For our first ‘On This Day’ feature of 2020 we go back to the 1987/88 season and take a look at the programme produced by Arsenal. Read our review below and click here to see all the Division One issues from the season.
For the eighth successive season, Arsenal’s programme – ‘The Gunner’ – contained 24 pages. There was a slight decrease in the amount of content included, with four and a half pages of the issue now given over to advertising. The price of the programme remained unchanged at 60p, following the price rise of the previous season.
The issue was attractively presented with most of the cover taken up by a picture from a recent clash with Coventry City, which showed Gunners’ winger Perry Groves. The inside cover featured a new year message from Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood, who described the club’s “rapid transformation in the past 18 months”. Hill-Wood praised the job being carried out by manager George Graham and noted that the club were ahead of schedule in building a team capable of challenging for the championship. ‘Gunners News Desk’ welcomed the visitors from Queens Park Rangers and noted the forthcoming New Year Programme Fair at the Great Western Royal Hotel the following day! George Graham’s column meanwhile – titled ‘The Boss’s View’ – noted Arsenal’s frustrating results over the Christmas period.
The programme included two pages of coverage of Arsenal’s reserve and youth teams, with words from the respective coaches of the two sides – Stewart Houston and Pat Rice, while ‘The Young Ones’ featured a ‘half-term report’ from Rice. The youth team were then sitting in third place in the South East Counties League with mention made of several promising players, including Stephen Morrow, David Hillier, and Kevin Campbell – who had “blossomed as a high scoring striker”. The issue also featured a two-page review of 1987, the main highlight of which had been the club’s success in the League Cup. The article recounted the semi-final clashes with Tottenham Hotspur and victory over Liverpool in the final at Wembley.
The centre-pages of the programme contained various photographs from a recent draw with Everton, including a shot of David Rocastle striking the equaliser. Rocastle was also the subject of an interview within the issue, in which he talked about having just signed a long-term contract extension to stay at Highbury. The article noted the goal threat that Rocastle had added to his game, having notched eight times at that point in the season to put himself joint first in the Arsenal scoring charts. The usual first-team stats section was well laid out, including results and fixtures, line-ups, and the league table. The issue also included a letters page, crossword, and ‘Junior Gunners’ page. With the back page featuring an advertisement, the team line-ups were shown on the inside back cover.
There were two pages of coverage for visitors Queens Park Rangers, with notes on the club’s season to date alongside profiles of the first team squad. The pages also included a form guide, results of recent fixtures between the Gunners and Rangers, and a section on QPR boss Jim Smith, which detailed his career and achievements at the club since landing the job in the summer of 1985.
Although ‘The Gunner’ was of the smaller programmes in Division One in the 1987/88 season, the issue nevertheless offered a decent amount of readable content. Given that only one team (Manchester United) was charging less for its programme that season, the Gunners issue remained better value for money than several clubs that were offering more pages but charging up to £1 for their programmes.