View From The Sphere

Why I wish we all still lived in a Perry Groves world!

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There was a cracking quote from Perry in 2006 when interviewed by the Guardian about his book and asked about his connection with the fans. He said:

‘People look at Thierry Henry and think ‘I could never be like that’. Me, they could look at a go, ‘If I played that’s how I’d be’. And I think they found more of a connection because players were more accessible then. They might have seen me out pissed in a wine bar, where I might have bought them a drink… or even tried to pull their bird.’

Groves’ biography is a hilarious romp about a time when footballers got drunk, behaved badly, got sent home from club trips and still won trophies. Football will never be like it again, but there must be so many of us that secretly wish it was sometimes because ‘We all live in a Perry Groves world’ outsold boring smug tripe dished out in the same year, 2006 by Ferdinand, Lampard, Rooney and to everyone satisfaction, particularly Perry’s, Ashley Cole’s.

It is exactly the attitude of Cole when leaving Arsenal that infuriates Perry and alienates fans who work for a living doing real jobs. When Perry was forced to retire in 1994/5 he was on £75k. Not a week as Thierry Henry is now, but a year! Perry was asked by the Guardian if he had read Cole’s book published just before his, to which he replied:

‘I wouldn’t waste my time to be honest. I’ve read the serialisation in the paper, and it was so self-important – how unlucky he was, how far up himself – I wouldn’t bother. He is saying how lucky Arsenal was to have him, he can’t believe the way they have treated him, which is a load of bollocks. And me thinking how lucky I was to play for arsenal and rally milking it…’

Not sure I have reached any conclusions, but I just think as fans, even if we ignore the fact that the average Arsenal players now earn more a week than Perry did in a year when he left us, we are entitled to 100% effort from them when they pull on OUR shirt.

Perry is a cult hero even now and he won titles to earn his status, but this is not the reason why we adore him. We love him because he is one of us and he represents us just as Jack Wilshere does today. Everything we see and hear from Perry then and when he is interviewed, and Jack now on twitter is what we secretly want from all our team and feel we are owed. We love to see Mikel Arteta take a pay cut to play for the Arsenal as much as we cannot bear the attitude of some recently departed stars and those who even now, yes you Andrey, do not seem willing to give everything for what it means to play for ‘the Arsenal.’

We can turn a blind eye to how much you earn if you run through walls and spill blood for our team as long as you are privileged enough to wear the shirt. Perry Groves did!

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