One-Nil to the Arsenal: Part 5 - Attacking Flair

17:25So these are really, really good adaptable players doing great stuff. And I think particularly in Europe when you're playing probably savvier and more technically accomplished opposition, PSG and Parma would definitely that. They would definitely, either one of those teams had been in the Premier League that season, they'd have won it. They were both better than Manchester United at that stage. So like Arsenal were underdogs in those games, but they had to play in a slightly different way and they were able to and players like that and a player like Ian Selle as well who starts the final as a 19 year old and his his career is a bit of a tragedy really because the next season he has a very very bad leg break which incidentally I was about 20 yards away from and I heard it and I'm not joking I heard I heard his leg go and obviously he never he never hit the heights that he could have been capable of.

18:27And lots of people don't, in retrospect, don't understand what a talent we lost in Ian Selly. Like this was a 19-year-old. I think he might have won Man of the Match in the final. Like just turning up at 19 years old against those opponents in the final.

18:46There are few Arsenal players quite as beloved as Super Kevin Campbell. And sadly, that was celebrated and fully realized after his death in 2024 at the tragically young age of 54. Campbell was a boyhood supporter of the club who joined the youth team at the age of 15. Within just a few years, he was considered the best youth striker in the country, racking up goals and helping the team win silverware. In 1988, he scored 61 times in 53 appearances at the youth and reserve level and led the Gunners to the FA Youth Cup. That spring on May 7th, he made his first team debut against Everton in a forward group that included the likes of Paul Merson and Alan Smith, two Arsenal legends in their own right.

19:37Longtime Arsenal midfielder, David Hillier. Well, I think first of all, when Kev started to form his partnership with Wrighty, I mean, everyone will tell you, right, outside of, off of the football pitch, Kevin was the biggest character you would, not in a flash way, not in a loud way, but he could, you know, he could light up a room, he wore all the best suits, he had lovely cars and, you know, treated people to fantastic things. I mean, if you went out with Kevin, he loved life and he loved everybody else enjoying life with him. And I don't think Kevin ever had a bad day, apart from probably his last few months.

20:25You wouldn't have known if Kevin had a bad day, because he never showed you. He'd always be like, no, I'm fine, mate.

20:35Despite his massive talent, Campbell's next development step included a series of loans starting with Leighton Orient in the fourth division. He scored nine times in 16 games and helped the team earn promotion to the third division. The following year, he began the campaign with another loan, this time to Leicester City in the second division. There, he also found success scoring five times in 11 games, setting him up for an impactful return to North London. At 20, he indeed broke through during the 90-91 season playing up front with Smith and Merson en route to Arsenal's second title in three years.

21:14Campbell scored eight goals in a 10-match streak during the run-in to help clinch the league title, all just a few months after he turned 21. Imagine buying your kid a toy only to find the batteries aren't included, or buying furniture but missing the tools to build it. Frustrating, right? Now imagine the exact same feeling, but you're paying way more. That is what buying business software usually feels like. Fragmented, disconnected, and incredibly expensive. Odoo completely changes that. Odoo is a complete, fully integrated business suite where all your apps actually talk to each other. We're talking automated lead routing for your sales team, seamless AI integration, and intuitive point-and-click website builder.

22:01It's everything your business needs to scale, saving you time, headaches, and money. Stop piecing your software together. Go to odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com to learn more. Despite his emergence and a second golden boot from Alan Smith that year, the arrival of Ian Wright changed the dynamic of the attack. That didn't slow down Campbell, though, even as his role evolved. He scored 13 times in the 91-92 season, then his production dipped in that dreadful 92-93 campaign, even as the team won two more trophies with the FA Cup and League Cup double. His development path hit its peak at just the right time.

22:46Campbell's best Arsenal season was, in fact, that 93-94 campaign en route to the Cup Winners' Cup win. Defined by his power and pace, teammates will tell you he was as capable of the brilliant strike as Ian Wright.

23:05David Hillier. But I think his relationship with Wrighty, I think Kevin, I watch some of his goals now, some of his assists, right? And he was as good as Wrighty. He was as good as Wrighty. But I think he played the sorcerer's apprentice, or do you know what I mean? He played the sidekick. He was right as Robin, like Batman and Robin. He could do it just as good as him, but he thought, do you know what? It works with Wrighty doing it, Wrighty taking all the limelight, Wrighty having all the cameras on him after, and I can just slip away. it all came together to the tune of 19 goals including a critical strike in the cup winner's semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain he played the full 90 minutes in the final against Parma helping the team to European glory and cementing himself in the hearts of Arsenal fans forever Super Kev was a superstar during that European run.

