One-Nil to the Arsenal: Part 3 - The Anatomy of a Squad

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0:43Long time Arsenal left back, Nigel Winterburn. the age game I mean it was well considering the first round it was a walk in the park wasn't it you know it's 3-0 at home I don't remember much about the game but the bits I do remember is I just you know I think we just completely outclassed them if I'm honest we really controlled the game

1:18On May 4th, 1994, Arsenal traveled to Copenhagen, undermanned and decidedly as underdogs, to face Parma in the European Cup Winners' Cup Final. This is 1-0 to the Arsenal, the story of the 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup victory. I'm your host, Kent Malmros. Part 3, the anatomy of a roster.

1:47With round one in the books, George Graham was tasked with getting past the ghosts of his second round exit to Benfica just two years prior. He and the squad had made it through the fixture congestion of September and started another gauntlet October schedule, but the roster was built just for this, so they got to work. Something strange happened that month. A run of rare results encapsulated that Gunners team in perfect simplicity. October started with a nil-nil draw at Liverpool on the 2nd. As a standalone result at Anfield, that was a positive outcome. As the archetype of the rest of the month, it was less ideal.

2:30And that's exactly what happened. Three days later, Huddersfield Town visited Highbury for the return leg of its second-round League Cup matchup with the Gunners. They too managed to tie Arsenal this time by a score of 1-1, but it wasn't close to enough for them to overcome the 5-0 drubbing in the first leg of the round, and Arsenal moved on in the competition easily. Two games, two draws. The formula would come to define October. In the league, Arsenal put together three more 0-0 draws on October 16th against Manchester City at home, on October 23rd against Oldham Athletic away, and on October 30th against Norwich City at home.

3:13Six draws in October was maddening, but emblematic as well. Fortunately, they played seven games that month, and the one exception was the one that mattered most.

3:29Arsenal podcaster Tim Stillman. I think we're expected to go through, definitely, but nobody would have called 10-0. It wasn't like, you know, even I remember winning the first leg 3-0 thinking like, I wasn't expecting that per se. And again, I just really remember like Brian Moore's commentary in the first leg. There's a goalie in right scores, which actually comes from, when I say a long ball, like a good long pass from Martin Keown. which is not something that he was particularly known for at that time. But I did remember winning that leg three and then thinking, OK, this is kind of, we should be good here, you know.

4:19On October 20th, tucked neatly in between the City and Oldham games, Standard Liège came to North London. Over 25 ,000 fans packed into Highbury to watch Arsenal compete, in the first leg of the second round of the Cup Winners' Cup. What they saw was a dominant performance. Alan Smith had an early chance that went wide, then later began the play that led to the opening goal. From the right side of the pitch, he played a simple pass under to Martin Keown, who delivered an early flighted pass first time to a streaking Ian Wright. His glancing header found the back of the net and gave Arsenal a 1-0 lead in the 39th minute.

5:05played in early by Keown well I think it'd be unfair to say he hasn't had a kick yet but he's certainly not played a major part in the game so far but he has now and it's amazing Brian, it's Smith who you want in the middle, who's doing a workout right, great cross, I think from the goal with and a terrific finish. The goalkeeper left in absolute no-man's land. Stolen like a catburner there, didn't he? It was Keanu not the ball in. Great ball. Difficult for the keep because he was always coming away from him. A great finish. That was the score at half, but there was more to come for the Gunners.

5:49Paul Merson scored in the 51st minute. He will go. Well, we have to wait for the age more to retreat from 10 yards. I think it's going to be Merson. Depends which side he takes. Yeah, he's going to the other side. It'll be Merson, I think. Probably going wrong. It's Merson. And it's a goal!

6:19Well, you said you hope he had better luck than he had in Rotterdam. And he's swanked the Dutch post. A lovely free kick there by Paul Merson. Over the wall. What a great sight that is.

6:35And Wright added his second in the 64th minute to make it a final of 3-0. And now Arsenal are attacking again. Wilson Wright up there. The Yo shirts are getting back. And Wright get there first. It's really Ian Wright. It's a wonderful goal by Ian Wright.

