They say, “Never meet your heroes.” Quite who ‘they’ are, I’ll never know. But forget that. Last night after we squeaked past QPR at the Emirates with a 1-0 win me and my old man bumped into Sammy Nelson. He was having a beer at Victoria Station before he hopped on a train back to his home in Brighton.
My dad is 73 but the wide-eyed look on his face as I introduced him could have easily mirrored that of my son, 7, if it’d been his hero Robin Van Persie – and what would we do without him? Sammy has hardly changed over the years, a few more grey hairs perhaps, but he is in fine shape. Yet dad still had to verify: “Are you really Sammy Nelson?” Priceless.
Now, in the modern era of global superstars who have their own brands, assorted acolytes pandering to their every whim and millions in the bank, meeting a player from a bygone era wouldn’t necessarily get the new breed of Gooner going ga-ga.
But to Dad and me swapping chit-chat with a no-nonsense Highbury stalwart who wore our colours for 339 appearances in a 15-year spell at the club, it was thrilling. Don’t get me wrong the niceties lasted only a few minutes. There was no in-depth analysis of the game. No criticism of this player, or that. Sammy had probably already passed on his thoughts on the game in his role as a hospitality host at the Emirates. Our conversation was as fans. For me the encounter embodied the enduring appeal of the Arsenal family. We’d earlier been cheering our new young bucks to victory. Now it was the turn of the old guard.
So Rangers put to the sword but it could have done so much more easily had AA23 (apart from his pass for the goal) and Theo been on their games. We are used to visiting keepers wasting time with goal kicks while the score is 0-0 and it was no different yesterday. It’s a spoiling tactic but in their position you can understand why they try to use this to their advantage.
But what is good enough for the goose is good enough for the Gunners. And so I found it rather enjoyable as the minutes ticked away that our very own Wojciech Szczesny pretended to call for the ball from one corner of the ground when he knew full well that a ballboy was clutching the object of his desire behind him. It was enough to waste a few precious seconds as QPR tried desperately to snatch a draw.
Next stop on the Wenger rollercoaster: Craven Cottage. Fast ride, hold tight!
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