No new information of any importance emerged at this year's AGM. The Board sat in front of three gleaming trophies, yet the focus of the meeting was not upon the immediate past season but rather upon the coming few years and in particular the construction of the new stadium.
There's no doubting that Gilles Grimandi was a huge cult hero at Highbury and I was one of his biggest fans. I guess it was because many of us saw a little bit of ourselves in someone who recognized his limitations on the pitch but never gave less than 100 per cent.
I was mulling over our Premiership history against teams that have been in the
Premiership for it's full ten seasons and thought I'd bore you all with it.
When he joined the club in 1996 we were like a ship without a rudder. Rioch had got us into Europe the previous season and of course bought Bergkamp and Platt to the club.
Great season wasn't it? No you're right, it wasn't great it was brilliant. So brilliant I keep getting little flashbacks running through my head some two months later. What follows are some of my personal recollections of Arsenal's third Double season...
When I think back to Arsenal in the mid-nineties and the years before, I think of them now as the dark days, even depressing days. Yet we had success, the unforgettable and even now, unsurpassable Michael Thomas moment at Anfield in '89.
Arsenal fan Tom McCann has been living in China for the last five years, and now he's coming home briefly before jetting off to the United States to attend college. Throughout that time he has dutifully followed the fortunes of the club. Here's his story.
Our Club has had a disastrous season for injuries. All three keepers have been crocked at some stage with England's number one missing for the bulk of the season.
Journalists, eh? Dontcha just love 'em? They're the day-care nurses in the home for the incurably exhausted cliché. When they can't think of anything else to write (most of the time) they just wheel another old knackered line out for a short tour in The Sun.
It was written in the stars that after two out of three English teams progressed to the quarter finals of the Champions League, the third wouldn't be quite so lucky. But, no time to dwell, we have a Double to win.
Please keep this under your hats, but at long last I've finally managed to get hold of a copy of Graham Poll's match report for Arsenal v Newcastle, Tuesday 18 December 2001.
I believe that the game against Leeds United at Elland Road was Patrick Vieira's 250th appearance for our Club. Not a bad contribution for an alleged money grubbing mercenary that some would have you believe him to be.