6:56We've talked about all the great finishes we've ever seen. But this man might be the best one that I've ever seen. There's still a lot of work through. It's great to go ball from this. They're both on the same wavelength here. Look at this. But there's an awful lot of work through. He knows the goalkeeper's going to come. He knows he's going to lie down. 3-0 for Arsenal. Giving Arsenal a commanding lead in the round and providing the one bright spot in an otherwise dreary set of results during October. The identity of that team had come through in October in both the best and worst ways. Stout defense and a potent but sometimes unreliable attack.

7:37This was the roster that Graham had built, and many would argue the tweaks were made explicitly for European football.

7:47Long-time Arsenal physio, Gary Lewin. Well, I think that's where George developed this. I mean, famously the back four. You had David Seaman in goal, who was the calmest man on earth. and then you had a back four that would start a fight in a telephone box. They did not want to lose. And you had that grit and determination. But for me, the biggest thing the team had is, so the personality, you had Steve Boll, you had Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winnett-Burn. John Jensen was a character himself. Alan Smith was a bit like David Seaman, very calm, very quiet. But what you did do is you had an acceptance amongst themselves.

8:33that you could criticize each other. So if somebody wasn't quite doing it and somebody else had a go at them, they actually stood up and actually stepped up and improved what they were doing or changed what they're... And I think you had that inner drive as a squad to demand from your teammates that level that you needed to win the game. And at the end of the day, it was about winning the game and you would put anything on the line to make sure as a team you won. And we had a few comedians in the camp. You had Ian Wright. You had, I think, I think Eddie McGoldrick was in the squad as well. And so you had some funny people in the squad that would keep the spirit very, very lively.

9:22But I think underneath that, you had that sheer determination to win.

9:29It passed yet another test in the European Cup Winners' Cup, even if that early string of October results made it clear that the league may once again end up out of reach. But how did the roster get to that point?

9:48Long-time Arsenal midfielder, David Hillier. Well, see, that was the thing. I mean, I'll go back to right at the beginning of when we started talking and said that, you know, the youth team, the reserves, and the first team used to do the same thing. so when when you was injured and you was with the first team you did your rehab exercises right next to where the first team were training you didn't do it in the in the medical room you weren't in a different department you know Gary Lewin had you by the side of the pitch while the team were doing their team play doing like leg raises or on a trampoline or doing whatever rehab exercise but you was doing it there with the team watching the team that you was part of because you was part of that team so when you went I did all the same stuff as the lads I went out on the training pitch with them the day before but while they was training I was maybe doing a little bit of stretching or maybe light jogging I don't remember what stage I was at with the injury but it was only probably four weeks old after having stitches so I couldn't get a boot on I remember having a size 11 boot with padding in it when I'm only a size I'm only a UK 9 but I had to wear any i had to wear an 11 to have the sort of room so but but the focus was very much on keeping everybody together and it was nice because ian selly who was like sort of an understudy come junior to me and he he'd made his breakthrough you know and it was it was great for him so everybody was happy for everybody yeah he he was a you know he and it i just enjoyed it i just enjoyed every part of it just being in the stand it was no different to playing um i've got all the benefits i've got all the bonuses the same as the rest of the team george made sure that no one missed out um you know and that was like people say to me oh why don't why do managers bring on a sub two minutes before the end of the game but it's to get them their win bonus and to get them the points and points money and because because that makes them still feel like the manager cares about me and and it's not about the money it was never about the money it It was about feeling part of things and not necessarily feeling part of things, but not feeling left out.

12:01Because you don't always have to be the star, but you don't want to feel like you've been left out. And Jules never left anybody out. That was his main management skill. No one ever felt left out.

12:17One of the reasons professional sports is so compelling is that it's real-life, unscripted drama. But unlike television shows where we fall in love with the characters as much as or more than the plotline and setting, the regionalism and tribalism of sport often anchors us to the team first and players second. In the modern global era of football, that's still mostly true. And that reality enhances the drama on the field. It means that we as fans remain intensely loyal to the badge and then fall in love with the rotating cast of characters, watching them play out new storylines in the same setting year after year.

13:00The best metaphor might actually be as if a television show created a spinoff within in itself, and that spinoff then took over the original show. The cycle just keeps repeating. Some of the characters remain the same, maybe even the stars do for a season or two, but eventually new stars replace them, and the audience remains anyway, even more enthralled with the cast evolution than the show outcome at times.

