As we were reminded of in our last post, a season like 2025/26 doesn’t come around very often. So now we look at our second set of questions, keen to know the answers from two more ‘Holics located near and far to the Emirates but bound by the same love of the Arsenal. As with the answers from the first group, they cover a lot of the most important issues that came up during this amazing season.
This time around we have answers from Uply and Osaka Matt.
What was (were) your favourite moment(s) of last season?
Uply: My favourite moment last season was the goal scored by Max Dowman in the late season home match v Everton. We were holding that narrow and nervous 1-0 lead with a few moments to go in a run of 7 must win matches. Everton had a corner and their keeper went up for it. I, and I suspect thousands of others, were full of trepidation they would score from it. Instead the corner was cleared, then passed up to Max who slid past the last defender on half way with ease and calmly ran towards the opposition’s empty goal with their defenders trailing behind and scoring his debut goal at 16 yrs. The combination of joy and relief from everyone there and everyone watching on their tv’s was just ecstatic.
OM: I think you’d have to have been actually dead not to have leapt out of your seat when Max Dowman scored against Everton. Even watching on TV 6,000 miles away I felt the spine-tingling electrical surge in the aether, amazingly there weren’t wide-scale reports of power outages. It was a genuine WTF moment. But….given that almost everyone will choose that moment, I will also nominate Ebere’s hat trick against Spurs, he looked so happy that you couldn’t help but warm to the guy, same for Kai sticking it to Chelsea. Basically, there were a lot of great moments last season! The days leading up to the Palace game and the day itself were one long great moment.
Who was your player of the season?
OM: Declan Rice, for obvious reasons, though I wouldn’t argue with several other players being put forward.
Uply: There were many players under consideration as to my favourite and I narrowed it down to two – Declan Rice and David Raya. The latter made many vital saves throughout the season which contributed massively to our league championship but my no. 1 choice goes to Declan. He gives 100% every single match and even though he was physically spent those last few weeks he just “got on with it” as he was driven to win the league – he got it done! The other factor in choosing Declan was how he conducts himself – just class, and how we perceive Arsenal to be. He entirely epitomises the character that Mikel looks for in his team.
Did the scale of the celebrations around the world surprise you in terms of the size of support worldwide?
Uply: I was aware that The Arsenal are well supported world wide but the massive level of celebrations following our title win went way beyond my expectations. Those in some of the African countries were incredible, so much so I wondered if AI was playing a part.
OM: No, not really. I know the support we have in Japan, there was a huge turnout a few years back when we played a pre-season game Nagoya. We are well supported in the US too, and elsewhere in Asia and obviously Africa as was widely seen. I am always somewhat sceptical when I see various projections showing the global support for various PL clubs – in my own experience only Manchester United and Liverpool are competitors, of course I mean in terms of supporters who actually watch every week. I was more happily surprised to see the fantastic amount of people around our stadium, they said an awful lot more about us as a club than all the endless waffle of the various naysayers across the various media.
How comfortable are you with the ownership model and current ethos of Arsenal Football Club?
OM: To take the second part of the question first as it links to my previous answer, our current ethos is positively thriving; we are inclusive, we are global and yet also deeply involved in the local community, we aren’t perfect to be sure but to my mind values that have been built-up over time are now showing their worth. Our support opposed the racists on the terraces in the seventies, our management stood up against fences in the eighties, instead of the disgusting behaviour you saw at some clubs, our fans loved our young, black players who came through, we saw talent not colour. Arsene came in and was an ethos all by himself! Around the turn of the century we were, I think, the first of the bigger clubs (with apologies to Doncaster) to really support women’s football and we have continued to this day. Reading about the work we do in the community really does give a sense of pride at what we stand for, we know who we are. These things are just a snapshot from memory really and of course there are a million other things that have gone into putting our ethos where it is today. We didn’t do those things for the money, we did them because we thought they were right – so, not perfect, not angels but at least we try, and personally I gotta love that.
