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No sign of Arsenal legend and new Palace boss Vieira last night
Even as a football fanatic, pre-season never got the juices flowing, because, well, it was pre-season.
The real stuff wouldn’t happen until the first game of the season, anything before that was simply filler, even if you could have a good day out on a summer’s afternoon drinking with pals, or when getting your first glimpse of a new signing.
But as a sports journalist, I love pre-season.
Why? Because of the extra access you can get. Meaning the chance to interview managers with less of the press pack around, meaning a bigger bang for your story.
Which is what happened at Easter Road, when there were only four English journalists covering the match, when we had Mikel Arteta all to ourselves.
The more relaxed nature of pre-season also lends itself to a more relaxed press huddle and occasionally a more relaxed football coach.
So, when I noted that Stevenage were down to host Crystal Palace on Friday, I jumped at the chance. To be fair I probably would have gone anyway as it’s only round the corner, but a possible opportunity to grab a few words with one of Arsenal’s greatest ever players was too good to turn down.
That was until I got to the ground, first noting who got off the team coach to see if he was there. Then a quick scan around the players car park to see if he was being driven clandestinely to the ground (it happens), but no dice for that either.
We even set a snapper up to study the crowd to see if he was around, and if so, I’d head over and doorstep him for a few quotes. It’s what journalists do.
A mobile phone story
I did that once to a big England star who happened to be in the stands at a Stevenage game once. He didn’t want to talk to me. (Which is fair enough, that’s also part of the game), so he held his phone up to his ear and pretended to talk to someone.
The only thing was, if you know me, I’m quite persistent when I have to be (you can’t be a journo without persistence), so I just waited. And waited. And waited. I knew he wasn’t on his phone. And he did too. But he couldn’t then pretend to end the call. So the subterfuge simply continued. Until his phone rang. While he was pretending to speak to a someone on his phone.
I smiled and asked: ‘Ok for a quick chat now?’ The player nodded and we did a story. Which was the most read of the week on my paper. It was about football, and no-one was stitched up in any way whatsoever. That’s how I work.
Which is what I would have done if Vieira had been there incognito. But he wasn’t.
Stevenage 1-0 Palace XI
So, I relaxed and took in the game. Kudos to Alex Revell’s Boro side for beating The Eagles.
Albeit a young Eagles side down to ten men early on after a rash professional challenge. When Palace centre-back Jake O’Brien was shown red for a last-man challenge on Jamie Reid. The lad will learn from that. It’s all good experience.
Well done Freddy
Talking of gaining experience I have to say a big well done to a lad called Freddy Cardy who was interning with me at the game. Freddy does radio broadcasts for Hitchin Town as well as being a Gooner Fanzine writer. He’s got a big future ahead of him.
You can read his match report here
PS: One of the reasons I started this Substack account was because I really enjoyed writing a weekend sports column for the Morning Star newspaper.
Here’s my latest column, which, given what I’ve mostly been up to this week, concerns The Hundred. You can read it here
PPS: Happy Birthday Martin Keown
