Why did... Arsenal's move to the Emirates change everything?

Emma Paton (0:07)

Hello and welcome to the Athletic FC Podcast with me, Emma Paton. This is What If, where we discuss the biggest sliding doors moments in football and look at life in the multiverse. This week, we're asking, what if Arsenal never moved to the Emirates Stadium?

Well, with me in the studio today, we have football reporter for the Athletic, Tim Spiers. Hello.

Tim Spiers (0:34)

Hello.

Emma Paton (0:35)

Back for more?

Dan Kilpatrick (0:37)

Yeah.

Emma Paton (0:38)

From the news desk, editor, Dan Kilpatrick. Hello.

Dan Kilpatrick (0:40)

Hello.

Emma Paton (0:41)

Part of our usual What If crew. Yeah.

Tim Spiers (0:44)

Yeah. Seemingly. Yeah.

Emma Paton (0:46)

But we've got a special guest joining us today, former Arsenal winger, Adrian Clarke. Hello.

Tim Spiers (0:51)

Hello.

Adrian Clarke (0:51)

Yeah. It's great to be here.

Emma Paton (0:52)

How do you feel about your What If debut?

Adrian Clarke (0:54)

Well, under a bit of pressure. You know, I just hope I don't bring the tone down too much.

Emma Paton (0:59)

You won't.

Tim Spiers (1:00)

You won't.

Emma Paton (1:00)

You're going to enjoy it.

Adrian Clarke (1:01)

I'll do my best.

Tim Spiers (1:01)

You'll raise the tone if anything. Yes. If the tone is just a low bar on tone. Raise the bar.

Emma Paton (1:04)

He's going to raise it right up. Just before we get going, I hear from our producer, Mike, you've got a bit of a funny story about Wolves Ground, Molyneux, that you're going to cram in. You're looking at me like you don't know what's going on.

Tim Spiers (1:19)

No, I know what it is.

Emma Paton (1:20)

Give us a teaser. Just tease the viewers and listeners.

Tim Spiers (1:24)

Well, it's a bit smelly. Of course.

Stay tuned.

Emma Paton (1:29)

Spoiler alert. Okay, that's coming up later.

Here are the three major talking points that we're going to be focusing on this week. We have, would Arsenal's invincibles have broken up? Would Arsene Wenger's reign have tailed off as sharply as it did? And in general, what stadium moves have actually worked out? So we're going to start, as we always do, with our history lesson. Arsenal moved down the road from Highbury to the Emirates in 2006, expanding their capacity from 38,000 to 60,000. It cost them around 390 million pounds to construct, and they ended up paying it off for, well, the course of the next couple of decades, really. Adrian, you played at Highbury.

So many iconic moments there, huge trophies won. Talk to us about the magic of the place.

Adrian Clarke (2:22)

There was a lot of magic at Highbury, definitely. I did love the place, and I think all Arsenal supporters that were around at the time miss it badly.

It's just the little nooks and crannies of the stadium. It was very unusual. First and foremost, the tunnel. The tunnel could barely fit two people shoulder to shoulder down the side. When you were in it, coming down there, it was just iconic because you had seen the players from the 70s, the 80s, the early 90s do it, and then I got to do it. It was amazing. It was a little halfway house down the side of the tunnel, which was basically a bar that you walk past. If you're a reserve player, that's where you'd be. So to make the progression from being in there to being out in the tunnel was a bit special. The marble halls obviously were very unique. They're still there. You can walk in, even though it's accommodation now.

The marble floors were heated in the home dressing room.

They were wonderful. And what I loved about it was the tradition. So you would walk in up the steps of the marble hall, and you'd be greeted by some commissionaires. So, you know, usually two sort of elderly gentlemen in the full regalia. And it was just, you didn't get that anywhere else. It was just amazing. And they were the first people you'd see when you're going to the stadium. Sometimes there were so many things I loved about it. The heads bobbing up and down that sort of residential street, Avenue Road outside. It was amazing. And the pitch as well was small. It was a really tight pitch. And opposition teams didn't like it because the stands were very vertical and they didn't really like playing there. So even though it was kind of had this reputation of being the library, I would dispute that because on those big games, it was electric. It was absolutely electric.

And yeah, I think we all miss it because the Emirates is a great stadium, but it doesn't have the character.