By Ian Grant
All the talk is of Farnborough opting to play at Highbury for the fourth round FA Cup tie – and getting up to £500,000, plus a share of £40,000 highlights fee.
Security concerns focused on fencing, crush barriers, segregation and ticketing.
Arsenal very generously have also offered them all the profits on the match programme. If Oxford’s post match comments are anything to go by – it will be a day to remember for the Farnborough players.
After all Arsenal are the third best club in Europe, according to the German-based International Federation for Soccer History and Statistics – behind Real Madrid and Manchester United and one ahead of Barcelona. This was according to an annual poll of soccer journalists and experts in 87 countries. AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan were also in the top ten.
One man who helped them get to this position is Tony Adams, who has been invited to the Dorset County Museum to give a series of lectures on Thomas Hardy – no not a Premiership defender, but the poet and novelist, whose works helped Tony recover from alcoholism.
(If you wanna hear Arsenal old boys speak, and can’t get to Dorset then there’s always, England World Cup winner Alan Ball sqeaking at Watford Football Club’s sporting lunch on January 31, at the Watford Hilton.)
You’d expect Arsenal players to get far from the madding crowd in the summer break – but not va va …, who according to one of our readers is being offered a part in the musical Chicago. After playing at Highbury he has developed a stage presence. Those worried that Henry will be whisked away by the limelight, need not, if a report in the Daily Star is anything to go by. He has pledged his career to Arsenal because he wants to lead the champions into a new era after attracting interest from Spain and Italy.
Any interest from England in Italian players and they seem to go off the edge. Juventus for example, are refusing to talk to the press because of the feverish media speculation surrounding France international striker David Trezeguet, according to Italian television.
Alex McLiesh, on the other hand is talking to the press, quite vehemently saying reports that he’s interested in Francis Jeffers are ‘absolute rubbish’.
Meanwhile, Kevin Keegan looks like bagging an alleged Arsenal target – Bordeaux’s highly-rated defender David Sommeil for £5m.
Seems to be all about French players – and Sunday’s game at Birmingham on the face of it is no different – with Christophe Dugarry re-united with some mates from the French World Cup winning squad. But also to reckon with will be new faces Jamie Clapham and Stephen Clemence.
One paper suggested that Matthew Upson could yet be playing for Birmingham – but that’s a little too far fetched.
And finally, it seems the FA is getting all too powerful. It has ordered that unless Bristol City erect a 60-yard by 40-yard arena for their youth academy, their licence would be withdrawn and a prestigious youth fixture programme against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea would be scrapped.