89: Inside Arsenal’s 1988/89 Season by Amy Lawrence

89: Inside Arsenal’s 1988/89 Season Reviews

• 
  Mike

  Arsenal have become my second team over the years, especially as the top places in England's highest reaches have become the preserve of a few select clubs. It's easy on the surface to see why I should choose the Gunners. As a Middlesbrough fan, I am suspicious of really good sides that win lots of matches and hoover up titles, and there's something essentially fragile about Arsenal that makes them the ideal pick. Few teams have such a talent at wresting defeat from the jaws of victory, of letting their supporters down, and it's a quality with which I can empathise wholeheartedly. 
  
  The love goes back years. I remember the pre-Wenger era, when Arsenal were a relatively mechanical, careful and prosaic set-up, built on a formidable defence and working on a safety first mentality that never made them much fun to watch. All the same when they happened to play both English cup finals against the same team, Sheffield Wednesday, in 1993, I was firmly in the Londoners' camp. This was swimming against the tide. Ron Atkinson's side was a wonderful, cavalier outfit, entertainers, showcasing the silky skills of England winger Chris Waddle whose career was undergoing a renaissance following his adventures at Italia 90 and with a European Cup clinching Marseilles team. Arsenal won the two games, for good measure controlling both so that Wednesday descended into the ugly plod that played to their opponent's strengths. No one watching these games in the University Common Room was satisfied with what happened. I was delighted.
  
  I think the origins for this strange relationship lie in the events of 1988/89, the season Arsenal first won the League title after years in the wilderness. They had been a top flight staple for what felt like forever, but there was nothing special about them and manager George Graham was constructing a squad based on no-name players. Liverpool represented the real elite. Everton were a top side; Tottenham were spectacular under Terry Venables and there was always Manchester United, very slowly clawing their way back to respectability with new manager, Alex Ferguson, spending a lot of money on big names. The campaign was a muddy slog, as I recall. Liverpool were the team to beat and Arsenal were just about keeping pace with them, just as at the other end of the table Boro's rebirth following their dalliance with bankruptcy was finishing with relegation. It culminated in the rarity of a season finale to end them all, a final fixture played between the title contenders at Anfield in which the Gunners had to win by two clear goals in order to claim Division One. 
  
  As was the case in those days, ITV held the rights to televise live matches, and this one, played on a Friday night, feels to my mind to have been watched by everyone. Nobody gave Arsenal much of a chance. The Pool were in amazing form, resurging after the recent tragedy of Hillsborough as though every goal and each victory was a tribute to the 96 lost lives. It felt poetic that they should stroll their way to the title, like it was right, and so it was possible to simply discount the opposition. Teams simply didn't go to Anfield and win matches. It never happened, let alone the scale of the task facing Arsenal that evening. No one told them that, of course, and what seems clear is that, unlike Liverpool, they approached the fixture knowing they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. They had a plan. 
  
  I was nearly 17 at the time. A sixth former, the era for me was punctuated with discovering the delights of my home town's night life, something I was denied on my first visit to a nightclub when I was cautioned by the police for the crime of underage drinking. There wasn't a lot to really enjoy at the time. The late eighties weren't an especially happy place for a Teesside teenager, nor was going to the match recommended with hooliganism still a thing and the government seemingly working to destroy it, so watching Arsenal produce their moment of high drama represented a genuine highlight.
  
  Obviously all this happened a long time ago. I'm in my late forties now. Football in England is in thrall to the Premier League and while there's never been more of it on television the paywalls make seeing it a limited experience. I guess there's a case to be made for the 88/89 season finish being the best of all time - in my time I would suggest that it is. The only possible comparison is the climax of the 2011/12 campaign, the Agueroooooooooo! moment, but Manchester City were supposed to win that game. Arsenal's task was immeasurably tougher, and they did it and in the process captured (some of) my heart.
  
  This book is a companion piece to the 89 documentary, and much like that recommended film is a compilation of peoples' voices - the Arsenal players, George Graham, supporters, staff, Liverpool fans, and so on. Capturing all those memories is a very special thing. For anyone who remembers it the individual passages are a treasure trove, and there are some special sections on the Hillsbrough tragedy, from April of that year, and about David Rocastle, the midfielder who retired from football too early and died much too young.
  
