New books spills training ground insights on Arsenal legends
Ben Smith played for Reading, Yeovil, Southend, Hereford, Shrewsbury and Weymouth. His new book Journeyman: One Man''''s Odyssey Through the Lower Leagues of English Football is a an entertaining trek through the bleaker side of the glory game.
But Smith also played, briefly, for Arsenal. He first played for the club''''''''s U12s in the early 1990s and was part of Pat Rice''''s youth team at the start of the 1995/96 season, when Bruce Rioch took over as manager at Highbury and Dennis Bergkamp and David Platt joined the club.
In those days, first team, reserves and youth-team players all trained together in pre-season - 60 players in all, Smith says he was number 58.
It was a short-lived taste of the top level and Smith has a few stories to tell about some of his stellar teammates.
"The late George ‘Geordie’ Armstrong was in charge of my group and, while I cannot remember everyone in it, I can recall defender Nigel Winterburn’s behaviour. We were doing some simple weaving in and out of poles but Nigel decided he would just run through them and clothesline them all like a WWE wrestler. I was stunned! All the senior players just laughed at him and Geordie did not say much. I bet he was pissed off"
Paul Dickov, the fiery Scottish striker, was in my group and prided himself on his head tennis expertise. He could not care less if you were an established player or a spotty teenager – if you made a mistake he deemed preventable, he gave you both barrels.
"On one of those early days my group had just completed its perimeter run and we were waiting for our turn on the head tennis court. Dennis Bergkamp was playing in the group ahead of us and produced a piece of skill that left me open-mouthed. The ball came over the net from about 10 metres in the air, but Bergkamp cushioned and caught it on his foot in one motion and then nonchalantly flicked it back over the net. Everyone went mad!"
"Seaman was very particular about the preparation of his boots. He insisted the Nike logo on each one be painted with a well-known paper correction fluid and that there be no black polish on the logo at all. Now this probably does not sound too taxing but you have to factor in that I am not artistically gifted. Seaman was thankfully one of the more laid-back professionals, however, and would show any displeasure with a loud, deep laugh, accompanied by a headlock."
"Legend has it that when Ray Parlour was an apprentice he sang ‘Little Donkey’ to Tony Adams. The defender allegedly showed what he thought of the song by chasing Ray around the training ground – but I never found out whether he caught him or not!"
"Rice initially went mental at everyone and then I had the misfortune of catching his eye. He exploded, saying how I had let him down as I clearly was not fit. He was pretty much foaming at the mouth and saliva was going everywhere as he launched into the finale of his dressing-down, which involved him thumping his fist on the treatment table in front of me. He did it with such ferocity that his watch broke and fell onto the floor. Even in my petrified state I had to suppress the laughter swelling inside me. He did not find it amusing and it was the end of my participation in that game. It always made me chuckle when I used to hear Arsenal fans on radio phone-in shows saying there seemed to be nobody on the coaching staff giving out criticism when the team was underperforming."
"My assumption that there was no dialogue between Arsenal and Brentford was also misguided, as proven by the phone call I got from a very irate Liam Brady, who had realised I was no longer training at Brentford. He basically said if I was not at London Colney the next day I would be sacked. I decided I did not want that on my CV and sheepishly returned to Arsenal.
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