20: Ian Selley, Arsenal, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

This post is a leaving present for my colleague Rupert Try who is off to pastures new at the end of the month. Having come across our blog due to my shameless self promotion our subject was the first name he put into the search bar. As an Arsenal season ticket holder it’s good to see Rupert still carries a torch for the Gunners’ mediocre years ahead of the glory that visited Highbury with Arsene Wenger. That or he’s still haunted by the programme images of the man below’s horrific leg break. All the best in the new role mate and I hope this does the trick for you.

The Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection was my first proper foray into sticker collecting (having shared the 1994 World Cup book with my sister) and, looking back, it is an absolute treasure trove of 1990s nostalgia. The likes of Simon Rodger, Stuart Nethercott and Ian Walker provide curtains inspiration to rival Nick Carter of The Backstreet Boys while members of Manchester United’s infamous ‘Class of 92’ make their debut appearances alongside those cast aside after Blackburn Rovers’ capture of the league title. In amongst this glamour, meanwhile, are the reminders that the English top flight was a fair few years away from becoming the billionaire’s playground we know and tolerate today. While the likes of Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand and Eric Cantona need no introduction it’s likely even the most ardent of fans may struggle to pick Julian Darby, John Pemberton or Robert Ullathorne out of a line up. The same could be said for Ian Selley.

Apparently Selley was only twenty years old in the picture above but I was convinced whenever I came across yet another double of him that he was at least 47. In fact he was the youngest player on the pitch when the Gunners won the Cup Winners’ Cup against Parma at the end of the previous campaign and had already picked up League Cup and FA Cup winner’s medals by virtue of being an unused substitute in both 1993 finals. By the start of the 1994/95 campaign he was very much in the first team picture and had racked up seventeen appearances in all competitions when he clashed with Leicester City’s Iwan Roberts. The accidental collision broke Selley’s leg and it wasn’t until the 1996/97 season he took to the pitch again for a solitary substitute appearance as the Gunners beat Chelsea 3-0. During his time on the treatment table Arsenal had gone through three managers, aided Paul Merson and Tony Adams through addiction rehabilitation and begun their transformation from the league’s most famous lad’s club to a continental, pasta-fuelled juggernaut.

Despite indications he would be part of Arsene Wenger’s revolution at Highbury Selley was sold to Fulham in 1997 for £500,000. While the likes of Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Christopher Wreh bedded in and helped the Gunners to a Premier League and FA Cup double Selley suffered another broken leg after just three games for his new employers and was moved on to Wimbledon in 2000. Fulham racked up a century of points to win the First Division while the recently relegated Dons missed out on the play-offs. Selley barely saw any action as his contract’s prohibitive bonus payments deterred the cash-strapped Crazy Gang from giving him more than four games across three years and he spent more time on loan at Southend United in two separate spells than he did in South London. In 2003 he moved to non-league Woking before working his way through a host of clubs even playing, frighteningly recently, for Surrey-based Westfield during his spell as manager in 2023. As of last year he has been at the helm for Leatherhead in the Isthmian League and it’s hard to rule against him giving himself a cheeky run out in the near future.

Arsenal’s Premier League history has been littered with exceptional footballers and it would be a genuine challenge to try and narrow down a starting four in their post-1992 midfield. When push comes to shove it’s unlikely that Ian Selley would even make this hypothetical team’s bench but how much he can be blamed for that is negligible. He broke through at a time when the Gunners were going through a transitional period and his unfortunate injury prevented him from proving himself as they improved. At the same time he still won as many trophies with Arsenal as the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Jack Wilshere and Bukayo Saka who haven’t had the excuse of lining up alongside John Jensen and David Hillier. Ian Selley’s career may have passed you by but it hasn’t been forgotten by plenty of Gooners.