  I listened to the audiobook version, read by actor and Arsenal fan Alan Davies. The whole thing was entirely absorbing. I can't recommend it highly enough.
• 
  Steve

  As ever this review can be found with many others on my blog at:
  https://livemanylives.wordpress.com/
  
  The conclusion to the 1988/89 First Division season was probably the most exciting of any in my lifetime, but it also came at the end of a season of tragedy and change. As such, the thrill of a nationally broadcast, last minute title-winning goal by Michael Thomas at Anfield, was overwhelmingly offset by the trauma of watching the horrific events of Hillsborough unfold before our eyes. Football at its exhilarating best and devastating worst, with just a few short weeks between.
  
  I am not an Arsenal supporter, I am a Nottingham Forest fan and my first-hand experience of Hillsborough cuts a much deeper mark upon me than the season’s conclusion. I do still love football, however, and this “in their own words” account of that game and the events that led to it was in its own way as thrilling as the final game itself. George Graham, his players, the staff and a host of fans remember how they pulled off the seemingly impossible by beating the formidable Liverpool 2-0 in their own backyard, and it is an absorbing and insightful read.
  
  The experience of a football fan comes in three key expressions, a long form narrative within their club’s history, the ups and downs of a particular season and the beauty of individual moments, in 89 we have all three. Arsenal had not won the league title since 1971. George Graham was one of those heroic champions, but his appointment as manager was not greeted with the joy that might have been expected. He arrived from Millwall, an unglamorous second division club and did not really fit the mould of high profile manager that the fans were looking for.
  
  He knew this club, however, and he arrived with a determination to return it to glory. Immediately he set about the task of building a squad that he could lead and mould, removing some of the old guard and replacing them with young, hungry and pliable footballers. Graham the manager was a very different beast to Graham the player, a laidback midfielder who the fans had nicknamed “Stroller”. His team would be organised and it would work hard, not just on matchday but right through the week.
  
  Lawrence tells the story of this momentous game and its broader context through the words of the people who experienced it on closest terms. The books is thus a series of quotes that set the scene and then unpack the drama. George Graham himself explains the way he approaches management and provides insight into his thinking, often received doubtfully but ultimately accepted by players who held him in great respect and sometimes fear.
  
  First and foremost Graham created a team, a unified whole that was prepared to sacrifice everything for collective glory. Several players had grown up at Arsenal and had genuine feeling for the club, those that were brought in to join them were all upwardly mobile in their careers, looking to make a mark. It was a classic case of the sum being greater than its parts, even though the parts were undoubtedly talented.
  
  It is not all about the staff and players though. Football is nothing without fans and Lawrence gives Arsenal supporters around the world a chance to express what it meant to them; to be there, or to be with friends around a television screen, or to be desperately trying to find out what was happening at Anfield while exiled at a checkpoint in East Berlin, or on the other side of the planet. A defining moment, a brief but glorious coming together as one homogenous mass, as Arsenal.
  
  As the story unfolds, you get a sense of the individual characters in the team and the way they contributed to the whole. You also have an insight into the mind of a professional athlete in those crucial moments and how they each cope with them, or don’t. Seconds from the end of the last game of the season with the title riding on your next move as you run in on goal, defenders at your back, playing chicken with the goalkeeper, wondering if he’ll make his move in time for you to make yours, can you hold it together in that moment? Could you be Michael Thomas at Anfield and hold your nerve? It is why we love this game.
  
  RIP Rocky. RIP the 96.
• 
  James Tidd

  The final hours of the Division One season. The rest of football stopped to watch as perennial champions Liverpool took on rank outsiders Arsenal in a head to head contest for the title. With the Gunners leading 1-0 but desperately needing another goal as the season ticked into stoppage time, it was, in the immortal words of commentator Brian Moore, 'up for grabs now...'
  
