short term squad acquisition, not least because he has spent the last seven seasons in a squad with a winning mentality. Aside from that, it’s all speculation, but realistic speculation. At present, Arsenal are shopping in Lidl compared to the likes of the two Manchester clubs being able to indulge themselves in Fortnum and Mason (afternoon tea there will set you back £49). The club have £100m to spend in this window (more if any players are sold), and for that, with judicious purchasing, they can certainly strengthen the squad.
However, it’s what the new head coach will do with the existing players and the new arrivals which matters most. Plenty of talent has arrived at the club since the stadium move, but only three domestic cups in 12 years does not provide a great argument for leaving Highbury. On the matter of the man running the first team, the previous incumbent is currently unemployed, and has stated he will be coaching somewhere next season, citing many offers. I will be intrigued to see where he ends up, but his stated insistence that he will want complete control on the football front wherever he goes suggests to me it will most likely be China or Japan. He’ll be working for television during the World Cup, flying round in a hired private jet with his best pal David Dein and Gerard Houlier, so I suspect nothing will happen until after the final on 15th July.
Which brings us tidily onto Russia 2018, which begins tomorrow. I will be attending the first week of the tournament in the company of Russian Gooner Ivan Merc. We will be catching games in St Petersburg and Moscow – specifically Morocco v Iran, Argentina v Iceland (reputedly the hottest ticket in the group stages because it’s in Moscow’s smaller stadium, the Messi factor and Iceland’s first World Cup game), Germany v Mexico and Russia v Egypt. Tickets for these matches were bought in the ballot before the draw, so I’m fairly happy with that quartet. Morocco v Iran might not seem too glamorous, but being in the same group as Spain and Portgual, you’d imagine both teams will be trying to win the game rather than play safe. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to it. Never been to Russia before (not been tempted to travel there to watch Arsenal) and being in the company of a local, there will be few of the traditional finding your way around logistical dilemmas I generally face when I travel to major tournaments. And I shouldn’t get ripped off either!
So, although it’s only a toe in the water job, I will do a blog while I am there, if for no other reason than to provide some content for the website. For those with any interest, I did similar in…
South Africa in 2010
Brazil in 2014
and France in 2016.
Poetry corner
Mark Hamilton’s been in touch. He's a Gooner that writes poems and published a selection in a book - Wengerball At The Arsenal – that we featured a while back in the print version of The Gooner. With the departure of our manager of 22 years, it’s now been updated.
Here’s the details about the book which can be bought online here in paperback or e-book version.
“STAND UP… FOR THE ARSENAL!” Arsène Wenger’s 22 year tenure at Arsenal brought ‘champagne football’ and incredible early success – followed by years of disappointment and difficulty. This series of lyrical and bittersweet poems charts the highs and the lows during that second phase, culminating in the FA Cup triumph of 2014 and on through the last years of Wenger’s reign. This poetic diary is in part a love letter to Arsenal and the sumptuous football that Wenger instilled, and in part a despairing enquiry as to why the fortunes of the club one supports seem to matter so much… It is also a tribute to the figure of Arsène Wenger who created a style of play that was so breathtaking in its beauty. But in the spirit of football, this is also a ‘collection of two halves’! The Arsenal poems are supplemented by a series of other poems, some on a sporting theme and some that reflect on the wider undercurrents and preoccupations of life.
FA Cup 2017 photobook
Another plug. This one for a intended photobook based upon the FA Cup tournament of 2016-17. It will be published if enough funds are raised through a kickstarter campaign. Let’s start with the PR paragraph…
Photographers @orlandogili and @josephfoxphoto and saw the FA Cup, the game’s oldest cup competition, as an opportunity to reverse the camera and capture fan culture from the top teams down to the grassroots, taking you on a footballing right of passage from the perspective of the fans. Following each winner into the next round, the two photographers travelled a combined total of more than 3,000 miles over 10 months, taking in 13 rounds and 15 games (including two replays). Each tie feels likes a cup final with teams playing at high intensity, whilst fans watch on in the hope that if their team can create a winning streak, they have the possibility of going to a Wembley final. Away from the on pitch drama we capture the often over looked details that are all part of an FA Cup day out. Que Sera Sera provides a unique anthropological look into football obsession, across every tier of the modern game.
I asked Orlando Gili – one of the snappers – about the Arsenal content and he responded, “Working with fellow photographer Joseph Fox and the FA (the images went in their 2017 FA Cup final programme) we had access at the Wembley Semi-Final and Final to shoot fans and the furore around the cup. During the final we split up with one of us at Wembley and the other shooting at The Gunners Pub. We think it would be particularly of interest to Arsenal fans because the book culminates in the 2017 FA Cup final awash with triumphant Arsenal fans. ”
If the Kickstarter campaign is successful the limited edition photo-book will distributed by @bluecoatpress in November, in time for Christmas and the First Round Proper of next season’s competition. Full details of the campaign with the different options available if you wish to secure a copy of the book are on this Kickstarter page. It’s a method of securing funds to publish that we might think about using in the future for special Gooner projects! NB - Kickstarter will only take your payment if the campaign is successful, so there is no risk in committing.
I think that will do for today. I need to pack a suitcase for my flight to St Petersburg tomorrow…
