By Myles Palmer
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A PLACE in the history books – a season unbeaten. That is something special.
And little Paul Dickov won’t spoil the party when already-relegated Leicester come to Highbury today.
So 2004 is a massively satisfying year for Arsenal.
Best team in the country, best squad in country, best kids coming through, best stadium being built, best board of directors by far, best manager, who builds a club as well as a team – what more could you possibly want?
The Champions League?
I KNEW YOU WERE GONNA SAY THAT.
I’ll come back to that another time.
A last appearance by Martin Keown, an uncompromising warrior who would not have been out of place in the 1971 team.
My most vivid memory of Martin is when he first came into the team in 1986.
He was 19 and played 20 consecutive blinders.
He was fast,ferocious, concentrated, cleaned up everything, won everything, made a few bad passes – a stopper supreme.
As I recall- and I’m no historian – he got into the team regularly before Tony Adams, partnering David O’Leary.
He was awesome.
I have never seen, before or since, any defender play 20 consecutive blinders.
CAN SEE Reyes scoring again today, but he won’t be as easy as tackling Van der Sar was last Sunday.
IT’S BEEN a funny old week in football,especially up north.
The vulgar Freddie Shepherd has an ugly decision to make and I think he will hire Steve Bruce to replace the wonderful sportsman, Sir Bobby Robson.
Shepherd, like Sir John Hall, sees Newcastle as the capital of England’s Catalonia, so the manager must be a Geordie.
Shearer will play one more year and do two years of TV and then come back as manager.
Liverpool’s David “Ringo” Moores isn’t the sharpest drummer in the boardroom.
Houllier is part of the problem, not part of the solution, but vulgar fan-millionaires like Steve Morgan should not talk sentimentally about having a team of scousers battling for every ball.
That is pure tosh.
Keegan came from Scunthorpe, he was no scouser.
Dalglish, Souness,Hansen, Whelan, Lawrenson, Hansen, Rush -none of them were scousers, although Rush was the best defender in the team.
Liverpool was built by Shankly, Paisley, the Boot Room and the Kop.
But that is history.
The Beatles will not reform, either.
KEVIN KEEGAN is Dennis Tueart’s mate – Tueart is a City director.
So KK might stay with his Spice Boys, Robbie and Macca.
But his henchmen should go : Arthur Cox and company.
Keegan’s Man City have the same problem as Keegan’s Newcastle – they cannot defend.
It was David James who kept City up, not Mighty Mouse.
AT THIS TIME of the year most players are losers and many are frustrated and start saying things they’ve bottled up all season, so the quotes are more interesting than usual.
CHELSEA, everybody is watching to see what happens.
Ranieri has finished second and made the Champions League semi while he has had a gun pointed at his head all season.
And what he has done with Frank Lampard is fantastic.
Frank’s passing has more range now.
And since he gave up smoking he’s become box-to-box.
WORLD CUP 2010?
Will they give it to black Africa or Muslim Africa?
A month ago I heard it was Morocco. Now I hear there’s only three votes in it and South Africa might succeed.
Mandela is 85 and goes to Zurich and says : heal my nation, give us a tournament which will create 150,000 jobs.
If they get it, good luck.
But Morocco have Alan Rothenberg and I still reckon he will swing it.
Morocco will send a message to al-Qaeda: don’t hit football, we gave you the World Cup.
And the fundamentalist lunatics might say : OK, we’ll hit the Olympics, because the Americans are there, not in Portugal.
THIS TIME last Saturday morning I got an emailed photo from Caroline in New Zealand.
It was the photo every mother fears.
Skydiving.
Tandem Skydiving at Lake Taupo.
Yes, Jan was “cross”.
But I suppose girls will be girls.
The four of them had gone out of a plane at 12,000 feet, each strapped to a pro.
The £130 jump includes your own cameraman, who freefalls past you and films you from below and takes stills.
TODAY’S EMAIL is rather poignant.
Their pal Hadley has now gone home to USA.
Caroline writes:
“Her leaving had definitely hit it home that we’ve been away a long time now…everyone we have met along the way is sending us emails from home now – it seems we’re the only ones left out here !
“I even dreamt last night that we came home and you had set up bunkbeds in my room and painted it like a dodgy hostel for us so we could all share like usual !
“My sleeping is still as mad as usual and I am still busy talking in my sleep and trying to get out of bed – luckily Abi caught me before I got to the door !”
15th May 2004