Competition – Win A Subscription To The Gooner
Mar 29th, 2018 by 'holic
In the 1970s an irreverent new type of alternative publication appeared briefly. FOUL was terrace humour in print form and survived from 1972 to 1976. It would be another decade before supporters would pick up the obvious gap in the market and create the new fanzines. Many have come and gone, but one that has blossomed from the smallest acorn into a resplendent oak tree is The Gooner.
The Arsenal Football Supporters club have claimed that Gunflash was the first fanzine, and although it certainly was a most successful publication it wasn’t really what came into being in the late 80s. Gunflash produced some fine articles, match reports, and interviews. It was as close to an official club publication as you could wish for, and totally lacking in the caustic, earthy wit that the new wave of productions excelled in.
Those that didn’t adapt with their audience as they matured passed into history. The Gooner, however, has aged like a fine wine. There were always high quality offerings in it’s pages. Amy Lawrence, Jon Spurling, Layth Yousif, and Tim Stillman cut their writing teeth in it’s pages. The caustic wit remains and the Gooner has trodden a fine line between the sincerely held beliefs of the rival factions around the club.
There was talk of the publication closing it’s print version on reaching their thirtieth anniversary season but the response to that persuaded Kevin and his hard-working team to move to a new model to ensure the continuation of a loved publication. From next season, if a thousand subscribers can be found at £30 (£42 if you are overseas) by next Monday then you can receive six shiny new copies of the improved 64 page Gooner through your letter box next season.
I gather they are tantalisingly close to that target so I am going to add to that number by buying a subscription for one of you. To be in with a chance of winning just answer the following question.
In 1987 who scored the two goals at Wembley to win us the Littlewoods Cup against Liverpool?
Send your answer to competition@goonerholic.com to arrive by midnight uk time on Sunday 1st April. One randomly drawn correct winner on Monday will win the subscription for next season’s The Gooner. There is no cash alternative.
With your answer can you also let me have your full name and address, your phone number and email address so I can fill the subscription form if you are the lucky winner. Good luck.
You can still buy a subscription
If you want to secure your subscription before Monday then you will find the application form and payment options here.
Here’s to another season of wonderful Gooner coverage.
55 Responses to “Competition – Win A Subscription To The Gooner”
First ?
You are indeed, young sir. ??
Might actually have time to get in more often – a week off beckons ??
Top four trophy. Better than the top three?
Edit
Please send competition entries to competition@goonerholic.com as written in the article. Thanks.
Indeed bt8.
Trev, I’ll have to post more if you are going to drop by and read more! ?
Now that is customer service!
Says something about the standard of refereeing in the UK that FIFA has not selected even one British referee to officiate at the World Cup Finals.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43110905
Thanks for doing this Holic. I’ve written for the Gooner for thirty years ….and one day I will write something decent. Most of the main regular contributors are proper Arsenal fans although for some time there has been a general view that Wenger and Kroenke need to go but there is respect for what Wenger has done for the club but little respect for Kroenke.
It’s a broad church and some views are quite extreme but as Holic points out it has spawned some major Arsenal journalists and I did hear in its pomp it was the highest selling club fanzine in the country.
I think unfettered commentary on the club that tries to be constructive and whic( also celebrates the history of the club is important. I’m the resident old fart who always reminds the whippersnappers how bad Jim Magill and Fingers Furnell among others were!
A competition I don’t need to enter!
Drat it.
Is the first of February the new April Fool?
But thanks, H. 🙂
Thanks Guv.
The competition is gonna be open until February next year? isn’t that a bit too much, H?
?
I once had a £100 bet with Kevin from the Gooner that Cesc wouldn’t leave the club (the season before he actually did) and the he effin reneged on the bet!
And I also found the Gooner to be depressingly negative even for me so stopped reading it.
Great gesture tho Mr G.
I think it’s important the Gooner continues. I don’t have to like it to respect the people that put a lot of effort into putting it together. It’d be a shame if it stopped.
By the way it says 1st of February for emails. Think you meant April squire.
They did go through a spell where everything was negative, or at least that’s how it felt, but the last year or two has seen some great writing by various people.
Nostalgia has come more to the fore I think and they’ve had some excellent articles on the likes of Mel Charles in there is recent times.
It’s a much different beast to what it was a couple of years ago IMO
Thank you for spotting my early fool! Now corrected.
It has always evolved with the times, Cynic. When I think back to some of the stuff that was written decades ago I’m pretty sure they would have been defending themselves in court these days. Some of the anti-Tottenham stuff in particular. Nothing wrong with it at the time, but attitudes and expectations have changed.
Here is a story about Foul, the daddy of them all.
A letter enclosed in issue 26 offered the chance for people to sell Foul for commission. “You sell them at 10p and you make 2 and half pence commission. Any unsold can be returned for a full refund. Outside a First Division before a match we have found that it is easy to sell at least 3 dozen copies of Foul in an hour, which would make 90p which gets you into the match and gives you enough for a hamburger at half time.”
Issue 26 would have been early mid-’70s. Different times. When you could get a thruppenny bag of chips and still have change from a tanner.
Some very fair points by Dexter, Holic and the Guvna.
When the Gooner started we also had 1-0 down and An Imperfect Match which was extremely upmarket for a fanzine but worried the hell out of the club.
