Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Tony Attwood

Last week on this site we had the rather amusing situation in which a reader wrote in telling us in no uncertain terms that we were in our worst ever situation, and Mr Wenger should go.

Anyway this writer cited a number of situations – the worst start to a season, the worst defeat in Europe, the worst result in the league…

I wrote back pointing out the factual errors, and pointing out that as it happened the club programme this season had included articles on our worst start to a season, and our worst ever defeat, and correcting the other points.

OK, the truth is I was being a bit of a smarmy git at this point, since I wrote the articles in the club programme on those topics, as part of the Arsenal Uncovered page I do for each match, but even so, making wild comments like this without actually bothering to check the records seemed worthy of correction.

But then, having read my comments, the writer came back with another set of allegations.  At least one of them gave us a laugh as he suggested that a certain item of food on sale at the club on match days was the most expensive there was in any club (he actually got the price of that wrong too).  Then he alleged that the club continues to announce crowds of 60,000 plus when there clearly aren’t 60,000 in the stadium.

Again he was wrong, as anyone who goes to the games will know.  The matter was discussed at the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association AGM at the start of the season and Ivan Gazidis, who was present, announced that following representation from AISA the club would no longer announce any figures.  The figures that used to be given were of course the number of tickets sold, not the number of people there.  The numbers will always be different – due to illness, holidays, business, and the fact that the EPL keeps changing match days.

But anyway, back to the key point: was this guy right.  Is this as bad as it gets?

The answer is no, it can get worse.  I suppose as Chair of the AISA Arsenal History Society it is my job to know this, but supporters of a certain age will still remember the era we labelled The Darkness, when under Swindin and Wright we went nine years without finishing in the top four and without winning the FA Cup.

But it can be even worse than that.  Witness 1910, when Arsenal went into administration, were within minutes of being taken over by Fulham to play in the following season as Fulham Arsenal.   When that deal was pulled at the last minute (the League ruling that the merger was fine but the merged club would have to play in Division II not Division I, a second deal was proposed which involved a ground share arrangement with the aforementioned Fulham.

This time the directors of Arsenal turned the deal down, and then, with the clock ticking and the League committee saying that unless a resolution to Arsenal’s administration was reached within the next hour, the club would be thrown out of the League, Henry Norris stepped up.

It genuinely was a last minute affair with Norris suddenly coming forwards with the offer to meet all the club’s liabilities (not just the “football debts” like benefactors do today), and guarantee that the club would continue all of the following season, at its Manor Ground in Plumstead.

Today Henry Norris has largely been written out of Arsenal’s history.  There is no statue to him at the ground, there is no biography of him (although I am working on the idea) and there is no formal acceptance anywhere in Arsenal that this man saved the club.

And saved the club he did – not just by paying off the known debts of administration in 1910, but also by paying off other huge debts that emerged later.  And if that were not enough he also built Highbury out of his own pocket, and paid for the club’s losses at the start of the Highbury adventure.

Norris’ problem was that although he was the greatest friend Arsenal has ever had, he was also a difficult man.

The only book there is on Norris, and the 1910 saga is “Making the Arsenal” – and yes this is a bit of self-promotion because I am writing about a book I wrote myself.  It is available through Arsenal.com, through the Arsenal shop, through Amazon, and through the publishers’ own web site (see link above).

I leave others to say what they think of the book but whatever you think of it, it is, I hope, a reminder that despite all the that negative commentators say, when compared with The Darkness, or with 1910, we are still in the good times.

If you want to know more about Arsenal’s History there’s a new publication about to come out covering the Norris take over and building of Highbury from the AISA Arsenal History Society within the next week.  I will write more about that later.  But meanwhile you can to follow the Arsenal History Society blog which is currently working through iconic moments in the club’s history.