h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I love fanzines - they generally deal with reality which most official programmes do not. In the early days of fanzines when they referred largely to music rather than footy I did one issue about the WOMAD festival. The trouble was that most of the people at the festival had no idea what my daughter and I were doing and we ended up giving most of them away free (not too much of a hardship as it was all done free by the printshop at the investment bank I worked for at the time) because they were bloody heavy to carry back to London from Morecambe.

I too have loved football fanzines for many years. Do you know which club has the longest-surviving fanzine in Britain? If not, here's the answer: http://www.citygent.yorks.com/

One of my favourites has to be The Gooner. Their covers are so funny. One of the best in recent years, which was not humorous, showed on the front Vieira and Petit celebrating the Double with the caption 'Things cant get much better than this can they?'. On the back cover was the photo of the same two players kneeling and hugging each other after Petit had scored the final goal in the World Cup Final (from a perfect Vieira pass) with the caption 'Oh yes it can'

I think it was also The Gooner that ran a cartoon headlined "The Tony Adams Family". It featured all the characters from The Addams Family raising their right arms as if appealing for offside.
Tony Adams thought it was so funny that he bought the original artwork so he could frame it and hang it in his home.

TA is turning into a truly fine human being these days. Last Saturday night I went to a benefit for the family of a 12 year old boy who was killed on one of the local estates. I knew him from my previous employment in the public library service and a very nice boy he was too. Before I got there (one of my companions proved VERY resistent to leaving the pub on the way) TA went along and donated one of his Arsenal shirts which later sold for £400! I am sure he NEVER met the boy concerned but he still took the time out to just come along for a few minutes and lend his support! What a great guy.

Agreed. I read Mr Adams' book "Addicted", and even if a journalist "helped" it still read like the truth. I was impressed by the way it balanced his remarkable achievements in football with his personal problems, giving both equal weight. In interviews I've read with him, too, he really does seem like that rare animal - a footballer with maturity and depth of character.
I have, incidentally, also read "Rock Bottom" "by" Paul Merson, an anorexically thin tabloid-hack ghost job which essentially said: "I used to get out of head a bit, but hey, I was still brilliant then and I'm still brilliant now!"
The contrast was striking.

As regards TA as a player - I think the thing I most regret, and positively HATE George Graham for, is that he stifled TA's footballing skills. If Mr Arsene had been in charge at Highbury when TA was young TA would have become one of the all-time great defenders of the world let alone England. He would probably have gone abroad to play his football though so I suppose it is not all bad!
As regards the Merse - a similar point could be made but, unlike TA, there is NO WAY he would ever make our first team nowadays. Sure he looked great in the days when he occupied the mid-field with the likes of Hillier, McGoldrick, Jensen, Helder but they are hardly world beaters unlike the gods we have now, e.g. Vieira, Lauren, Pires, and those just coming through in the reserves are going to take some beating too (Vernazza, Pennant and another winger whose name I can never remember because so many of them have first names starting with J) and that is without mentioning the recently departed money grabbers (who chose a VERY bad period in Barca's history to go there).
I agree with you about the contrast between the two books - TA's was written to inform and warn impressionable youngsters about the dangers of alcohol whereas the Merse needed some cash to sort his debts and it shows in that he doesn't seem to have a lot of selfawareness even now.