Lanesra
06 May 2006, 05:22 AM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/4960572.stm
Never fails to amaze me how much ex players love the place!
PsychedelicCeltic
06 May 2006, 05:56 AM
Highbury is a special ground.
There is a logic as to why players miss it so much. It is an incredibly dignified, elegant place to be at. People still have nostalgia over Roker Park or Burnden or whatnot and these were simply ugly lumps of concrete. Highbury, in my opinion, has just about the best architecture ever placed in the sporting context. Yankee Stadium's facade, Ibrox's Main Stand, the Wembley twin towers, Churchill Downs' spires, Munich's Olympic Stadium glass roof, Santa Anita's Streamline Moderne trim, pff..give me the East Stand.
And it's been kept up very well. It's old, but anybody who has been a stadium truly on its last legs knows that it can be a miserable place. I've seen images of Tiger Stadium. It was rusting, grotty, cramped, horrible. Highbury is not horrible.
In my opinion, if we were a club capable of only drawing 30,000 to games, or even 45,000, we probably wouldn't be leaving. We know that if the club had its way, we'd be ending another season at 52,000 seat Highbury. It's because we are a club capable of drawing at least 60,000 to games that we must go.
Anyway, it's a damned recognizable site for Arsenal legends, more than most grounds (What part of Anfield can a man who played in the 1950s look at and remember?). Combine that with the rather throwback atmosphere around the place (how many clubs regularly feature the crest they wore 75 years ago?!) with the long-term chairmanship of the Hill-Woods and the number of old boys who work there and it's really a home. Not many grounds are a home but Highbury is.
Henrik
07 May 2006, 05:52 PM
Check out the good English papers today, they all carry some sort of story about Highbury.