I was interested to see the current ownership model linked with the ethos! I guess there is some connection in a short-term way but they are quite separate in my mind. In general, the ownership model in the PL is stomach-churningly bad. As miserable a collection of parasitical ne’er do wells as you could hope not to ever meet or even see. I understand the argument that our own Silent Stan isn’t as bad as some but for me it just doesn’t stand up. As any good magistrate will tell you the proffered excuse of “god’s truth yer high and mighty worshipfulness, I dun the gaff fair do’s, but I didn’t half-inch as much them other blokes” is not a defence, just a plea in mitigation. Now that we are winning again people seem to feel the urge to gloss over the sins of the father – yes, the Kroenke’s have invested significantly and yes that has had a major impact, yes as well to Josh coming across as a decent fellow on the telly. None of that changes my opinion that our owner is quite capable of being as dodgy as the day is long because my opinion is based on what I believe he actually did in St Louis (after wading through a long and immensely boring legal document) rather than what I want to be true now. So, to answer the question, I am not particularly comfortable with the current ownership model but will accept the reality that nothing will change in the near future – of course if the owners sell out to some corrupt nation state then all bets are off.
Uply: When I first started going to Highbury in the 1950s, most football clubs were owned by local business men with a patrician approach. This has now changed beyond all recognition with big financial organisations and autocratic states with unlimited funds sportswashing their regimes – the amount of money floating around the EPL is phenomenal and bears no relation to the impoverished teams in the lower tiers of the game. We are no different in being owned by American billionaires. The Kroenke family were disliked during the early years of their ownership but under the enthusiastic leadership of Josh Kroenke they do appear to have switched on to how a football club should be run and have built a formidable management team, backed by considerable finance, leading to the current top level the club is now operating at. Of course they are aware that the financial rewards will eventually be working back to their exclusive benefit. We do appear to have lucked out when compared to how many of our competitors are controlled.
Do you envisage that this is the start of a golden era in Arsenal history or will our rivals soon catch up?
Uply: I do think the club is now at the level where we can expect a successful period ahead. However, our main competitors are not going away and they will be putting all their efforts in the years ahead to get ahead of us. Successful yes, domination I doubt.
OM: A very difficult question, I certainly hope so! However, the league is tough and, according to Mikel Arteta (who should know) it is getting tougher. I think our current core squad strength will certainly challenge right now. However, we need to keep Mikel, and the core of the side first, the likes of Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Zubi, Saka and Kai. If we can do that, then sprinkle in a sound squad and emerging youngsters like Max or MLS, I feel we are good to go for maybe three seasons or so of bauble-grabbing, but after that it will depend on how well we manage in a new core and who knows how that will go.
Who would you most like us to sign next season?
OM: Of the players I saw last season, I liked that kid at Spurs, Archie Grey. I also thought Kamada at Palace was good if limited, and talking of Palace, I’d take Olise from Bayern if I could. To be honest I have seen us linked with several players recently but who I’d like to sign largely depends on who the club decides to move on. If we move on Ode or Eze for example then I’d be happy enough with Morgan Rogers, but if we did sign him and didn’t move anyone then I think we are just causing problems for ourselves. In terms of the team, I’d like a new left-wing, another strong 6/8 as well as MLS, and a replacement for Kepa too if he moves on. I really don’t have names for you, but surely that’s what I pay Berta for anyway.
Uply: Our most pressing need is for a player who can naturally score goals -put the ball in the net from half chances. Unfortunately they are few & far between. The player who appeals to me most is Junior Kroupi currently at Bournemouth. He has lots of natural ability and is still young enough to improve further, particularly in our championship wining environment.
If you had one wish for next season what would it be?
Uply: My wish for next season is that the team regain its attacking mojo so that we can put more teams to the sword and we eradicate the stressful, hard fought 1-0 scorelines.
OM: Win the Champions League, time to get that deeply embedded thorn pulled out. It’s annoying, as well as unjust, that serial cheats like Chelsea and Manchester City have won it and we haven’t.
Have you any other thoughts or comments about where Arsenal is at the moment?
