Proudly on Tour

The Europa League 2020 campaign is well underway with new management and a re-invigorated team! The first away leg of the last 32 against Olympiacos was too good an opportunity to miss, especially to get away from the gloom and hopefully spend a few days in the sun! A couple of days before my departure from Cumbria, my friendly B&B host in Athens advised me of a public transport strike on the day I was due to arrive. Initially he thought all transport, including taxis would be on strike, but in the event, taxis were available. I flew from Manchester to Athens via Zurich on Swiss. It was so nice to fly on a plane that did not feel like a bus, had trolley service with complimentary food and drink (yes, that included beer too!). The chocolate was yummy too! Being Swiss, the flight arrived on time. I was expecting complete chaos at the airport, but it took less than 10 minutes to get a taxi. The taxi driver was hilarious and so happy to learn I was an Arsenal fan! He wanted us to

Saturday 1st June 2019 Aaron had been tracking me on live location on WhatsApp and even before I got to the street where Finnegans was, I saw him walking towards me. He grinned from ear to ear and gave me a big hug. I was just so relieved I had been able to reunite him with his passport! We went to Finnegans for a celebratory pint as I excitedly regaled the story of what happened. The day before, we noticed how things had changed in Baku now that the football fans/UEFA had mostly left Baku...we had seen child beggars and homeless people on the street...they had not been visible up to Thursday morning. When we did see policemen, they had been stopping people in the street for random ID card checks. Again, we had not witnessed that earlier. It would seem that Baku was getting back to it's normality now that most of the news crews had left! Even in Finnegans, the atmosphere was remarkably different and an eclectic mix of people were there...there were quite a few young women i

Friday 31st May 2019 (evening) Hooray, the train started moving and slowly the boiling hot cabin started to cool down slightly. The carriage attendant came by checking tickets. She had already checked them against passports when we got on the train, but now she wanted the counterfoils. Then she came round handing out customs forms and finally a sealed bag with sheets and even a towel. Steve went to the toilet and came back looking bemused....he said the cubicle was worse than the bathroom we had to endure at the 'shithole'. Steve lay back on his berth and tapped into my local SIM card to catch up with news, send messages etc... I too checked messages and reflected on what had been an amazing few days. I sent a picture of my berth to a friend back home. My passport was clearly visible on the berth and Steve's can be seen on the white table. I thought I should use the time to start doing some long overdue blog entries so I got my tablet out of my backpack and set

30th and 31st May 2019 The Thursday night was spent back at the Irish Bar, Finnegans. There were a few football fans still, mostly waiting for their trains/flights home on Friday. As with the rest of Baku, the atmosphere had changed, even in the pubs, as more 'interesting locals' had come out of the woodwork. The bar was playing a selection of 1980s music, the beers were going down well and the pain of the night before was subsiding (slightly). Went back to the 'shithole' in the early hours and went straight to bed. Thank goodness I would be checking out of there tomorrow. I woke up with a slight hangover but the good news was, the electricity was still working! Yeah!! The joy was short lived. As I stepped into the filthy disgusting shower and turned the water on, I waited for the hot water....and waited....and waited. Bugger, now the combi boiler was not working, so for the second time in three mornings, I had to endure another freezing cold shower! How I reall

30 May 2019 A quiet and sad day in Baku for me and other Gooners who had had such high hopes. But the result was what it was and now I had a couple of days to have a better look around Baku and to have yet another kebab for lunch! 😂  We took a walk down towards the seafront. It was a quiet morning and there was not an Arsenal shirt to be seen, but more Chelsea shirts than we seen outside of the stadium all week! Suddenly it seems, the city had gone from Red to Blue. Another thing we noticed is the number of police/security people had dropped dramatically. Walking past the Fan Festival areas, the dismantling of it was well underway. Some of the inflatable items were looking just like we were feeling....deflated!   We took in the sights The weather was also reflective of our mood! We even took a trip on an electric Venetian-esque gondola And there is a carpet museum And someone was not going to launch their amazing milkshake at the nearest politici

30th May 2019 What happened? Having put so much effort into planning, actually travelling to Baku and putting up with accommodation disaster once there, why could the Arsenal players not put in the same sort of effort on the pitch? There was no real passion, heads were down and we never looked like the team that won so convincingly against Napoli and then Valencia. As travelling supporters, we can blame UEFA for picking such a far away place and a stadium where we had to sit so far away from the pitch, but the Arsenal squad had no travel worries on their first class jet and had no accommodation worries in their first class hotel. To be stuffed 4:1 on a Wednesday night in Baku is not the memory I wanted to take away. I could lament the sad and feeling frustrated trip back on the buses into Baku, but I won't. There is always next season. There will be some departures from the squad this summer, that is inevitable now. Let's hope the right decisions are made and that Emery has