Clearing The Bar
Jan 12th, 2017 by 'holic
The evening after the day before has arrived and the thundersnow has not made it anywhere remotely close to ‘holic Towers. The predictive text really wanted ‘colic to appear there which is particularly apt today given that so many babies on social media are suffering with it.
If you will forgive the me, me, me nature of this post I would be obliged. I remember taking good advice from a top man about blogging. Never say stuff like “I think we should, or I would do this. Nobody gives a shit what you think!” I try to remember that every time I type a piece. Sorry for the times I forgot it because he was right.
The problem is I have done a lot of thinking this week. The older drinkers in the bar have indignantly denied me my new found seniority. I am apparently still a pup. But sixty human years equates to, well a number of dog years in which puppydom has long since been confined to memory. Sixty years of watching the Arsenal, although only 54 of which I can recall with any clarity.
I’ve become the bloke that clears any bar in seconds. When I was at primary school we played every week, even in the middle of August, in thick, clawing mud, and it was cold so the lace on the leather football would leave an imprint on your forehead, and would cause irreparable damage to your orchestras if you were unfortunate enough to be struck amidships. (Actually they may have been right about the latter point!)
I was a right-half, and the right-back was not allowed to overtake me. His job was to lie in wait for the left-winger and kick him as far over the touchline as possible. When he did I had to recover the ball quickly and throw it to our right-winger who would have to use all manner of trickery to avoid a similar fate and cross a sodden ten stone lump of leather at a similarly sodden ten stone slip of a lad who played at centre-forward and was expected to head the ball, laces and all, in a downward direction without concussing himself.
It helped that down the years the equipment, if not the grassless pitches, improved. Football boots lost the over the ankle models I was still expected to wear on the rugby pitch. The revolution in plastics gave us balls without laces that were also water-resistant. Thanks to being at a rugby-playing grammar school I had to start in mens football at the age of 15. No problem. I went to watch Arsenal, and had even learnt some pretty handy tactics to employ when my football skills weren’t enough.
Any relationship between Sunday League football and the professional game was entirely coincidental. At fifteen I found myself watching Charlie George and George Armstrong on Saturday afternoons, but relying on a basic appreciation of Peter Storey as a fledgling left-back on Sunday morning’s tasked with hoofing hungover overweight wingers, double my age, as far over the touchline as possible.
By that time the Arsenal had ended seventeen barren years by claiming our first European trophy, followed a year later with the double at White Hart Lane and Wembley. I can have some sympathy with the teens either side of the millennium who must have thought Arsenal were entering another period of world domination. Our ninth championship would take another eighteen years to materialise.
In that time Terry Neill and Don Howe threatened to make us a power again. With Liam Brady, David O’Leary, and even (spits) Frank Stapleton, we should have been. One FA Cup win, albeit an unforgettable one, was scant reward for the years of torture we endured in the mid-seventies and mid-eighties. Now I can piss off the young ‘guns by recanting tales of how more than once we almost went down. Actually the likes of Manchester United, City, Tottenham Hotspur (oh how we roared!), and Chelsea did.
For along with the likes of the Irish geniuses we had to endure the likes of Hankin, Hawley, Meade, Kosmina (the sub who had to go for a piss before coming on). The defeats were legendary. Walsall, York, Oxford, Rotherham, Wrexham. There were others. George took over, cleared out the has-beens and never-quite-weres, and promoted the kids as had Bertie Mee before him.
The kids became winners in the League Cup Final against a monumental Liverpool team. They would humble the same great side two years later in the closing seconds of the most eventful of all seasons in front of Anfield’s grieving Kop. I pretty much gave up playing then. At 32 I figured George wouldn’t be calling. So I enjoyed watching him land another title, the domestic cup Double, and on a memorable night in Copenhagen the European Cup-Winners Cup.
Say what you like about George’s downfall in the season that followed. From 87-94 we were usually in contention for something and he left as his legacy his back four. Admittedly he also left us with the worst midfield we’ve ever seen. Rioch tried his best to whip them into shape, but the Arsenal didn’t need or respond to a regimental disciplinarian.
This funny French bloke came in. Glenn Hoddle rated him so that was ok, wasn’t it? He didn’t rule the squad through fear, but rather by educating them, and buying examples to demonstrate what he was asking of them. Vieira, Petit, Gimandi, Garde. They were versatile and trained more on the technical aspects of the game, ate strange but healthy food. His imaginative ways didn’t stop with the players. Anelka arrived, and left again for the cost of a new, dedicated training complex next door to the old one.
There was a double again, then a couple of barren years before Wengerball2 was released. Cup, Double, Cup, Invincible season, Champions League Final, and off the pitch a move to a brand new dedicated stadium almost next to the old one. Again, despite what followed, Arsene deserves to be measured against the great Arsenal managers who preceded him. Chapman, Allison, Mee, and yes, Graham. Not now perhaps. That divide is still too deep.
Sixty years though of down, then up, then down, then… you get my drift, I’m sure.
What have I learned. Well at every game we can help the team by screaming things like “MAN ON”, “SHOOT”, and of course “HEAD IT DOWN FFS” at the top of our voices. Some of you have been lacking in that department lately. Maybe that was the problem of the last decade all along?
35 Responses to “Clearing The Bar”
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Drink!
A Bushmills from Jackster is heading south right now mate. 🙂
Lovely reminiscences Holic. One does get philosophical when you can measure your life through great football moments. We have had many and we are privileged to have had them
A great mate of mine died this morning. A year older than me but still not old. We were due to dine on Monday evening. His death encourages me to seek fun, live in the moment and celebrate life. Supporting Arsenal has enabled us to do that pretty well without it becoming taken for granted .
