Free FA Cup With Every Legends Tour

The grand old lady that is Highbury hasn't got long left so a few of us decided to book a Legends Tour at Highbury for a 'last' look around all her nooks and crannies. The tour was booked and we were all ready for Bob Wilson to show us around.

Now for me personally finding out Bob was doing our tour was excellent news. I started supporting Arsenal because of Bob and so I couldn't have been happier that he was our guide (with no disrespect to the other guides Charlie George, Kenny Sansom and Paul Davis). So I got myself down to London. Bit of a trip but I'd put off a few things I needed to do down here so I could get it all done this week, and got down to George's in Barnet on Monday afternoon.

Tuesday lunchtime we meet up with Dom at Highbury and go in for the tour. Into the main entrance, and there behind the glass to the box office is the FA Cup in all its glory. Now I've been lucky enough to see it close up a couple of times in the past, but there's still a buzz in seeing such a famous old trophy barely inches away. Quick photo then off up to the cocktail lounge where everyone congregated waiting for the tour. Bob was already there, happily answering questions and there were light refreshments available for those that were early enough.

I've got to say when the tour actually started I think Bob used skills he'd learnt as a teacher because he did an excellent job of casually keeping the tour together. We started in the cocktail lounge where Bob told us a bit about the ground and where we were. All through there were little bits of information about what was around us (for instance did you know that the flowers in the cocktail lounge and directors lounge are always in the opposition colours?) and he wasn't averse to little digs at other teams!

After the cocktail lounge (the first one at any football ground by the way) it was on to the press room, where all the press conferences are conducted. Again Bob told us a few stories including one about a certain Russian residing in West London. Apparently after buying the chavs he went on a tour of our new training complex. At the end of the tour (through a translator) Abramovic, in all seriousness, asked how much it would cost him to buy it! Well at least he didn't arrange a surreptitious meeting in a hotel...

From there it was on to the dressing rooms, and then the directors box. Do you remember how George Graham used to spend the first half of games up there and had a phone installed to talk to the bench? Well although it's not used any more it's still there. By now the tour was over running, basically because Bob was happy to answer any questions asked. I was a little surprised to be honest because although his absolute love of our club is completely obvious Bob didn't shirk any questions or come out with 'party line' answers. Every question was answered with honesty and an obvious passion for Arsenal in particular and football in general. I was also impressed by the detail in his answers. There were no one word answers; he took the trouble to answer everything in detail.

I suppose you want some tit bits of information then... Well, in Bob's opinion Cole will stay, Píres will probably stay another year, and Stuart Taylor is definitely leaving this summer, with an apparent choice of a few Premiership clubs (ed - this was obviously prior to Villa's interest). It's no secret that Bob though Taylor was capable of succeeding David Seaman and he seems genuinely disappointed that he won't make it at Highbury. It may just be my interpretation of his words (as he certainly didn't say it outright) but it seemed to me that Bob felt Taylor could have done more to get the shirt. And in an age of £100,000 a week players here's one to think about. George Armstrong was an ever present in the 1970/71 double winning season. Including bonuses he earn't the princely sum of £17,000. To put that fully into perspective Arsenal players today earn a bonus of £12,000 for being part of the squad for a winning Champions League game. Even the unused subs...

Anyway, back to the tour and we were off down the players tunnel and out into the sunlight. The pitch looked amazing. It was reseeded only five weeks ago and looks stunning (it's been cut four times already), although it was slightly surreal seeing it with no markings on it. More stories from Bob then after posing for photo's with everyone that wanted to he handed us over to Ian Crook (the museum curator) to take us through to the museum via the East Stand (right past where my first season ticket was all those years ago – two rows behind Tom Watt...) for an hour, where Bob happily signed autographs.

One thing about that first season ticket. Year by year through the 70's I took my Dad to more and more Arsenal games (he paid but I'm sure you know what I mean). In 77/78 my brother joined the growing family outing a couple of times and since things were going fairly well at the time my Dad decided to get the three of us season tickets for 78/79. So we had our seats and behind us there was a jocular Greek bloke with his son. It was about 4 or 5 games into the season that we noticed there were two different sons that used to alternate games. Perfectly fair, but as we progressed in the cup we wondered which kid would get the Cup Final ticket. He couldn't really do it anyway other than stick to turns but I've always felt for the son that missed out on the Final that year.

But I'm waffling – sorry.

All in all the tour was excellent. Bob was absolutely superb as a guide and he made sure as we were going round that everyone had whatever time needed to take photos. It was quite relaxed and easy going, and I think it says a lot that Bob had to apologise to Ian Crook for over running by so long.

So we left the stadium happy, but about to go through a totally surreal experience.

We needed to get our tickets for the Amsterdam tournament so we went to the box office. As we were sorting out the tickets we were having a laugh with the box office girl. We asked if the FA Cup was still there and were joking that she should get it out (the cup!) for us to look at. Then it started getting weird. George gave her his membership card and she immediately said that she knew that name, and knew his sister who looked just like him (!), and that she didn't get on with her. George is protesting he hasn't got a sister (which was fair enough as he hasn't got a sister) and the girl said she knew his brother Andrew as well (ironically George has got a brother called Andrew). George is still denying having a sister when Dom and I start kicking him, and he suddenly clicks. 'Yeah, ok, she's a bitch' says George. The box office girl burst out laughing and said that just for that she'd get the FA Cup for us. Result!

Now we're expecting her to just bring it up to the window but she told us to go back through the main entrance. We ran through, not knowing quite what to expect. To be honest we were delighted that we were going to get to see the FA Cup properly. She came out of the offices with it, and handed us the FA Cup. She actually handed it to us! So we're stood there in the hall with the flipping FA Cup! All three of us took photos of each other with it (it's a lot lighter than it looks by the way) whilst the group for a later tour looked on in awe. Some were even taking photos of US holding the thing! Absolutely amazing.

The Cup was handed back with profuse thanks and we left the stadium buzzing. 'Did that really just happen?' Well we've got the pictures to prove it so it must have, although it still seems completely unreal.

Thank you kind lady!

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