Arsenal won double in 1998 despite ’35-pint binges’ and ‘smoking’

Arsenal won double in 1998 despite ’35-pint binges’ and ‘smoking’, says Ray Parlour and Nigel Winterburn

Former Arsenal players Ray Parlour and Nigel Winterburn have revealed the club won the double in 1997-98, despite a booze-filled pre-season tour under manager Arsene Wenger.

The duo, appearing on online sports chat show, Sportlobster TV, lifted the lid about the Gunners’ raucous preparations before Wenger’s debut season at the helm in which they won a historic double.

Parlour said: ‘I’ll always remember the first pre-season tour with Arsene Wenger. New French lads had come into the team like Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Gilles Grimandi.

‘We worked our socks off and at the end of the trip Wenger said we could all go out. You know what we were like, we went straight down to the pub and the French lads went to the coffee shop.

I’ll always remember the moment Steve Bould went up to the bar and ordered 35 pints for five of us. After we left the bar we spotted all the French lads in the coffee shop and they were sitting around smoking, I thought how are we going to win the league this year?

‘We’re all drunk and they’re all smoking, and we ended up winning the double that year.’

Parlour and Winterburn also revealed how the Arsenal squad set up the ‘Tuesday Club’, the moniker given to the infamous drinking sessions held by the team, mainly under former manager George Graham.

‘On a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday people were dressed in tracksuits,’ Parlour said. ‘On a Tuesday everyone turned up with their suits on, George [Graham] was trying to work out was going on – but we were obviously going out on the town.’

But the arrival of Wenger brought with it a more professional approach at the club, according to left-back Winterburn.

‘It all stopped really when Arsene Wenger put a ban on drink being served in the lounge, and then Tony [Adams] gave up drinking.’

Parlour laughed: ‘I was still having a great time, going out every Tuesday, but by this point I was just by myself sitting in the corner with some old chap.’

The former midfielder was asked about Jack Wilshere, who was recently photographed smoking a cigarette outside a nightclub, and Parlour came to his defence.

He said: ‘You look at Jack Wilshere now. Ten or 15 years ago that would never have happened. He probably didn’t even drink that night, he’s only had an odd cigarette and it won’t do him that much damage.’

 

Things are very different now to 15 years ago. If you're not at the peak of your physical fitness in the Premier League, other teams are going to hammer you.

 

I dunno .. I reckon Sagna must have been on the Piss when he decided to have those braids put in.

 

35 pints? Bestie did that before breakfast.

Keano did 35 pints, burnt if off by running 50 miles per day and squeezed Vieira's balls in a vice every day containing a y.

 

Keane is a Pikey Eunuch, all mouth and acting like a Diva