Top post mate. Strikes many a chord with yours truly. But – however shit we were 82 – 86, (and boy we fucking were at times), they were my favorite years of attending, culminating in that great orgy of release and satifaction at Wembley in 1987.
One nil down, two one up
We fucked Rushie’s record up.
There’s something to be said for being young and up for it, but then again I aint giving up yet. And nor are you.
Thanks for all your efforts over the last 10+ years on here, and here’s to a good few more.
Sorry to read of his passing, TTG. Try and remember all of those good and funny moments you shared. Celebrate a wonderful friendship. They are precious.
Thanks Holic. It’s exactly what I intend to do
You’ve done well H
I tip my hat.
Great place for Gooners to vent/despair/celebrate/laugh/cry, about all things not only Arse,but family and everything going on in the Universe as well.
Cannot think of a better place to spend my dotage.
As long as the Bar is open,and keeps supplying the freshly squeezed,i will keep walking through the doors.
I can’t believe there are any Arsenal fans who would entertain Payet after the way he has treated West Ham. Yet I’m told social media is full of people urging Wenger to sign him. We made that mistake with Gallas
Commiserations on your loss TTG.
Good loyal longtime friends are very hard to come by,and it is the measure of their worth, when they leave you bereft at their passing.
Nice one, old fella. ??
I can see you as an indomitable wing half or full back. My shins are aching at the thought. ?
We have no need of Payet.
Sorry for your loss TTG. What Clive said.
Sorry, had to go for a piss before coming on. Otherwise I would have made the top five for sure. 😉
TTG, My sympathies for the loss of your friend. Friends are hard to find, and I imagine even harder to lose a special one of longstanding.
Thanks bath. I remember playing for the cricket club against the football club one Boxing Day in the 80s and my great mate was managing us. He told the other three midfielders that day “If they start to take the piss leave it to him (pointing at me) to sort out. A team of Argentinian borstal boys refused to tour over here when they found out he would be playing.”
Funny things you remember. 🙂
Thanks for all your kind thoughts. It’s a very reflective evening tonight
Lovely stuff, ‘holic. Recalling the era of 10-stone balls and the dangers inherent in heading them, about the only thing missing was any mention of dubbin. And maybe the look on your mum’s face when you presented the kit for washing.
I envy you such a fine memory, but as a mere child of the mind-bending ’60s your brain cells would have survived relatively unscathed. In 1960 I turned 18 (an age at which we are all invincible) and was destined to experience its worst excesses. That’s my excuse anyway.
Excellent, Guv’nor. Just excellent.
Only one question: were the 54 years of clarity consecutive?
moooooooooooooooooooooo
Coquelin, Giroud and Koscielny all signs contract extensions.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20170112/french-trio-sign-new-long-term-contracts
Get Sanchez and Ozil to do the same.
Ttg, my condolences. One of the downsides of advancing years is that your close cadre starts to thin.
away jeez m’lud i’m sorry
i hear moooo all day
second nature
sorry
a 50something me
but high stools around
emptying apace
sorry again big man
but
in the interest of the girls
who are ALWAYS
?
always
.
moooooooooooooooooooooo
yup ned19
wonderfully put
no less heartbreakin though
rhino hide getting thinner here
just before christmas
got given back a Onion book
a flaming lips cd and a foam pint of stout
from
“The Estate” of a lifelong friend
.
they were all mine anyway
took 3years
but
he’d a loved it
the cunt ?
Top post ‘Holic.
10 years of wonderful posts, 60 is nothing. A good 40 years of wonderful blogging awaits us all with at least 2 golden eras in them 🙂
Injury news for tomorrow appears to be that Walcott, Bellerin and Coquelin are out and Kos, Ozil, Sanchez and Cech back
Maybe
Cech
Gabriel Mustafi Kos Monreal
Xhaka Ramsey
Sanchez Ozil Iwobi
Giroud
Subs
Ospina
Holding
BFG
Maitland- Niles
Ox
Perez
Jeff
Possibly he might start Perez or the Ox but I wouldn’t bet on it
Great post…and there was me fretting about turning 47 soon…
NDR you’re still a strapping yoof. All to play for still. ??
A complete tour de force ‘holic. Congratulations! Here’s to the next ten years! (at least)!
‘holic I forgot to say what a wonderful post this one is, and may have forgotten to say what a great year of posts you gave us in 2016, but always do appreciate your writing and actually like hearing the me, me, me quality that puts an oomph into the story that isn’t going to be found anywhere else. 🙂
Hoping the bad Friday the 13th news applies exclusively to Tottenham Hotspur and other evil entities.
Great post Guv’nor.
I just wanted to share the fact that I’ve been on the phone to B bloody T for the past 90 minutes. The current bloke (4th) seems to be on the brink of shipping out a replacement to me so maybe there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Probably just an oncoming train, mind.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh
Good player, Konta, and on the rise.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/38606939
Thanks all for your lovely words. Bless you. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Then again they could all be blackmailing you into keeping on keeping on, ‘holic. Heheheh. Retirement for you (from this forum anyway) isn’t an option. 🙂
I come south London I’m 64 (no Beatles) been watching the Arsenal since the late 50’s again like don’t recall a few years even though I was there
Do you remember the 4 all game with spurs I think Oct 63 l got split from my Dad and watched the game just above where the players come out
I had to be collected before the end of the game which meant we left with Arsenal losing 4-2 on the walk back to the car we heard two almighty roars it had many combinations of the final result and it wasn’t until the next morning we found out the score not like today instant access to any news