WAS YOUR DAD A GOONER

MK Gould · Post by **MK Gould** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:35 am

Wrexham Gooner wrote:
MK Gould wrote:
daz10_uk wrote: PS I can understand the anti-MK Dons feeling, but please move on! The trophies were returned to Merton last week, and away fans no longer give them any stick - other than the usual.
You really are a pillock if you think people have forgotten The MK Dons thing. They haven't. You really must get out more. I know of several clubs whose fans can't wait to give the MK scum a kicking. What your lack of intelligence does not register is that unless fans stand together then many other clubs will be ripped from their heartland and become victims of
FRANCHISE FC.
MK Gould consider yourself a Dork. Everybody hates MK Dons.

Nice speech...BUT "Ripped from their heartland....". That rings a bell !! Didn't Arsenal used to play in Woolwich!!! Bet the move to Islington went down well at the time

!! So beware of throwing stones when you live in a glass house....

Also, the evidence is without doubt that people have forgiven (if not forgotten). When they first moved up away fans threatened boycotts, no-one would play them in friendlies etc. There is now no evidence of a problem with either. The move also wasn't universally popular in MK itself - but a name change and couple of lean years have changed that and now the Dons are seen as pure MK (a lot like Arsenal in Islington really....). They are also one of the best supported teams in the bottom two divisions, which is something that can only improve having moved to the new stadium (which is in the slightly rougher end of MK). So if you are looking to give the "MK scum a kicking..." I'd make sure you check your health insurance first

!!!

Post by **REB** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:05 am

sorry mk gould,, cant agree wit u,, but this is a forum and we all hav an equal say,, me personly i hope the mk dons get relagated,, even now a couple of years down the line..wat they done 2 a football club was wrong, if they wanted a team so badly in mk they should hav stared at the bottom and worked there way up,,

WengerKnows · Post by **WengerKnows** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:11 am

my dads not a gooner but he is a bit of a arse

tomkingsbury · Post by **tomkingsbury** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:20 am

Yeh i hate the MK Dons too - they even have the nerve to call themselves the dons -cheek!!
I ahve to disagree with people being over the MK dons move, and to compare Arsenal's move is a little pathetic to say the least. The difference between our move was that it was during a time when football was, how do i put this, not as mainstream as it is today - we had low attendances and needed to move to improve finances and stop from going out of business - and thus have been in the north since 1913.
Secondly, the dons didnt need to move, and in fact Chairmen Winkelman's desire to move to ****** keynes were protested against by fans and members of the club for over a year, despite the fact he could have invested his money in a MK based club. So yeh MK are a plastic club, any WSC (when saturday comes) readers out there will know that many magazines dont recognize the club, and in fact dont even ask a fan for a opinion of the season ahead.
so differences, peretty much, we needed to move, and supporters (few that there were) and the club members werent against it

Galasso · Post by **Galasso** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:40 am

tomkingsbury wrote:Yeh i hate the MK Dons too - they even have the nerve to call themselves the dons -cheek!!
I ahve to disagree with people being over the MK dons move, and to compare Arsenal's move is a little pathetic to say the least. The difference between our move was that it was during a time when football was, how do i put this, not as mainstream as it is today - we had low attendances and needed to move to improve finances and stop from going out of business - and thus have been in the north since 1913.
Secondly, the dons didnt need to move, and in fact Chairmen Winkelman's desire to move to ****** keynes were protested against by fans and members of the club for over a year, despite the fact he could have invested his money in a MK based club. So yeh MK are a plastic club, any WSC (when saturday comes) readers out there will know that many magazines dont recognize the club, and in fact dont even ask a fan for a opinion of the season ahead.
so differences, peretty much, we needed to move, and supporters (few that there were) and the club members werent against it

Tom

Is that true? I mean, is there anything in the history books or which chronicles how the fans at the time felt about the move to North London. I ask because I don't normally read books on Arsenal's history and therefore I wonder if anyone has ever written in detail about this. And how many people were watching us at the time?

I would be generally interested if you could point me in the direction of any such historical information. Cheers.

Post by **DB10GOONER** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:49 am

My old man was always a bit of a closet Man City fan (f*ck knows why

).

When we (my younger Aussie-born bro and I) were kids in Australia, I saw the cannon somewhere (I was about 4 or 5 years old, around 1971 - wonder what happened there?

) and that did it for me, and by older bro worship, the younger bro too.

Lucky enough Arsenal had all those Irish (North & South) players on the books in the 70's and my old man started to lean towards them too (nothing so patriotic as a Mick living abroad!!

) and he actively encouraged us to be Gooners.