OM: We are top of the league 😊
Uply: After too many years in the doldrums the club has regained its prominent position through the astute management and dedication of everyone involved, working as a team together for the benefit of all, including the fans who are a vital part of the club – “Victory in Harmony”
“God’s truth yer high and mighty worshipfulness, I dun the gaff fair do’s, but I didn’t half-inch as much them other blokes” – You can take the boy out of Sarf London, Matt…!
Nice piece, OM and Uply, and well done to TTG for commissioning.
Interesting responses from both of the eminent writers on the Kroenke ownership. It’s something I think we all ponder on. As with so much in life, it isn’t black and white. All owners are in it for a reason and it is unlikely that first and foremost is the simply glory of sporting success. Overall though, I think I would rather have owners who are in it to increase ultimate capital value through ensuring the team is competitive and ultimately successful, than to extract value piecemeal like the Glasers and allowing the fabric of the club – physically and metaphorically- to degrade; or who are there to sportswash and who degrade the very fabric of the game itself as part of the process. You know who you are. Thanks vm for your thoughts, guys.
Thanks, TTG for your thoughtful questions and OM and Uply for your thoughtful answers. I thought about three of TTG’s questions and came up with these responses:
1 What was your favourite moment(s) of last season? Eberechi Eze’s hat-trick in Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Spurs at the Emirates in the Fall. What a moment to shine, and I’m hoping Eze is planning his encore performance for next season.
2. Who was your player of the season? Gabriel Magalhaes, because he was the heart and soul of our title push. I loved it when he brought the team closer together by celebrating after making a big tackle at a crucial moment of a game, as if he had scored a goal at the other end of the pitch (which he also did on several critical occasions).
3. Did the scale of the celebrations around the world surprise you in terms of the size of support worldwide?
I wasn’t surprised by the worldwide scale of the celebrations, having read about the intensity of support for Arsenal in Asia and Africa for instance, but what did surprise me was the scale of the celebrations in the city where I live. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area holds a surprisingly large contingent of the global Goonerverse, as I only recently discovered. Here I had been, an adopted Minnesotan of 16 years standing, either watching Arsenal games at home or in the wrong venue at the wrong time to be able to see just how many Gooners there actually are here in the Gopher State. Over the last two weekends of May, as Arsenal celebrated becoming Premier League champions and nearly made it a double in the Champions League, I discovered an enthusiastic and large throng to celebrate with, the Twin Cities Gooners, at The Local pub in downtown Minneapolis. I attended two games there during those magical weeks in the company of my neighbor Alan, who is also an Arsenal fan unlike the people who fly a Manchester City flag a block away in my St. Paul neighborhood.
Knowing that The Local is the “official” Arsenal pub in town I had previously attended several Arsenal games at the same bar, most recently on February 3 when a defensively solid Arsenal defeated Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semifinal by.1-0,, but never found more than a relatively small and quiet gathering of Arsenal fans. That had changed remarkably on my next visit, on May 24 when Arsenal celebrated their Premier League title which they had won earlier that week, as they defeated Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. The Minneapolis bar was absolutely packed with hundreds of raucously chanting Arsenal fans, myself included of course.
We came back the following week to join an even larger and louder throng to watch Arsenal in the Champions League final against PSG, only to suffer the final disappointment of losing on penalties but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the company of so many proud Arsenal fans enjoying the club’s finest moments in decades. These were certainly my high points of celebrating Arsenal’s achievements in the company of fellow Gooners so the club’s achievements has certainly had global reach at least in this corner of the North American continent.
BT8 – Great to hear that the sun shines on so many of the righteous in the Twin Cities.
Great post bt8, we are everywhere 🎉
Kudos to you both, OM and Uply, for your thoughtful answers — and to your interlocutor.
My 2 cents on the ownership question is that we, like the Scousers, have an owner whose business is the business of sport, rather than one whose ownership is in support of other objectives. Like CER, I will take that as the lesser of two evils, indeed, far the lesser one.