  Set against the backdrop of the Hillsborough tragedy, and during an emotionally charged era in football long before the Premier League as we know it - 89 is an oral history of a sporting moment so unusual it felt instantly historic.
  
  Drawing on years of research, writer Amy Lawrence brings together fascinating and never before seen testimony from the voices who were there, on the pitch, off it, and beyond.
  
  89 creates a definitive and kaleidoscopic portrait of a match, and an iconic moment in English football that changed the sport forever.
  
  Set across 12 chapters, seven being the 96 victims of the Hillsborough tragedy of the 15th April 89, and the twelfth being a tribute to David Rocastle. The chapters deal with the lead up to this famous football game, the game itself, dealing with the thoughts of people such as manager George Graham, who was part of the 71 double winning team. Captain Tony Adams who lifted the Football League trophy with so lack of celebration that he would be deemed boring what with today's presentations. Adam's fellow defenders Winterburn and Dixon and fellow members Bould, Smith and of course Michael Thomas who scored the decisive goal and would eventually play for Liverpool. The book deals with the aftermath from fans of both sides, who were there and who weren't, the celebrations back in North London.
  
  This game has always interested me. Not only because I am a fan of Norwich, the losing side of the other semifinal at Villa Park against fellow Merseysiders Everton, but also of Brian Moore's commentary leading up to the second goal. It's up there with Kenneth Wolstenholme and his commentary leading to England's fourth goal in the 1966 World Cup final. Being nearly 10 years old, I don't remember watching this game on television. It being on a Friday night in May, I was probably playing outside with my friends, my dad would probably have watched it as he followed Liverpool since Shankly took charge. I would probably have been told that Arsenal had won 2-0 so they and not Liverpool were League Champions. My team Norwich were 4th, had Liverpool won 1-0 at Anfield earlier in the season instead of Norwich, maybe that would have made this game just another game, and indeed up until Michael Thomas, known throughout the book as Mickey, scored Arsenal's second goal, to a neutral fan it would have been just another game, except had it remained 1-0 through Alan Smith's goal, it would have just been another game, but Thomas changed that and, up until Aguero scored in injury time for Manchester City to snatch the title from their city rivals Manchester United, there was nothing like a finish like this in league football, the one exception being probably Manchester United's stunning injury time comeback in the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich. Arsenal's snatching of the title from Liverpool remains the best one, simply because this was the two teams together on the same pitch. The score had to be 2-0 or a win by two clear goals had Liverpool scored. Anything else the title was Liverpool's for the 18th time, instead it was Arsenal, winning the title for the 9th time and a first title since 71.
• 
  Kevin Dineen

  Where do I begin? When I first read the reviews and how positive and glowing they were, I was somewhat afraid of my expectations. Would this be another historical documentary but in written form? Would it be dry? Did it just get good reviews from Arsenal fans (and yes, I am one)?
  
  Well, Amy Lawrence has beautifully crafted this book in a way that you feel like you are at the cafe or pub, talking with the players and fans who experienced this game. Not only does it touch on the event in 89 itself but also pays homage to Hillsborough and the greater scheme of life. More importantly, it shows how deeply ingrained football is in the lives of fans and what it can mean to us.
  
  Finally, hearing the stories and memories of David Rocastle moved me and I wish I could have been old enough and following the team early to have a memory of him at Arsenal.
  
  Great read, quick read, and just well done by Any Lawrence.
• 
  Jason

  Brilliant book read it in a. Minute..... Brought back so much memories, the best time for myself supporting arsenal.
  
  My team the best team, the best finish to a season.
  
  George and the team need a statue or something. Oh Rocky Rocky, Rocky Rocky Rocky ROCSTLE......
  
  Lukic to Dixon to Smith..... Aaaaaaaah you know the rest
• 
  John Newcomb

  Loved this book. Bought the accompanying film. Amy Lawrence is the best writer about Arsenal in recent years. This is the story of perhaps the most exciting match in English football since I have been following the club and the highs after the lows of Hillsborough.
• 
  Dom Sacco

  A fantastic collection of stories about Arsenal’s legendary win. Essential for any Arsenal fan.
• 
  Morgan Holmes

  🔴⚪️