I have since made my two youngest (Irish born) bros, my mom, my missus and my two kids all Gooners.

The old man was very negative towards us in the 80's when GG was in charge (a bit of a football purist, my Dad

). But I have to say that since the Wenger era began and we started to play such attractive footy the old man is now a fully fledged Gooner too!

Galasso · Post by **Galasso** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:26 am

DB10GOONER wrote:My old man was always a bit of a closet Man City fan (f*ck knows why ).

When we (my younger Aussie-born bro and I) were kids in Australia, I saw the cannon somewhere (I was about 4 or 5 years old, around 1971 - wonder what happened there? ) and that did it for me, and by older bro worship, the younger bro too.

Lucky enough Arsenal had all those Irish (North & South) players on the books in the 70's and my old man started to lean towards them too (nothing so patriotic as a Mick living abroad!! ) and he actively encouraged us to be Gooners.

I have since made my two youngest (Irish born) bros, my mom, my missus and my two kids all Gooners.

The old man was very negative towards us in the 80's when GG was in charge (a bit of a football purist, my Dad ). But I have to say that since the Wenger era began and we started to play such attractive footy the old man is now a fully fledged Gooner too!

How cynical of Arsenal to fill up the team with Irish players just to pull at the heart strings of Irish people all over the world.

It's great that once we had achieved what we wanted, we shipped out all of our decent (Irish) players and ended up with overated, underperforming Englishmen! What a stinker!

Still, by that time there was no escape....

tomkingsbury · Post by **tomkingsbury** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:56 am

galasso - i may have misunderstood ur message, but what bit would u like to know about?? the whole scenario or us moving, or how the fans felt?? As for books well....

currently out of stock on the arsenal webiste is our history book (1886-2005) which i read some of at my uncle's (his book u see). A new history of book updated is due out soon, so whether that goes into further details is debatable.
Another book - i havent read yet but is currently on order is:
Rebels for the Cause: The Alternative History of Arsenal Football Club, which as the names suggests, offers some alternative history, apparently is a very good read.
this book by Jon Spurling Highbury: The Story of Arsenal in N5 - is supposed to be an interesting read, im unaware of how much info this book goes into, altho it apparently starts off with that particular story.
Failing that, go to amazon and type in Arsenal history book for a rundown of books....
Also, a couple of fellow gooners have pointed out to me that many fans of woolwich WERE against the move, i misinterpreted the conversation we had (ironically enuff we were discussing mk dons at the time, and when i asked if fans werent agaisnt the move, one said yes, who actualy thought i said were) so apologies there, my bad etc.

anyway i hope that helps

Trevheff · Post by **Trevheff** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:59 am

My dads Arsenal through and through, hence why I am. He was born in Barnet, lived and raised in Palmers Green. His affection was courtesy of his dad, my grandad, who was a Highbury regular. My old man was a Highbury regular for decades having gone to his first game in 1946 until the family left London due to my dads job. He took me to my first game in 1984, we beat Liverpool 3-1!! He's now retired to the Isle of Wight but still wears his 'Brady 7' lapel badge with pride everywhere he goes. He gets over for 2/3 games a season. If you've ever got a spare 7 hours I'll put you in touch as he never tires of telling how there's never been another keeper like Jack Kelsey, why Geordie Armstrong was worth his weight in gold and how he personally sucked Brady's left foot curler at WHL into the net himself. He cried that barmy Friday night at Anfield in May 1989. Never seen him cry before and never seen him cry since. And of course he always refers to us as 'The Arsenal'.

Post by **DB10GOONER** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 12:18 pm

Trevheff wrote:My dads Arsenal through and through, hence why I am. He was born in Barnet, lived and raised in Palmers Green. His affection was courtesy of his dad, my grandad, who was a Highbury regular. My old man was a Highbury regular for decades having gone to his first game in 1946 until the family left London due to my dads job. He took me to my first game in 1984, we beat Liverpool 3-1!! He's now retired to the Isle of Wight but still wears his 'Brady 7' lapel badge with pride everywhere he goes. He gets over for 2/3 games a season. If you've ever got a spare 7 hours I'll put you in touch as he never tires of telling how there's never been another keeper like Jack Kelsey, why Geordie Armstrong was worth his weight in gold and how he personally sucked Brady's left foot curler at WHL into the net himself. He cried that barmy Friday night at Anfield in May 1989. Never seen him cry before and never seen him cry since. And of course he always refers to us as 'The Arsenal'.

I too cried at one stage that night in 89. Just after Thomas's first "shot" (backpass might be a better word) at Grobbledegook!!!

