Invincibles This Week: We won it at the Lane... (2024)

Stacky, as he was known around the training ground, turned 22 at the start of that season, and went into the 2003/04 campaign without a single senior appearance in English football to his name.

An FA Youth Cup winner with us, he spent the 2002/03 season as the regular No. 1 on loan at Belgian top-flight side Beveren, before coming back to join the first-team squad. With Stuart Taylor and Rami Shaaban both suffering from injuries, Stacky was on the bench for all but 10 of our Premier League games that season, as well as every Champions League match.

He was the starting keeper in the League Cup (scoring a penalty in the shootout on his debut), eventually helping the side reach the semi-finals. A hugely popular and positive presence around the dressing room, Stacky – who was capped for the Republic of Ireland at under-21 level - formed an excellent working relationship with Jens Lehmann, who arrived at the club at the start of the season.

Stacky left for Reading midway through 2005/06, later playing for Hibernian in Scotland and then Barnet, before moving into coaching. We caught up with him for his memories of the Invincible campaign.

After your season on loan to Beveren, did you feel you were ready to make the step up when you came back to the club?

Before I went away on loan, the conversation I had with the gaffer was about preparing myself for first-team football. I had a positive experience in Belgium – I didn’t want to go to a lower league team – and Arsenal had a partnership with Beveren. I went with some of my youth teammates too, and we had Yaya Toure and a few other good players. It was a good side.

We played against teams like Anderlecht, Bruges and Standard Liege and I established myself as the number one. It was a great learning curve for me. So when I came back I felt like I couldn’t have prepared myself much better, but did I think I was set up to have the sort of season I was going to have? No, not for one minute did I think it would pan out like it did.

You were promoted to the first-team squad that summer to take your place alongside Stuart Taylor, Rami Shaaban and Jens Lehmann. What was that like?

I almost saw myself as fourth choice, thinking maybe I would have another season out on loan somewhere, but pre-season went very well, I was in Austria with the team, and did well there. Then – as happens in football – there were injuries to Stuart and Rami, and then it became very real for me.

It’s so difficult to explain what it’s like when you move into the first-team dressing room for the first time. When I came back for that pre-season, my name was on the first-team dressing room door, and I saw that as a reward from the gaffer for having a good season in Belgium. But then actually playing with those guys and travelling to the games is a completely different animal and it came earlier than I thought.

In my mind I knew I was capable, I knew I had strengths that maybe Stuart and Rami didn’t, but I didn’t have their experience. But then my chance came earlier than I expected. When it did come, I knew I couldn’t let anyone down, not least myself.

I wore number 24, so I sat between Sol Campbell and Kanu in the dressing room – I was surrounded by absolute legends and world beaters, players I had watched from the Paddock at Arsenal. And now I was in and around that. It was an opportunity I didn’t want to lose, so I committed fully to it. Once I got that opportunity, as the record suggests, I worked tirelessly to keep that spot in the squad.

You had a great relationship with Jens. What were your first impressions of him when he arrived at the club?

I had been used to working with David Seaman, John Lukic, Alex Manninger and Richard Wright, so I’d always been around some top goalies. Jens had similarities with David in terms of presence and stature, but in terms of personality they were different.

Jens was so focused, so driven. He was an out-and-out winner. When we played head tennis, he wanted to beat me. If we were having a race, or warming up – he wanted to beat me. Whatever it was, he was desperate to win and I was this young whippersnapper, a cheeky lad from London, and I wanted to win everything as well! So whenever I did win, I wouldn’t be shy about letting him know!

I think he kind of liked that about me, and as serious and competitive as we were, I don’t think Jens ever thought that I would realisitically challenge his place. And nor should I have done, because it goes without saying he was head and shoulders above me as a goalkeeper. I didn’t put him under any pressure for his position at all, but that wasn’t my job for that team. My job was to be prepared, be ready if needed and not let anybody down.

Also just being a good presence around the place. I knew I had to work harder than everybody else, because in my opinion I had the least ability in that dressing room. Some people might think that sounds harsh, but that was the way I saw it, and that meant I knew I couldn’t afford to have an off day. I needed to make sure I was ready, day in, day out to train at my absolute best, otherwise Stu or Rami would have been back in there.

