Alex Fynn is giving a talk at 6pm at Birkbeck.
The details and map are here
Incidentally, I was wrong to say the authors pull punches in the final chapter of Arsènal :The Making of a Modern Superclub.
The book is balanced and fair and 99% of Arsenal fans will not think, as I did, that they could have gone further in their critique of how the club is being run.
The book is an authoritative summary of the Emirates era and notable for important facts and quotes you have not read anywhere else.
It’s topical in terms of the key issues of 2011-2012.
Books like this get overtaken by events, as you know. That’s why they’re updated.
Check out page 259 : Fabregas wasn’t fit to play against Barcelona. He picked himself. The manager was too soft. Having let him start, Wenger should have yanked Fabregas off after 15 minutes.
But he tiptoed round Fabregas, just as he tiptoed round TH14 and let him play in the PSV second leg.
Elsewhere, Wenger is quoted thus :
“I want to have success by building a team with a style, a know how, with a culture of play specific to the club and its fans and with young people.”
Oh dear !
OK,OK,OK – you could debate that one all night long.
But I won’t. I’ll just admit that my heart sank when I heard Ivan Gazidis boasting about Arsenal’s style of play at the last AGM.
Chapter 17 ends thus : The accounts may have a healthy sheen to them, but the bubble Arsene Wenger has created for himself and his staff is in danger of being pricked if results on the pitch do not give Arsenal’s newly installed executive team something to work with.
The book’s final chapter follows that bold statement.
And the final chapter alone is worth £7.
A discount is available to ANR readers who follow this link and scroll to the bottom of the page.