The first time I met David Dein, I said I wrote for the Gooner and he winced but I think I persuaded him that we weren’t all on the same page as Tony Willis who was the bete noir of the board at that time . It is a decent counterpoint to the propaganda pumped out by the official programme and the website and never have I been told what to write, how to edit the letters page or has Kevin or Mike everpulled an article because they didn’t agree with my point of view. So I think it has become a barometer of fan opinion.
Some of the old’uns like Brian Dawes and I do like to highlight old players who were past figures at the club and quite a lot of the old players are very happy to engage with the fanzine. The last interview I had any involvement with was Jon Sammels and it was really fun to tell him that one of my mates switched clubs from Spurs to Arsenal because he thought Jon’s haircut was so cool. Jon still has plenty of hair but it’s very grey now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1P2AUJxSZg
oooh 21
key to the door
.
“Eyes down for a full Gooner”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMGvQ2v-ZRM
A very generous offer, Holic – one which I gratefully accept !
I wouldn’t even be surprised to see a match preview soon …….. ?
And a very Good Afternoon, Mr Arsed !
Or not, as the case may be …..
I never used to miss an edition of the Gooner – getchyerGooner ! – but like Dexter, I eventually gave up on it when it just became depressingly negative.
However, I might just start reading again if they are now on Kroenke’s case, who I think has been a disaster for the image and ambitions of the club.
He might as well be called Mr Inertia. If he has a plan for the club, I have no idea what it is. Does anybody ?
He doesn’t even speak to the AGM on his once yearly trip to the club, leaving it to others to excuse another year of underachievement and promise that the year ahead will be the one of big change – pausing only to set the Arsenal machine on Rinse and Repeat before heading back to the ranch.
At least the backroom structure has now changed in terms of personnel. Will he ensure that responsibilities change with it ?
Now, where was I up to with negativity in the Gooner ?
Interesting point of view from Ainsley Maitland-Niles
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11309271/loving-wenger-like-a-father-to-me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmkC_leNM7M&app=desktop
Holic@18,
Ref anti-Tottenham stuff, at least we can still think it, as long as we keep it to ourselves!
Guess what I’m thinking about them…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm_7FLKRS4Y
Looking through some files and found this. Brings some memories back for some 😉
1936 team. Apologies if you get popups, I don’t get any so you shouldn’t
https://s17.postimg.org/55355vn8f/1936.jpg
Some true legends in that photo, Cynic: James, Hulme, Bastin, Roberts, Male, John, Copping, Drake, Hapgood.
https://youtu.be/Gc4U6htekuY
Now you know what it’s like to follow the game on TV, guys. Much better than being there, ay. 🙂
hello chris
now you
you , i like
?
when you purchase that houseboat
in that there LAAANDAAAN
i will cross the water and shout obscenities
till you whistle me aboard
ya fucker
.
ideal scenario
the mighty cynic other bank
loudly ignoring everyone
in his capacity as very assistant referee
it’s beautiful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzCy0VKMhUs
Bring a bottle and you’ll always be welcome, cba. 😉
I’ll bring two
Loolabelle , she gargle
? moooooooooooooooooooooo
Great stuff Guvna and interesting link there Ned. Like Trev, I gave up the Gooner several years ago when it’s overwhelming negativity began to irritate me every time I bought it. For many years I regularly bought One Nil Up which I far preferred but when it folded the Gooner was a decent substitute for a few years until it adopted a thoroughly negative stance. I am pleased to hear it has changed. I hope it survives.
God bless the ‘holics and their supreme leader.
And I mean that most sincerely.
Cheers H!
Still buy the printed version of The Gooner on occasion, last time being at Brighton away recently. My problems with it started when Mike Francis stood down as Editor.
My real problems started with the on-line version, the comments’ sections of which were often little more than the AFTV comments sections on YouTube.
I accept it is a broad church, but not one that particularly interests me anymore. I hope it survives but that wont be with my assistance I’m afraid.
Anyways tomorrow is gonna be mega! Hope you make it H!
UP THE ARSE!
Esso makes some excellent points as ever.
I’m not a fan of the online version and very rarely write for it because of the comments which are reminiscent of Le Grove . There are two comments on the article and then a slanging match begins!
And to Trev’s point I follow a very anti- Kroenke agenda because I think he has harmed the club so much ( and will potentially harm it much more in the future). Most Gooner contributors have memories which relate back pre-Wenger and this provides perspective.
Am I right in saying all our home matches left this season are now on Sunday lunchtime / afternoon?
The state of the Gooner website is the reason we need to save the printed version of the fanzine.
There is much to object to in their online content.
Ttg246; The Burnley game on May 5 is still a Saturday fixture but will get moved to the Sunday if we are still in the Europa.
You going full glossy then, Guv’nor, or is the state of the denizens of this bar beyond saving or at least beyond redemption? 🙂
What Holic said @47.
You have just reminded me : That “One Nil In the Bernabeu” Gooner front cover – just visible above – has been in my loft awaiting framing for 12 years now !
Maybe get around to it this weekend…
* drums fingers and waits for something new to read *
??
Thanks Ned
Let us hope all our home games ARE on Sunday
[…] be in with a chance of winning a subscription to the Gooner fanzine for next season just answer the following […]
Wait no more Trev. 🙂 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>