24:16A standout moment in the career of a standout favourite.

24:24Longtime Arsenal fan, Clive Palmer. Yeah, I think they're almost two competing identities, right? So we had this very much the Arsenal back four at the time, with the England goalkeeper behind them. And so there was a feeling you can go anywhere with that lot, and you can come back with something. And that feeling of invincibility of the back line, what it led to was maybe a front line that just had to score once, and then it would be okay, right? And so we almost lent into that identity over time. And the Cup Winners Cup really manifested that. And there was the introduction of Ryan. He came in alongside Alan Smith, who was a golden boot winner at the time.

25:11Paul Merson, a homegrown player. Kevin Campbell, a young superstar that exploded on the scene. And it almost felt like it was one or two players over. And they had to try to make it work together. So Kev moved out to the wing. sometimes Merth paid off to left and it was it was a challenge right it was a challenge to fit them all in but those competing two ends of the scale so you've got these young vibrant attack with some real personalities homegrown players golden boot winners at one end of the pitch then you had this back four that lives in legend at the other end of the pitch and those identities almost competed and a midfield which almost facilitated all of the above so the midfield was a protecting midfield you know with paul davis who everything there as well but they said they also were used to just feed the front men you know so and feed right because he will score and that's what it felt like get the ball to right and he will score and when you find a solution that works you i feel that we lent into it and i i sometimes i think when you're playing football your solutions tell you who you are so when you have someone at the top of his game that can score chip goalkeepers do what you like left foot right foot follies headers you're gonna give him the ball aren't you because he gets you your win bonus so um and so i do think with the with the less granular tactics we see today where every pass is structured and painted out beforehand and walk through i think there was a lot of defensive walkthroughs George's time but maybe attacking wise it's like two passes down the sides into the channels into Alan Smith retreat back to the midfield into righty goal right so um and then then hold it from there and it really was the era of 1-0 to the Arsenal in that in that in that moment

27:07it's hard to know if Kevin Campbell could have or would have become the star center for the Arsenal was looking for if they hadn't bought Ian Wright. We'll certainly never know, but what we do know is that he stepped up to the challenge of becoming the complementary attacker the Gunners so needed to ensure Graham's side had dynamic goal-scoring options. While their paths to Arsenal prominence were different, they happened around the same time. Campbell broke through with the first team through the 90-91 title run, and despite that success, Graham decided to add Ian Wright to that attack. His journey to North London was an unusual one.

27:47Of Jamaican descent, but London-born, Wright found football prominence later than most. Multiple trials as a teenager left him without a professional contract, so in his late teenage years until he was 21, Wright played for an amateur Sunday League side called Tenenby, where he became the top scorer and caught the eye of semi-professional team, Greenwich Borough. He lasted there just a few matches before Crystal Palace invited him for a trial at Selhurst Park, where he impressed then-manager Steve Koppel, earning his first professional contract in August of 1985, just three months shy of his 22nd birthday.

28:30It didn't take long for Wrighty to make his mark even near the highest professional level of English football. He scored nine goals, good enough for second in the Palace squad. In 1989, he scored 24 times in the second division and a total of 33 in all competitions, helping the team reach England's top flight. All told, Wright scored 117 goals in 253 starts and 24 substitute appearances over six seasons for the Eagles, making him attractive to other teams, such as Arsenal. Wright signed for the Gunners in September of 1991 for£2.5 million, which at the time was a club record fee. He made an immediate impact scoring against Leicester City in his team debut a League Cup tie.

29:24Longtime Arsenal physio, Gary Lewin. my only concern would be social media nowadays because some of the things he used to get up to i couldn't say on this podcast what they were um he was an absolute lunatic but everyone yeah he but everyone loved him for it absolutely loved him um but he just loved scoring goals the only person i've ever seen like him is jermaine defoe we just love scoring goals the rest of it is fluff putting the ball in the bucket and that is the best feeling in the world and right he was infectious like that and and he was infectious not only for team spirit for making people laugh infuriate here at times because he would do stuff that you would think what is he doing that for but he also came through an era where george graham used to have a saying about front page back page so guys back page news only i don't want any front page news because that means he was standal I think in today's era, I think, as with a lot of players, Paul Gascoigne, Wrighty, people of that era, I think would struggle in the present game because it's so public now.

