… to a couple of Arsenal legends in this post.

Well the first one is, the other is open to debate.

Solid As A…

“Oh Rocky Rocky. Rocky Rocky Rocky Rocky Rocastle…”

David Rocastle was one of those players that you would have liked playing for your team. The Arsenal had many, many great servants to the club and Rocky was up there as one of the greatest.

Was on the books at Highbury from 1983 – 1992 and was a regular team member from 1985 until he was eventually sold to Leeds who had a view that he would be an eventual replacement for the aging Gordon Strachan, but the Strach went on for another three seasons.

Rocastle won a League Cup medal, two League (old 1st Division) Championships but for some reason was only capped 14 times for England. (Those of you with a longer/better memory might be able to spread some more light on why that was.)

Many of us will remember though that we sadly lost Rocky in 2001.

In February of that year Rocastle announced that he was suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He underwent a course of chemotherapy for the illness and was hopeful of a recovery, but he died in the early hours of 31st March 2001, aged only 33…

The aforementioned Arsenal Away Boyz did a musical homage to the man and for this one they took the tribute song that Puff Diddy (or whatever he’s called) and redid the lyrics in memory of the midfielder:

Palour Games

“Oh, its alright its only Ray Parlour…”

Parlour… he didn’t have a nickname did he… followed in Rocastle’s footsteps when he made his debut for the Gooners in 1992. Another long term servant – he stayed there for 14 years.

He broke through as a regular in the 1994–95 season but it was only when The Professor arrived that he became a fixture on the right wing or in the middle.

In ’97–98 Arsenal won the Double and Parlour was instrumental in their success. He was man-of-the-match in the Gunners’ FA Cup Final win over Newcastle United that season and he set up Anelka for Arsenal’s second goal in a 2–nil win.

He won another Double and there was a moment in the 2002 FA Cup Final which one particular person would like us to forget when he made a remark just before…
From Wikipedia:

[Parlour] finally claimed his place in the spotlight with a 30-yard strike to open the scoring in the 2002 FA Cup Final against Chelsea, which was famously pre-empted by Soccer AM’s Tim Lovejoy with ” Oh no he got through! Never mind, it’s only Ray Parlour…”

Arsenal won the match 2-nil with Freddy Ljungberg scoring the second.

In total Parlour won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, one League Cup and one European Cup Winners’ Cup. He played 464 games and scored 32 goals in all competitions.

But again like Rocastle he was another player who didn’t win that many England caps. Played only 10 times.

– The Away Boyz did a semi-instrumental cover version from one that little Charlene from Neighbours made famous:

– –

Like the post yesterday here are some originals but… mashup versions of them:

I can’t stand that fcuking P Daddy and his version, so here’s one with a bit of Benny King mixed up with String and his mates.
Police vs Ben E. King – Stand By Me Every Breath You Take

Next up – more midfielders.