When STUART Taylor got injured in the August, making you second choice, was there any talk of the manager bringing in another keeper?

No, as far as I know there wasn’t. I spoke to the gaffer about it, he just told me to be ready because I would be travelling with the team. He gave me that confidence.
Whether or not there were whispers about them looking for somebody, I don’t know. They may have done, and I would understand it, because it’s Arsenal Football Club.

Look at the benches now in the Premier League – every team has full internationals that can’t get a game. Some goalkeepers with 300 appearances are on the bench. But I was the number two without ever having played a league game.

I knew Stuart was desperate to play. I knew how good he was – he was the year above me for the youth team. I also knew we had signed Rami from abroad, a big physical guy, and he hadn’t come here not to be involved. So the competition was warm, very warm, but I didn’t want to miss out on what would become the most important season of my career. The gaffer gave me that backing and in the end I was in the squad for nearly every game.

As inexperienced as you were, you were just a red card or an injury away from being called upon from the bench to make your debut in a huge pressure match. What was that like?

I know, can you imagine what that was like being on the bench behind Jens! I was a bag of nerves! There were a few times I came close. He had that pushing and shoving in the game against Tottenham, where he got a card I think, and also he went down injured for a bit away to Liverpool when I had to warm up.

There were another couple of incidents that Jens got himself involved in and I was thinking, “He’s going to get sent off here!” He was on the edge, he’s emotional, but that made him a great goalkeeper.

I’m not going to lie, it was nerve-wracking – but then you look back and realise he didn’t miss a minute. There aren’t many goalies now who go through a whole season and not miss a single game. Try to put yourself in my position with three or four games to go – it was a worry!

In normal circ*mstances, after we had wrapped up the title, Jens might have been rested for those last games, but the situation was different with the unbeaten season on the line wasn’t it?

Yes, and I completely got that. I agree, had we already lost one or two games, I do think I would have got an opportunity to play. There are a few players in that group who might have got a few more minutes, but with the record we had, there was no respite.

That sums up the group at the time, and that’s what made it so special – there was no room for that. Every game, every training session, was approached 100 per cent. We were in all the competitions until late in the season, had the unbeaten record to protect, so there was no room for any let up at all.

The role of sub goalkeeper was a bit different back then as well, wasn’t it?

Yes, a lot of people don’t remember that we didn’t have a goalkeeper coach travel with us on matchdays, so that was my job. We went to Old Trafford or Anfield or White Hart Lane and I had the responsibility of taking Jens’ warm-up, and I can tell you that in itself was nerve-wracking! The big German will let you know about it if you haven’t kicked it hard enough, or if it’s slightly too wide. He will say something, and it won’t be pleasant! So I could never relax on those games, even if I wasn’t playing.

It was hard, I was always thinking that I needed to be ready to play if needed, which I was, but I also had to be completely on it for the warm-ups too. In a way, and it might sound pathetic now, but I was really proud of the way I did that job. It was a big responsibility for me at that age, with a goalkeeping legend, and it stood me in good stead later in my career too, when I became a number one.

Me and Jens had a brilliant relationship. There was a big gulf in age, but we had a great relationship where we knew what made each other tick.

So despite not featuring in the league
that season, did you still feel like part of the achievement?

Yes, obviously I would have loved to have got a game, but how many people can say they played a part in an unbeaten season? And when it comes to goalies, it’s only really two of us, though I know Stuart and Rami were involved a bit too.

I’ve got four kids now so, and looking back on it, to have been able to tell them I played would have been something else, but just being a part of it, being classed as an Invincible – it just means the world to me and the kids. It’s a lovely feeling and the players have got a WhatsApp group now together, and it’s really nice to relive those moments when people put stuff on the group.

Did you have an idea of the magnitude of the achievement at the time?

Definitely not, I openly admit that. Looking back, it sounds strange, but football seemed easy at that time. We were winning every week – I loved it! But unfortunately I almost had it too good. I’d been eating at the top table at the very start of my career and then everything else that follows, you question it.

I would never say it was too much, too early, because I would never change it, but to experience it at that age was incredible. I do think it helped my career after that too, having been involved in that squad, and other managers thought there must be something about me if I was in that company. Overall it was just a special, special season.