30:42His hat trick against Southampton in his league debut made an even bigger mark. The dynamic forward scored 31 goals in all competitions that season, including league top scoring honors with 29 goals, 24 of which came for Arsenal. Wright went on to become the club's top scorer for six seasons in a row, cementing himself as an Arsenal legend. So much of the team's early 90s success features righty and his magnetic smile, including the FA Cup and League Cup Double in 93, and then, yes, the Cup Winners' Cup in 94.

31:24Clive Palmer. He was the man at that time, and a lot of the build-up to the final was around the fact that he wasn't going to play. right so um and maybe it wasn't just him it was just i think john jensen as well that didn't play and obviously it was in the game was in denmark so your point about the game and its size in in supporters minds is a really valid one because i was at the game and it was a it was a major moment for me in my young supporting life i think it might be one of my second or third european trip away but my first final away from home sort of thing and so it was massive i didn't know what to expect you know when you arrive you don't know what what's going to happen how many of their fans are going to be there at that time there was a lot of issues with um english fans going abroad you know and every time they went abroad there was lots of hooliganism that played a big part of my in my young life you know that type of football watching fandom culture that was a big part of how i grew up watching arsenal and you know as far as i was concerned if you're an arsenal person and you were fine by me.

32:30And when I look at social media today, that's not the case. And so, yeah, we literally had to fight our way into stadiums when I was younger. And that's how it was. Particularly when you're a football fan, when you're a black football fan, crikey, that was very much the case. And so, Ian Wright epitomized a lot of what we were on the terraces, on the pitch. I mean, he looked like a fan playing, and he behaved like one. and he played with the passion that we would love to see. And so I think his story, if I also, just to say to you briefly, if you think back to all the millions of Arsenal fans that support Arsenal today, there could be two players that have made them support Arsenal.

33:12Ian Wright would be one and Thierry Henry would be the other. And so their cultural impact, their impact on people around the world has been significant for generations upon generations. And so Ian Wright was in that moment of his career where he just scored a goal in the FA Cup final the year before. And he scored in both legs and the replay as well. And he was just the man, totally the man, where we were totally behind. We were very much an Ian Wright team with a back four behind it, if you see what I mean, and Ian Wright at the tip of it. And so, yeah, very interesting time, very English times, a very English team with an English nature to it.

33:51And we have one or two foreigners sprinkled around and John Jensen, who played in English style anyway. So it's very interesting times.

34:04Despite being unable to play in the final against Parma, he was critical to the team's march to that trophy. When his Arsenal career was over, Wright scored 185 goals from 288 appearances, 279 of which were starts. 33 of those goals came on 11 hat tricks for them, and he reached 100 goals in 143 games. He is still Arsenal's second highest goal scorer of all time, behind only Thierry Henry. His prolific scoring left a personal legacy, but his 93-94 campaign, 23 goals, 4 Cup Winners' Cup goals, and 34 strikes overall made righty forever part of the team's greatest European win, and hence also a legacy of silverware that has yet to be surpassed.

35:02The overemphasis on defensive identity and over-reliance on Anne Wright were the identifiable traits of George Graham's tactical shift to European Cup readiness. But that's an incomplete story, particularly when it comes to the attacking prowess of that squad. Superkev grew into the ideal partner for Reddy, scoring big goals when there was a need for a second scorer or to give teams someone else to worry about. But even focusing on just those two players is misleading in its own right. Two-time Golden Boot winner Alan Smith was past his prolific goal-scoring days and had to adjust to a new, more versatile facilitation role.

35:44But he still played a critical part in how Graham set up that attack.

35:52Legendary Arsenal left back, Nigel Winterburn. Well, I think you're fine Smudge, Alan Smith Back then Was your typical centre forward Quite tall but athletic Held the ball up well Linked the play Perfect, I would say For the style that we had Linked it up Got it wide Crosses into the box Created chances And plenty of goals for Smudge He was a terrific player. He played an even more pointed role in the critical final rounds of European play. So we'll discuss him more later in the series. Nigel Winterburn. Then you bring in Wrighty, who's super bubbly. You never know what's going to happen when you've got Wrighty around.

