11: Steve Bould, Arsenal, Merlin’s Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection

Footballing autobiographies tend to go one of two ways. The first, and the far more common, tend to be bland, ghost-written affairs charting the rise from the youth team to some degree of success in a short period of time with the occasional aside about the player’s love of golf or music. Usually published as overpriced hardbacks with lots of glossy pictures around Christmas you can pick them up for a quid by the summer in your nearest charity shop. The second, however, genuinely entertains either because it provides a player with an excuse to slag off all of their former team-mates or because it shares some funny stories about life behind the scenes of the beautiful game.

 

I have to confess I am yet to read ‘The Romford Pele’ by…the Romford Pele, Ray Parlour, but it’s on my list to have a closer look at following the extract published in The Guardian back in 2016 as it definitely seems to fit into the second category mentioned above. Unsurprisingly, in a team containing characters like Paul Merson, Ian Wright and the author himself, there were plenty of funny stories about the Arsenal side of the 1980s and 1990s. However, the one that stood out was not one about the famous Michael Thomas goal to win the title in 1989, the battles with substance abuse or the ‘French Revolution’ under Arsene Wenger. Instead it revolved around centre-half, and now under-23 coach, Steve Bould.

More on that later. Bould began his career at hometown club Stoke City and, in his eight years in the Potteries, established himself as one of the best defenders in the old Second Division. Bould chose Arsenal over Everton and made thirty appearances in the Gunners’ title winning campaign, forging a solid partnership with Tony Adams at the heart of George Graham’s side’s miserly defence. Along with former Stoke team-mate Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn the Arsenal back four brought home the First Division title again in the 1990/91 season confirming their position as one of the best defences in European football and an inspiration to any aspiring male strippers if The Full Monty is to be believed.

 

Bould scored Arsenal’s first goal of the Premier League era in a 4-2 loss to Norwich City but was sidelined for the Gunners’ double domestic cup victories at the end of the 1992/93 season with his replacement, Andy Linighan, scoring the winner against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup final replay. Nevertheless Bould played in Arsenal’s Cup Winners’ Cup final victory the following season and was a regular in the first team for the following, disappointing, 1994/95 campaign which saw the departure of George Graham amid allegations of financial impropriety, Paul Merson entering rehab for drug and gambling addictions and caretaker manager Stewart Houston overseeing a poor twelfth placed finish. And that’s before we mention Nayim lobbing David Seaman from 50 yards in the last minute of the Cup Winners’ Cup final.

 

Having been knocked down the pecking order by Martin Keown in the 1995/96 season the arrival of Arsene Wenger at Highbury in October 1996 was seen by many to herald the end of Bould’s decorated career at Arsenal. However, the Frenchman’s arrival sparked a resurgence in the centre-back’s career and he racked up 33 appearances in the 1996/97 season as Arsenal finished third. The next season the Gunners secured a Premier League and FA Cup double with Bould setting up Tony Adams’ second goal with a deft through ball against Everton to secure the league title and showcase the impact of Wenger’s tactical revolution in North London.

 

Bould left Arsenal at the end of the 1998/99 season and finished his career at Sunderland in 2001. He was soon reunited with Wenger as he took on a coaching role with Arsenal’s youth teams before replacing the long-serving Pat Rice as Wenger’s Assistant Manager in 2012. He currently serves as the Gunners’ under-23 coach having swapped jobs with another former club hero, Freddie Ljungberg, in 2019. In his coaching career Bould has led the Arsenal under-18s to two Youth Premier League titles and an FA Youth Cup to add to his already impressive CV of club honours.

 

All of this is fairly impressive, especially when you chuck in a couple of England caps, but none of it can compare to Steve Bould’s crowning achievements as set out in Ray Parlour’s memoirs: “We had an eating competition once on the way back from Newcastle…No reason, really, it was just something to do. We must have had about eight dinners. Bouldy won by a mile; he had nine.” Nine dinners. Nine portions of what we can only assume was mid-90s Little Chef cuisine. In six hours. Bloody hell. Parlour also recounts the time Wenger had given his squad a day off during pre-season training: “Bould said ‘can I have 35 pints, please?’ We had seven each and Giles Grimandi had a small glass of wine and he was looking at us going: ‘Who are they for, is anybody else coming?’” Again, bloody hell.

 

Three league titles, two Charity Shields, an FA Cup, League Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup clearly display both Steve Bould’s excellence across his 372 appearances for Arsenal as well as his appetite for the game even when he was viewed as an elder statesmen in a radically changing era. But nine motorway service dinners in six hours and 35 pints in one round? That is the true mark of a footballing legend.