Ex-Arsenal star 'fondly remembers' his time at the club

Sitting in his garden overlooking a stream in the peaceful surroundings of Whitley Bay, Newcastle, it is hard to imagine Malcolm Macdonald as one of the most feared predators of the seventies.

His affable and articulate manner is something sadly lacking in many of today's players, but his passion for the game is clearly still there as he chats about everything from Arsenal to Luton Town.

Macdonald, nicknamed "Supermac", scored 57 goals in 108 appearances for the Gunners before a serious knee injury cut his career short at the age of 29. The Fulham-born forward had earned his move to Arsenal in 1976 after an impressive tally of 95 goals in 187 games in five seasons for Newcastle. He also famously scored 5 goals in a game for England against Cyprus in 1975, a feat which has not been bettered.

Macdonald, 59, looks back on his time at Arsenal fondly and describes the negotiations over his move to the club in detail.

Talks took place at the home of Sir Denis Hill-Wood [the then Arsenal chairman] alongside Terry Neil [the Arsenal manager]. Macdonald said: "his back lawn was bigger than Lords and I'm not exaggerating, and we felt like opening batsmen walking out, Terry Neil and I"

According to Macdonald, Newcastle United "were playing silly beggars" over the move, and two requests for his transfer had been turned down after initial agreements.

Before he made a third and final offer, Hill-Wood asked Macdonald what he wanted to do. "I said Mr chairman the honest truth is I’ve looked at Arsenal and you’ve got this wonderful blend of experienced, great players and coming through you’ve got the most phenomenal group of kids, I said this club I think is going to be the club of the seventies and eighties."

Macdonald notes that Hill-Wood agreed the deal with Lord Westwood, the Newcastle chairman, in a "gentlemanly way" and he was soon on his way to Highbury for a fee of £333,333.33.

"That was how the business was concluded, it was a lovely gentlemanly way in which it was done in wonderful surroundings and that's how I fondly remember Arsenal. Nothing ever changed, it was always the best of business done in the best of ways, a fabulous club, absolutely was and is," he said.

So what does he make of the current team? With promising young players coming through, does he see any similarity to the team he played in the seventies?

"Yeah a little bit, but you see when you play youngsters you’re always going to find they hiccup at some point, and the best thing to do as a manager, and it may sound harsh, is to anticipate it and where you think it’s going to come, get the players out.

"They may say 'I’m playing well,' but you would say, 'have a couple of games in the reserves and then we’ll think about putting you back in.' You can create too much of a loyalty with players so that when they’re playing well you leave them there to then falter and go downhill and then of course its too late."

Although he's a Londoner by birth, his life remains tied to Newcastle. He currently presents a daily football show on north-east regional radio and fears for the immediate future of the club. Does he think they will stay up? "I'd be very surprised if they do, very surprised indeed." he said. "If they do, it will mean that they have put in performances in these three remaining home games of Portsmouth Middlesbrough and Fulham, they will need to put performances in there that they haven’t shown for a very long time."

Another of his old clubs, Luton Town, have been relegated from the Football League after being docked 30 points for financial problems. He fears for the long-term future of the club and said "I don’t know if it was right, I don’t know the precise rule breaking, but what I do know is they did some really stupid things and what made them think they’d get away with it... It's such a shame as well because a football club like that will not recover."



Macdonald is number 44 of Arsenal's top 50 greatest players: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/gunners-greatest-players-44.-malcolm-macdonald