I was born on Avenell Road as the bombs were dropping on Islington; later we were evacuated to Lemsford near Hatfield in the county of Hertfordshire.



My maternal Grandfather was a coalman and used to deliver around the cobbled streets of Highbury by horse and cart. He lived on Stavordale Road and watched the very first Arsenal game at Highbury.
For my 10th birthday he took me to my first Arsenal game- Nov 22nd 1947 – Arsenal 2 Huddersfield 0 – I was hooked for life.

We were a poor family and my parents could not afford to buy me tickets to the game but that did not stop a determined Arsenal supporter from getting into the ground. Over the walls, I had to negotiate the broken glass bedded into the cement at the top of the walls and often went home with torn pants and got a clip round the ear. Through my Dads legs and under the turnstiles, usually ending up with scuffed knees.

Failing either of these ways in I would wait until half time and when the stewards opened the gates I would dash in and hide in the crowd – the stewards used to give a mock chase but I think they kinda enjoyed letting me go.



I went to every home game, 1st team one week, reserves the next and went to every away cup game that I could afford. We stood as a family under the clock, about 20 of us. My parents both were born in family’s with 9 sons who fathered 46 sons. Of the 64 of us, 60 were fervent Gunners but 4 misguided soul’s went the wrong way up Seven Sisters Road and ended up to be Spurs supporters – I ask ya?

Life’s path took me and my family to Canada, it was a real shock not being able to go to live games but I’ve made up for it by having 3 satellite dishes and the internet – between which I NEVER miss a game, although not always live. Still to this day Arsenal results can make or break my day and as game time approaches I still get goose bumps.

Being a statistical type of person I’ve created masses of data on our history and have recorded on excel spreadsheets every seasons results by year and manager. I also have our history by every team we’ve played in the EPL.

I’ve seen the teams of our past 12 managers going back to George Allison and in this mans view Arsene Wenger is far and away the best.

Unfortunately I’ve not seen a live game at the Emirates although as a kid I did play around that area.

Cheers to all and here’s to another exciting season.

Since GunnerN5 was born in wartime, we thought it would be interesting to reproduce this passage describing the adaptation of Highbury, taken from Arsenal.com…..

Highbury becomes ARP stronghold during World War II

During the Second World War 42 of Arsenal’s 44 professional footballers were drafted into the services. The majority of the administration staff at Highbury followed and even the stadium itself did its bit for the war effort.



Arsenal Stadium, Highbury was transformed into a ARP (Air Raid Precautions) stronghold and Arsenal had to play their wartime home fixtures at White Hart Lane!

Incidentally, manager George Allison did convert the referees room at Highbury into a small flat for a while.

Success continued during the war years with Arsenal winning the South A League in 1940, the London League in 1942, the Football League South and the Football League South Cup Final in 1943.

Arsenal relied heavily on guest players during that six-year period, notably Stan Mortensen and Stanley Matthews.

For all its efforts, Highbury paid the price when it was bombed. The North Bank was completely destroyed and much of the terracing on the South Stand was also damaged. These had to be repaired before Arsenal could return home after the war.

So that’s the story for today, we didn’t get Cole, even though he preferred us to Liverpool, why? Well because we got Cesc, and according to Xabi, we only have him on loan until he goes to them next season.

As a massive club like Barca, we should be grateful, one day we’ll be a big club like them, I applaud the tough stance taken by the boss, but only if he continues that for at least another 3 years, and only if Arsenal report them to the authorities for this disgraceful behaviour.

I hope that the boss has now learned his lesson not to poach young stars from bigger clubs that will always want to go back to where they came from when they get good, how many times does it have to happen before we finally learn?

Let’s get players in that want to make a career here, players that aren’t injury prone and maybe players that are ready to play from the off. Why is it that youngsters like Messi never want to leave? What is it about Arsenal that has seen a plethora of talent leave the club at the rate it does, sure the Mancs had Ronaldo, and they fell out with Beckham, but us, we had Vieira, Henry, Hleb, Merida, Mendez, Stepanovs, Overmars, Petit, Anelka, Flamini and now Cesc.

I wish they would tell us why they all wanted out, maybe we can learn from it. Gerrard, as much as I dislike him, and Terry, at least they stay. Blimey, we can’t even sign a 37 year old ordinary keeper from Fulham, what is it with us?

Let’s just hope they at least give Wilshere a run out, he is better than all of those I just named in my book, and he’s English, let him loose this season, pretend he’s Denilson. I think he and Ramsey will be immense, but if we added some real quality like Ozil and Schweinsteiger we wouldn’t miss the bigger players because those guys would destroy other teams.

Stop messing with average defenders and bring in some real quality at the back, George Graham built from the back and pound for pound, in the time he was in charge probably was more successful than Mr Wenger, I’d like to see those stats, RAY, DO YOUR STUFF!

Tonight sees us return to action at our money spinning training camp, tonight sees the formation of our starting line up beginning to emerge, I would like to see more of Djourou, he may be the lump we need to deal with free kicks and corners, Koscielny may have something too, so I would like to see him in action, as would Nordtveit. Maybe he sees Nordveit as a right back and Koscielny as a DM who knows what he has in mind, tonight should be fun though an I for one can’t wait.

But Arsene, please do something about Barca and their shameless pursuit of a player you have said is not for sale, either that or sell him to the highest bidder.

Or maybe even tell Cesc to say something to his adoring public, we still all love him, but patience is running thin, don’t let another Ade develop, that would be horrible. Or horriblus anus, oops, sorry Ade you horriblus anus.