It is difficult to imagine just how different football was in the late 80s/early 90s to the bloated money-driven game we are all obsessed with in the early part of the 21st Century.

And there is possibly no club whose development over the same period mirrors in large part the changes to the game:

* The increasing importance of firm business foundations generating a revenue stream which is sufficient to enable a club to compete – from a tidy safe operation ticking over in a comfortable but hardly dynamic way to the top of the money list, with possibly the best stadium in Europe and a turnover to match.

* The globalisation of the game and in particular the playing staff – from a team the most exotic element of which was a player with ginger hair to a team with barely a domestic player within sniffing distance of the first eleven.

* The recognition that success must be coupled with entertainment and glamour in order to ensure the retention of a place at the top table – the football that the representatives of this club now parade before us is light years from the product of just 15 years ago.

So how did we get here? Alex Fynn and Kevin Whitcher take us on a fascinating journey in this entertaining book as they chart the changes in Arsenal FC from the sanctuary of a comfortable upper mid-table existence, with no financial risk-taking and not much about the club to set the heart racing (though of course for those of us who were there then it nevertheless did) to the place it occupies now in the hearts not just of Arsenal fans but of football fans everywhere for the purity of the game the team plays and for (thus far) resisting the temptation to sell the soul of the club in order to buy glory.

It is the story primarily of two men and a football club. The two men are David Dein, whose financial vision stirred the beast and motivated the financial growth of the club before that vision dimmed and he was prepared to take that step too far, and Arsene Wenger. Brought in by Dein, and the man single-handedly responsible for changing the public face of Arsenal FC to the extent that they are widely referred to as the team most neutrals would pay to watch.

It is in a sense an unfinished story because we do not yet know whether the Wengerian project will reach its ultimate fulfillment, but it is a valid, informative and entertaining examination of the story so far. At its best when analysing the behind the scenes machinations, which are I suspect unknown to most readers, you will finish this book better informed and better able to engage in the debate about what it might take to stay at the top table (indeed to reach the head of the table) and whether to achieve that is worth the price – a debate which I suspect will be at the core of what happens at Arsenal over the next few years.

Onlinegooner readers can get over £2 off the £12.99 publishers’ online price, making the book £10.91 plus postage and packing. Simply click here and select ‘buy now’. In the window that opens enter the word gooner in the promotion code box and over £2 will be discounted when you press the ‘go’ box next to it.

For those attending Arsenal home matches, the book can also be bought for £12.99 from the picture/t-shirt/books/fanzine stall outside 170 Drayton Park before and after the match. The stall has a blue cover on and can be found on the other side of the road from the All Arsenal store as you approach the North Bank Bridge.

ARSÈNAL - The Making of a Modern Superclub
Alex Fynn & Kevin Whitcher
Hardback - Price £16.99
Published by VSP (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd)
Published on 11th August 2008
ISBN 978 190532 620 4