Geordie Armstrong on the Wing: AISA meeting 

Yesterday Andy and myself travelled to the Arsenal media centre for the AISA book event of Geordie Armstrong on the Wing by Dave Seager and Jill Armstrong.

This was meant to be held prior to Christmas but had to be cancelled, and was well worth waiting for as paying tributes to Geordie were Frank McLintock, Eddie Kelly, Dave Seager and Tom Watt as compere.

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Frank, Eddie, Dave and Tom

First up was a Q&A with Mark Gonnella and Tom Watt, which was a worthwhile warm up act for the main attraction.

Then after a short break we had a bravura performance by the 70s icons.

One a man who had scored at Wembley and in a European final, the other the captain of Arsenal’s first ever double team and European trophy winning team, indeed Tom Watt called him Arsenal’s greatest ever captain, which is arguably true.

They started by discussing Geordie, stating not only was he the heartbeat of the 70s team but was also a bloody nice bloke.

Eddie said what a special debt of gratitude he had to Geordie in the Fairs Cup final at Highbury as he was always there next to him to carry the ball through into attack, and made his role much easier.

Basically, both of the players, together with Dave, told stories of Geordie’s brilliance, and of especial note was the comparison with Cazorla’s amazing ability to take the ball and use both feet. In that, an opponent would not know which way Armstrong was going to move, either left or right, as he was at home with both feet. It is a trait that Cazorla also shows and recently to devastating effect.

Biggest laughs were set aside for Eddie who when asked how he felt scoring a 25-yard cracker in the Fairs Cup final, replied to the question that he wasn’t sure he had scored as George Graham claimed it !

Also, Eddie told a story of a recent conversation between Frank and Arsene Wenger at a charity event. Arsene asked Frank who he thought would win in a game between the current Arsenal team and the 71 double winning team. After a while Frank earnestly replied: “I think it will be a draw.” To which a surprised Wenger thanked Frank for his honesty. Frank then delivered a deadpan, “but Arsene you have to remember the 70s boys haven’t played together for at least 40 years!”

Another good line was based around the notion that Eddie’s current deafness was caused by years of having Frank shout at him to keep formation and get out of the box !

The great camaraderie of that team showed through as Frank stated his belief that as Geordie and John Radford were the biggest moaners of any players he had encountered, that they would have made a great pair of undertakers – presumably in the Fraser of Dads’ Army mould.

Personally, I could have stayed all night listening to the reminiscences of both the players about thegreat Geordie Armstrong and the early 70s teams, but sadly it did have to come to an end and proceedings were deemed ended by Tom. A loud round of applause was given to the players and author.

After the event both Frank and Eddie stayed, and were real gentlemen in their patience and answering of any query or taking of photographs, and signing the book in question.

2013-07-11 09.35.34Eddie put to bed a query about a peculiar photo we had located last year in the Daily Mail archives. It appears to show Eddie running onto Highbury in the mid 70s with a cheeky cigarette hanging from his mouth, and it was reported as such. However as Eddie has never smoked he was insistent it couldn’t be that.

After a bit of thought he realised that he was in the habit of using a small tube which he would snap in half and inhale the contents prior to a game, which was a help for his breathing.

So the photo told a different story to that as reported all those years ago. It is most definitely not Eddie Kelly smoking but in fact he was using a forerunner to the stuff Vieira used to put on his shirt, also a breathing aid.

And to boot we also got to meet our supplier of many historical photos, who really should be followed by more Gooners, as he tweets so many quality Arsenal items.

All in all an excellent evening’s entertainment and our thanks go to AISA for another well organised event with fantastic guests.

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2 thoughts on “The Frank and Eddie Show

  1. Ken George on 31 January 2015 at 11:01 am said:

    What a brilliant tribute to Geordie this book is .It points out that of his 621 games he started 607 and was rarely substituted with only one sub being available .In the Double season he missed 50 mins out of 64 games .
    He is compared to the modern era where of Theo Walcotts 276 appearences in 7 seasons , 97 were as sub and in over one third of the games he has been substituted .
    Geordie is a true Arsenal legend .

    • Frank said he couldn’t understand why players today are “in the red zone” when they’ve only played a dozen games by Christmas. Sanchez played 71 senior games in 2014. What’s wrong with the rest of the big girls’ blouses?

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