Pat Rice MBE

[MK Gould]

Meet him once at the team hotel before a Cardiff FA cup tie, in no rush, he spoke about when Arsenal asked him to come back to be part of the coaching staff. At the time I think he was playing at Watford,In his words, the money much less than he was getting but there was never any question about saying yes straight away. Genuine fella and down to earth.

Also at the time got few players cornered by the lift to get a photo, quite clear some of them found this a pain,

Don't doubt he is a nice, genuine guy. And arsenal to the core. But he would have been on upwards of £0.25m pa so not like he was a long serving steward or member of the box office. He did "ok" as a player but can't claim an awful lot of credit for his part in wengers achievements as a manager..... Just don't understand what he did that was worthy of such high honour..... !

[oboe123]

Good luck to him.People less worthy than him have been awarded it.

[MK Gould]

Good luck to him.People less worthy than him have been awarded it.

You have a point.... Jimmy Saville, Fred Goodwin, Robert Mugabe, Jeffrey Archer and Benito Mussolini were all knighted ! So maybe I shouldn't begrudge Pat his MBE.....

[Cambridge Dustman]

Probably the honours system that is wrong. It used to be special but these days gongs are given to people at the start of their careers. It used to be reflective (For Pat Rice it is).

[Herd]

Chocked to see him struck down with the dreaded C .

He's a fighter though ,come on Pat you can do it !

[REB]

just heard about pat rice , gutted and wish the man a speedy recovery, the man is a true arsenal legend .

[DB10GOONER]

Terrible news - hope he can beat it. An Arsenal legend and, more importantly, an Arsenal Man.

[SPUDMASHER]

Chuffed for him! (for the MBE that is)

Well deserved Patrice!

[TurnipMasher]

Sad news indeed Get well soon.

[1989]

What terrible news to wake up to.

Here's to a swift recovery.

[officepest]

Just heard the news and I echo what others have said here, get well soon Pat.

[Theoperator]

Very sad to see that- anyone any idea what sort it is?

Really hopeful for a speedy recovery.

In 1973 I decided Pat was THE man to have an autograph from, so I wrote with Dads help and got a lovely letter back with his autograph .

I cant really remember why Pat was chosen for this honour

Not sure that would be remotely possible today- doubt if there was even a secretary to open mail then, it didnt have to be done but it sure made a very young lad truly happy

Somewhere i still have the letter, though it was in my grubby hands for months afterwards showing mates, and is rather the worse for wear

[topgoon]

Just read this on beeb. Sounds like he's been ill a while. Hope he beats it.

A true servant of the club. Good luck Pat.

[clockender1]

Very sad news. All the best to Pat and his family.

Cancer is such a terrible thing, we lost Lewis Collins today too aka Bodie, another childhood hero of mine.

Get well soon Pat, you can beat this mate.

[franksav63]

Really sad news.... I really hope that he pulls through this quickly..

Get well soon mate!!