An updated classic was re-published on August 7, he modestly wrote.
Originally, The Professor was a hardback in 2001.
As is standard with such books, a paperback update followed in 2002. Arsenal kept winning trophies and Virgin asked me to update it again in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
In total, the book sold 35,000.
I was disappointed by that.But the publisher and my agent thought 35,000 was quite good.
I reckoned The Professor would do 100,000 in paperback but then I’ve always been unrealistic, a daydreamer. It was by far my best book, I’d put everything I know about football into it, and I was disappointed. But I thought : that’s life, I’m an unlucky author, I find new ways of being unlucky every time.
I thought about Glenn Hoddle being told, “Football is full of disappointments.” I remembered what England manager Ron Greenwood said to Hoddle after the Bulgaria game. He scored a nice goal from outside the penalty area and England won 2-0. But Greenwood dropped him for the next game and said, “Football is full of disappointments.”
Anyway, I forgot about The Professor in 2005 and carried on working on other book projects, three of which are very close to my heart.
Then Random House bought the company and Virgin phoned in late 2007 and asked if I would update it again.
At that time, Arsenal were top of the table. Fabregas was brilliant, Flamini and Hleb were helping him, Adebayor had improved, even Almunia had improved, and new man Sagna was superb, and it looked as if Arsenal would be champions.
I was very surprised to get the call and I didn’t want to interrupt work on another book, a sprawling, complex beast that needs a lot of shaping, a lot of editing. I’d discovered, while writing the later versions of The Professor, that (1) a book can only hold so much and (2) all topical football books go out of date within days of being published.
Also, so much had happened since 2005. Between 2005 and 2008, there were events that are massive in the history of Arsenal. How could I describe all that in a new preface and three new chapters? It looked impossible. There was enough material for another book. How could it possibly work?
I looked again at the 2005 paperback and the first thing I found was that there was no photograph of Thierry Henry. If I updated the book, it would need a photo of Henry, I decided. I realised that when I delivered that final chapter in 2005, Patrick Vieira was still captain of Arsenal. His penalty kick to win the FA Cup ended the book neatly. But by the time it was published, Vieira had been sold to Juventus.
If I wrote new chapters, they would have to be similar – stylistically and thematically – to the previous chapters, following on smoothly from The season of 38 games unbeaten and The season of Fabregas and Senderos, but they would have to be condensed.
Therefore the only way to do it was to just write about the big things that happened. If I only wrote about the big things, a worthwhile update was possible. So I made a list :
1. The sale of Patrick Vieira.
2. The Champions League Final against Barcelona.
3. The historic move to the Emirates Stadium
4. The sacking of David Dein
5. The sale of Thierry Henry.
I would also have to mention that two billionaires now owned 37% of Arsenal, but are not on the board.
If I wrote a new version, and stuck strictly to the big stuff, sketching in the rest of the story, a readable and informative new paperback was possible.
If I wrote it, it would be a test, a challenge, an opportunity, and, above all, an exercise in precis.
If I did decide to update, one big factor was in my favour : I could see 2005 much more clearly from 2008 than I could have done from 2006. And I could see 2006 much more clearly from 2008 than I could have done from 2007.
Before, I had been living the seasons and writing them as they happened, or just after. Now hindsight would add clarity to memorable events like Arsenal’s best-ever Champions League run, and that dramatic final in Paris. Their last season at Highbury brought their first-ever European Cup Final. How historic was that? How irresistible was that?
I decided to say, “Yes.”
Looking back on the process now, what I did was insane. I spent six months writing 50,000 words and then edited and rewrote and re-edited and rewrote some more. I cut it down and down and down until it was 12,000 words.
It was heartbreaking to chop out the stuff that I had no room for. I had to be ruthless in terms of the style as well as the content. I wanted to say more in those 12,000 words that I had in the previous 100,000. I wanted to write something that was fair, balanced and original. And I wanted the book to make sense to somebody who might read it in 2012, when only the big things would be remembered.
During those six months, from December to May, ANR suffered.
I had a bad season last year. But, there again, I always have a bad season. I write a lot of stuff here, a lot of original stuff, but I never think I’ve had a good season. I’ve done 10 seasons on ANR but I’ve never once thought I’ve had a good season. And that despite loads of emails saying, “Keep up the good work,” and, “Thank you for giving me something I can’t get anywhere else.”
I always think I could have written better. And I always think I could have written more.
ANR isn’t always the best of Myles Palmer. I’ve always admitted that.
But The Professor is the best of Myles Palmer. The new chapters contain the best writing I’ve done since I wrote for Punch in the Seventies.
In 2005, I thought The Professor was over-priced at £9.99
My paperback now costs £7.99.