13:32Arsenal podcaster Clive Palmer.

13:35Clive Palmer:So sometimes it's just being the other club. Because when I first started supporting Arsenal, it was 1971, in the kids' playground. And Arsenal playing Liverpool in the FA Cup final. And a lot of the kids were saying, I want to support Liverpool. And I just happened to like Charlie George. And so I said, I'm going to support Arsenal. And Charlie George scored a winning goal. So I thought, well, I'm staying with this team. I didn't know where Liverpool was. I didn't know where Arsenal was. I was too young. my dad worked out pretty quick he thought i'm not taking liverpool it's too far away so when the late 70s came along guess where he took me to my first game it was it was to arsenal so and i do you know i realize now there's probably about 180 miles difference in in the journey and so he took me there and plus my grandparents lived around there etc so he just made a lot of sense so sometimes just being the other team and i'll say to you i i sort of you know andrew arseblog i met him in the late 90s a champions league game where we had like we had we used to write on what we call an internet mailing list and so we had a group of arsebans and amy might have been part of that as well by the way and that we used to write that's how you did you should write you used to write sort of posts about the yeah i used to i used to do something cool yeah i used to do something called clive clive p thoughts and i'll do a post game review and I would rate the players.

14:57Clive Palmer:And everyone knew me for this, right? So I would do that. And we had a meeting at Wembley after a game and we all met. We were just names online, like email addresses. And we all met. And that's how it started then. For me, I think Arsenal were just positioned beautifully when the technology world changed. I really believe that. I think we were interesting. we were different we were foreign and that globalized us you know we looked we looked like a team with full of different mixes of people from different backgrounds from different parts of the world from africa from scandinavia from france from england black white everything was there so if you're looking from afar well i like this team i can i like this team they're different they're different you know and um different values to some of the english teams that were very english at the time, right?

15:54Clive Palmer:So I often say this line, I've got loads of lines, as you know, Kent. We are the first foreign team in the Premier League.

16:03Consider the 93-94 Arsenal roster through that lens and you can see an entire story evolving all unto itself. The alchemy that delivered the 94 Cup Winners' Cup in Copenhagen against Denmark was the product of George Graham's conjuring and David Dean's wizardry Just as you'd expect now, any great squad blends homegrown talent with shrewd transfers, and that formula applied to Arsenal's European glory that year.

16:39English football was still largely a place for English footballers in the early 90s, and the emphasis on developing your own talent within a club was among the most critical components to a team's success. That 93-94 roster boasted a slew of what we now call homegrown talent. Up and down that team sheet were players that had been identified and developed through schoolboy papers and apprenticeship in Arsenal. Some of the names took time to solidify themselves within the team. Others would have an impact on that season as mere teenagers and define their entire careers in that campaign.

17:23David Hillier. I think it's like what you said. It's more about business now, and we live in a disposable world. so you know if if something something breaks you don't fix it anymore you just buy a new one and I think football's so similar you know I mean like even Martinelli this year not had the best of seasons you know oh well if we sell him we can make this money and we and he'll make money and it's all good for everybody and the transactions go on and the money ball thing keeps rolling and you know but back in the day because there wasn't there wasn't it wasn't money focused they was they was clever with their resources and thought you know what and that's what george did he was clever with his resources he used players that he thought he can do a job for me as long as i get other players around him that can do other things and i manage them really well i'll get the best out of his team and if you looked at our team back then even compared to teams like tottenham I'm talking 94, Tottenham, Man U, probably obviously because Tottenham are a London club, but Manchester United, Liverpool, our budget was miles, miles smaller than them clubs.

18:36We never had them sort of massive players. Ian Rush was probably on£15 ,000,£20 ,000 a week when Ian Wright was on four when he came to Arsenal. But George was clever with his money. he got a lad that had just done well at Crystal Palace for a couple of years after coming out of non-league football and made the best of him with a very simple system so and that that enabled the the school boys and that to have a a dream that actually I can make it into the first team and you know I grew up as an apprentice with Merce, Tony Adams, Mickey Thomas all in the first team squad like from coming through the ranks Kevin Campbell obviously my best mate just in front of me.