36:50But he's got, boy, oh boy, his goal scoring was sensational. that guy he was just I think he was born to score goals you know and he just loved it you see it on his face all the time so you know that's once you start playing with Ian and you see the type of goal he got all different goals as well anywhere inside the box he was lethal and then you mix it in because Kev really was a centre forward but was playing most of the time big and powerful and so so strong He didn't knock Kev off the ball when he had it. You know, he usually got knocked over. Playing off the right-hand side a lot, but, you know, still could come inside and play and fill the centre-forward role if needed to be.

37:39And then you've got Merce, who was just – I like to call him a free spirit because he wasn't a – no, he wasn't a – he wasn't conventional footballer, Merce, played. A lot of passes with the outside of his foot. He used to love running with the ball. some of the things that he did with the ball were outrageous so he had unbelievable ability but Merce could sort of play left he could play right he could play in behind the striker if you wanted him to he played quite a bit with me on that left hand side so he could go on the outside but a lot of time he'd come inside as well but he's just sensational to watch Some of his passes with the outside of his foot was incredible.

38:27So I think at that period of time, we had a pretty decent front line, a good mixture that we could move things around if you wanted to as well. And I think people were starting to think that, particularly when Wrighty's coming in, that you didn't want to give this guy a chance. And I think we had this, started to get this relationship a bit more like, well, if righty or one of the forwards score, then we know we're not going to let in too many goals. We're probably going to win. And I'm sure the forwards are going, well, if we get one goal here, we're probably going to win because our defence has been pretty solid for a long, long time.

39:10So that's the, you can see the confidence that you get from each other. And I think that's the sort of belief that we started, really started to have.

39:24Paul Merson was part of the homegrown contingent that helped shape Graham's transformative roster. While he was well-established in the early 90s, he became even more vital by the Cup Winners' Cup run. With the technical and creative players faded from favor, like Paul Davis, Anders Lindpar, and now the departed Rocky Rowe Castle, Merson was the creative engine in the team. He could line up as a winger, wide midfielder, or traditional center attacking mid. And despite sometimes inconsistent performances, he was tactically versatile enough to give Graham a variety of options and different setups.

40:01The North London native was known for unlocking defenses with his passing and dribbling alike, and contributed big goals or created big chances when the team often needed it most. Throughout the run to the 94 Cup Winners' Cup, you might not hear Merson's name on the score sheet as frequently as Wrighty or Campbell, but it's very likely his was the name called by the broadcast team before they scored in the buildup. David Hillier. And then those balances in each position, like having one each in, Like I said, Tony Adams was very, you know, he was very, he had a lot of stature, had a big presence on the pitch.

40:47Boldy, who was just the same size, he was a little bit more quieter. So you had a sort of a yin and yang in each position. And I think that really, really suited the team. You know, you had Merce, who sometimes played in the midfield, who would play with a more combative or industrious midfielder to complement him. or you'd just have me and John Jensen centre midfield, but you'd have Anders on one wing and Merce on the other. So we'd do all their legwork and that would allow them, and everybody accepted their role. There was no egos. No one was looking to be the top dog. And I think that was what clicked.

41:30Even Eddie, I mean, in fairness to Eddie, he came from sort of Palace where he'd had a regular sort of game every week and when you come to a side and you're only playing now and again it's easy to lose your form a little bit so players the fans don't see you at your best all the time you might have the odd game when they see you playing really well but you know you ain't played for three weeks you come on for 20 minutes they expect you to set the world on fire you know it it don't really happen but um all very good players but all happy to do the job that the gaffer wanted to just to play for arsler

42:08It would be disingenuous to say that the team was an offensive juggernaut. The ability to score evaded them as often or more or more often than it was found. The Gunners finished fourth in the Premier League that season with 71 points on the back of just 53 goals, the fewest of any team in the top nine finishers. For the sake of comparison, Manchester United won the league while scoring 80 times. The team had transformed to a cup team, and more specifically, a Europe-ready cup team. So the standard wasn't volume, but rather a clinical ability to score that one goal when most needed. And George Graham built a formula that managed just that.

42:52It wasn't an attacking machine. But the 94 Cup Winners' Cup champions certainly had attacking flair.

43:06That's all for part five of One Mill to the Arsenal. We'll be back soon with part six, the famous back four. I'm your host, Kent Malmros. Thanks for listening.

43:35Thank you.