Silent Stan was far from the only actor in the move of the Rams from St Louis to LA, or more accurately, the return of the Rams to LA after two decades in exile in St Louis. Ever since the Rams and the Raiders had left LA after the 1994 season, the NFL had been desperate to get a team back into the second-largest US media market, and there was a bitter power struggle between the NFL owners to be the one who got to relocate their team there (US pro sports teams commonly relocate because they can make more money elsewhere).
There had been at least 20 proposals to build a new NFL stadium in LA before Kroenke vanquished the main rival to his proposal for building SoFi Stadium and got his fellow owners’ approval to relocate his Rams there. There was then a lot of unedifying stuff done behind the scenes by the NFL to enable Kroenke to make that happen, which eventually led the city of St. Louis to sue the NFL and its 32 team owners for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation, once the move came to fruition. The lawsuit, to which I assume OM refers, was settled out of court for a $790 million payment from the NFL to the city.
Silent Stan certainly was ruthless in doing what he had to do to make the move happen (especially when it looked like falling apart in 2014), but the tale is one in which many hands are not particularly clean. Kroenke was then able to fast-track planning approval for SoFi, but that is a story for another day.
Great work, chaps (including TTG). Thoughtful responses to well constructed questions and nothing with which to take issue.
Good stuff everyone. The last post was also excellent. Nice one.
Thanks again to our respondents and to Bt8 for his insights and opinions too. . I was in Toronto for a family wedding once , we were playing Palace away and I discovered that the base for Arsenal matches in the city was in Yonge Street which was just around the cornea ( in heavy snow!) . The place was rammed with Gooners , passionate, knowledgeable and very genuine supporters . I think we may find we are now close to being the best supported. English side in the world .
As a public service announcement for any visitors to NYC, these Manhattan establishments are Gooner-frequented bars that show all Arsenal games: Crompton Ale House in the Garment District, Jack Doyles in Midtown, O’Hanlons in the East Village and Seven Sins in Gramercy East. In Brooklyn, there is Fancy Free in the Clinton Hill district, the Highbury Pub, between Kensington and Flatbush, and Paddy’s of Park Slope in, er, Park Slope.
All of these are vouched for by the Arsenal NYC supporters club, which reputedly has a membership running into the thousands.
It’s delightful to learn that we have more than you five American Holics cheering the Gunners on from across the pond!
I’ve watched Arsenal games at breakfast time in a pub in lower Manhattan – name forgotten – now closed, I believe; and in Atlanta where the barman was an ex-season ticket holder and proudly displayed his Arsenal tattoo. In neither hostelry was there a notable knot of Gunners despite the NY one being reputed to be an Arsenal pub but both occasions were 25 years ago. I suspect things have changed.
Bath@11: I wonder if the lower Manhattan hostelry was the late, lamented Nevada Smith’s on 3rd Avenue in lower Manhattan. Long since the victim of the developer’s wrecking ball, but a gathering place back in the day for fans sporting many colours, both UK and European. At base, it was a Red Mancs bar with the memorabilia on the walls and a barman to affirm it, but no better Guinness to be had anywhere in the city at 6 am. I think I have told the story here before of some Roma fans turning up at Sparrow’s fart to watch their team with espressos in hand. It was that sort of place.
Inspired by all the talk of foreign bars and Arsenal support I tried to work out where I’d seen Arsenal play on TV in hostelries when outside the UK.I came up with USA ( New York, Hawaii, Boston, Washington , San Francisco and Orlando) , Switzerland, Germany , Bermuda, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark , Canada Barbados , Italy , Portugal ( saw us win the 2002 title ) Ireland and Czechia . Only in the Far East and the USA/ Canada was there a real gaggle of Gooners but it was great fun….and we won most of them!
I remember watching an Arsenal game from the hotel room in Thailand. It was made all the more difficult by the fact that earlier that day I had decided to go for a swim in the placid waters of the Gulf of Thailand, wearing my glasses. The inevitable happened and I was swept off my feet by a huge wave, with my glasses condemned to Davy Jones’ Locker. Or at least to help out a myopic octopus. 21 CG had a spare pair, which I didn’t. So much for the folly of youth. Unfortunately only the right eye matched my prescription. For my left eye. Cue watching the game looking like a very poor Eric Morecambe tribute act.