19:19He got in. And it's like, there's an opportunity here. And if you just keep your head down and work hard. So yeah, we did it. I think Arsenal did it on a shoestring.

19:33Still others would go on to become Arsenal legends in their own right later on. The biggest name of that group was at the time, and still is, Tony Adams. Considered a club legend, the defender spent his entire senior career in North London wearing red and white for 669 appearances in all competitions. He was central to the success of that era in so many ways. Adam signed as a schoolboy in 1980, made his first team debut on November 5th, 1983 against Sunderland at just 17 years old, and became central to Graham's plans shortly after the manager took over the club in 1986. Adams was a first-team regular during that 86-87 season when he and Graham won a major trophy in the Football League Cup final, defeating Liverpool at Wembley.

20:29It was the launching point for his ascension to the captaincy, a status he attained on January 1st, 1988. Adams was just 21 years old and would remain captain for the next 14 years until his retirement in 2002. He created the defensive identity that would become the hallmark for those Graham teams, even though the remainder of that famous back four was acquired from other clubs. That identity is something we'll explore more in Part 6. But it wasn't just Adams who turned his apprenticeship into a linchpin of that cup team. Both the midfield and attack boasted key players that had been with Arsenal since their schoolboy days.

21:14The midfield that connected that famous back four to an audacious and made-over attacking front was largely a product of the Arsenal youth system. Paul Davis had come through it and was a well-established veteran at that point. A creative left-footed midfielder, Davis made his debut on April 7th, 1980 in a North London derby, a 2-1 victory against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. The following season, he started nine games and was entrenched as a key piece of the midfield by the time Graham arrived in 1986. He was critical to the team's 86-87 campaign, and despite controversy that took him out of the England side in 1988, Davis remained a cog in the grand midfield machine throughout the manager's early domestic success.

22:01Though the sting of that loss to Benfica was made worse for Graham, when Davis criticized his tactics publicly. It was a move that would see Davis fall out of favor, largely until his redemption during the Cup Winners' Cup run.

22:19David Hillier. People always ask me, what was the highlight of your career? And I always say winning the FA Youth Cup. And they say, but you know, I didn't play in the... Yeah, I did. I won the league. I didn't play in the two finals, like the League Cup, FA Cup, or the Cup Winners' Cup final through injury. So obviously there's a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth when it comes to those. Although I had a great time after and enjoyed the party, it was amazing. But I was formed from the age of 14 till when I was 18, till when we won there, by Arsenal Football Club. I trained twice a week with the same group of players every week.

23:03And then I settled into an apprenticeship where it was day in, day out, seven o 'clock in the morning till seven o 'clock at night. And bearing in mind, I traveled an hour to get to Arsenal and an hour home. So I was out the door at six in the morning. I got in at seven or eight o 'clock every night of the week. I spent my whole day with this group of players. all of us learning as a group that achieved you know FA Cup final for kids is just as important as it's just as hard to win as it is for for the adult competition it's a very difficult competition to win and we had some great travel some great trips and the bonding and the the sort of things that we learned about each other I can't change that period that period was even when I was on the first team it was okay but you had little clicks you had players that were brought in that were on lots of money players that like myself I was probably on 10 % of what the the highest paid player was on at the time when we won the league you know yeah I think I was on I think I think I was on I was either on 400 quid or 800 quid a week I was on 40 grand a week 40 grand a year when when they other players were on sort of 350 grand but that was fine it was you know I was I was happy with what I was getting but it was never about the money it was always about securing that next contract and staying with Arsenal for another couple of years if I'm guilty of anything is I'm not I was never very ambitious with football I took it a little bit for granted you know Hey, World Cup fans.

24:43If you want proper analysis, honest opinions, and plenty of laughs along the way, give The Rest is Football a listen. Gary Lineker is joined by Alan Shearer and Micah Richards throughout the tournament as they break down all the big games, the biggest moments, and everything happening on and off the pitch. They'll also be chatting with some brilliant guests along the way. Whether you've watched soccer your whole life or you're just getting into it, They'll help make sense of the drama, the tactics, the joy, and the heartbreak of the World Cup. Listen to The Rest is Football wherever you get your podcasts.

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