No, seriously, I did cry. About 4am on the Saturday morning, the celebrations were still going strong and one of my mates kept running up and down the back yard yelling, "We did it! We actually f*cking did it!"

It suddenly really hit me then. I had never seen us win the title. All those years of waiting, all the disapointments. We HAD done it. I just burst into tears, beer in hand, drunk as an alcoholic crunt monkey, swaying in the yard, watching my mate do his run and yell, some neighbour roaring at us to "Shut the f*ck uuuuuuuuup! And quit that bleeding crying, ya f*cking f*ggot!" (Swear to Jaysus, that's true).

Great f*cking night. Sh*t, great f*cking long weekend of celebrating. With a couple of repeats over the next two weeks as well!!

Sometimes, I think that night changed my life...

Galasso · Post by **Galasso** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 12:21 pm

tomkingsbury wrote:galasso - i may have misunderstood ur message, but what bit would u like to know about?? the whole scenario or us moving, or how the fans felt?? As for books well....

currently out of stock on the arsenal webiste is our history book (1886-2005) which i read some of at my uncle's (his book u see). A new history of book updated is due out soon, so whether that goes into further details is debatable.
Another book - i havent read yet but is currently on order is:
Rebels for the Cause: The Alternative History of Arsenal Football Club, which as the names suggests, offers some alternative history, apparently is a very good read.
this book by Jon Spurling Highbury: The Story of Arsenal in N5 - is supposed to be an interesting read, im unaware of how much info this book goes into, altho it apparently starts off with that particular story.
Failing that, go to amazon and type in Arsenal history book for a rundown of books....
Also, a couple of fellow gooners have pointed out to me that many fans of woolwich WERE against the move, i misinterpreted the conversation we had (ironically enuff we were discussing mk dons at the time, and when i asked if fans werent agaisnt the move, one said yes, who actualy thought i said were) so apologies there, my bad etc.
anyway i hope that helps

Cheers Tom

It was just this MK thing and the posts that got me thinking about how Arsenal fans of the time felt about the move, and also the reasoning for it from the club. The alternative history of Arsenal sounds like the stuff.

I have a small amount of space in my brain for facts and figures (I have the memory of a fruit fly - actually maybe they have long memories compared to life span>..) anyway, will try and get that book - interesting to make a comparison between fan activism then and now.

MK Gould · Post by **MK Gould** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:04 pm

tomkingsbury wrote:Rebels for the Cause: The Alternative History of Arsenal Football Club.... by Jon Spurling

This book is excellent. Being unofficial it covers the controversy surrounding Arsenal in a little more depth than the official history (albeit that it too is essential reading). Find out how we were kicked out of just about every competition for being the first southern team to turn pro, how we moved to Islington (upsetting Spuds for the 2nd time, after forming a professional league without them in it!) and then "negotiated" our way into the 1st Division at the expense of, amongst others, Spuds.

Galasso - you asked what the gooners of the time thought about the move to Woolwich. The fans were furious. One fan wrote in the Kentish Gazette "Mr Norris has decided that financial gain is more important than protecting our local club. He is making a mistake. You cannot franchise a football club - Woolwich Arsenal must stay near Woolwich"!!! Prophetic or what...! Another said that Norris had "gambled away the clubs soul". And The Tottenham Herald placed an ad begging its fans "... not to go and support Norris's Woolwich interlopers. They have no right to be here". We certainly had reasonable size crowds before the move - 10,000 for one match against Derby - and a fearsome reputation. The Newcastle Echo described the Geordies trip to the Manor Ground as "an annual visit to hell". At one match a group of squaddies invaded the pitch and beat up the ref!

GE|2|2Y · Post by **GE|2|2Y** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:34 pm

My dad moved to north london in the mid 70's as a young fella..it was there he caught the arsenal bug..and passed it on..God Bless Him

Chunky The Gooner · Post by **Chunky The Gooner** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:41 pm

Trevhoff and DB10 Gooner Great stories

My home phone went shortly after the final whistle in 89 (no mobiles then !! ) and me thinking that it would be one of my gooner friends I just shouted down the phone " yeeeeeeessssssssssssssss " and then the person on the other end hung up ! They must have thought I was a nutter and I never did find out who it was! . They obviously weren't a gooner. Probably a Spurs fan now come to think of it !

Hagbard 23 · Post by **Hagbard 23** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:45 am

My old mans a dustman,
He wears a dustmans hat.
He wears Cor Blimey trousers,
And he lives in a council flat.

Oh and he supports LEYTON ORIENT !!!

CAHM ON YOU O'S