I recently watched live on a plane for the first time on
a flight back from Rome, it’s not advisable to be noisy
on the flight these days so I can’t say I can recommend it.
I can also add Shanghai and Brisbane to TTG’s impressive list!
Ned @12, it was indeed Nevada Smith’s and you remind me not only of its name but its decor and its eclecticism. I think my son and I trekked down from a hotel in midtown to watch a match in the 90’s and to our surprise, having been told it was an Arsenal pub, the decor didn’t match and we were outnumbered by a bunch of Chavs.
Add me to the list of those who watched an Arsenal game at Nevada Smith’s in Manhattan, in addition to several other bars in Manhattan, San Francisco and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Excellent breakfasts were available in most of those places. For some reason one of my best memories was og nearly being late for the kickoff against Blackburn and sprinting the six or seven blocks down First Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and getting to my table just in time to see Arshavin score his first goal for Arsenal high into the net from a tight angle. Excellent stuff!
bt8@17: The time difference between NYC and London makes watching football and eating breakfast, liquid or full English, a natural pairing. Breakfast at Nevada Smith’s definitely fell into the liquid category. Other options were available further up Third.
In an era when there was little PL football on TV in the US, Nevada Smith’s was a go-to football pub, at least on Saturday and Sunday mornings when it would show multiple games, and so was always packed. If your team’s game was being shown on the big screen in the basement bar, you could feel the floorboards vibrating over your head under the weight of the crowds in the main bar. But where once Barcode fans would take off a shoe, stand on one leg and wave the shoe in the air while singing some lament when Toon were losing, Red Mancs and Chavs would exhibit their perennial insufferableness and Scousers would be Scousers, there now stand luxury apartments. Sad sign of the changing times.
TTG@13: You clearly need to get out more…
The Swiss Ramble takes a look at Newcastle’s finances today on his Substack and concludes that, while it looks like the club doesn’t need to sell Bruno G to stay compliant with PL and UEFA financial regulations (and its settlement agreement with UEFA after UEFA cracked down on some of its creative accounting), it doesn’t have so much headroom that it mightn’t consider it. A key factor is when Newcastle books the sale of Anthony Gordon to Barcelona, which was announced at the end of May (still in its 2025/26 accounting year). If the club can delay booking the sale until its 2026/27 accounts, it will be in a more comfortable place than if it has to book them in 2025/26, but either way, it should still be in compliance. Swiss Ramble also points out that with two years left on Bruno G’s contract, this would be the right moment to maximise his value through a sale, so assertions by ‘Toon that the player is not for sale might be meant more as a negotiating tactic than an immutable declaration of intent.
Ned@20- thanks for that. Swiss Ramble is a man who knows his onions.
As indeed, do you.
Pelanty to Spain. Smashed in. 1-0.
That’s Saliba out for 6 months, I fear.
We can probably forget Saliba, Rice and Saka, and possibly Timber, for half of next season. Berta and Arteta have some serious rebuilding to do PDQ.
Ned@25- exactly as expected.
Well played Spain. The better team won.
Yes, that is a bastard on Saliba, though I am not
sure I am willing to join the Frasierite wing of the bar just yet.
Gentlemen,
A little less pessimism on the injuries please . Saliba’s looks nasty but he’s been injured for half the season and still been able to perform . It looks like he will face tge surgeon’s knife but we won’t have a time frame yet .
Arteta would be wise to rest Saka and Arteta for the first few weeks but I would hope Timber is back close to the start of the season . Let’s not get paranoid . Other teams have players in the World Cup too and struggling with injuries .
Large single malts all round are on the bar 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃
To help us all manage the vicissitudes ahead
TTG,
did you mean rest Saka and Rice @28? I don’t want Arteta to rest at all
in the first few weeks 😂
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>