David Seaman was 39, captain of Arsenal, and had just played in an FA Cup final. He didn't know it was his last game for the club 😢
He'd been on year-to-year deals for four years, which suited him and suited Arsenal. Every summer Arsène Wenger would ring with an offer. This time Seaman was on a beach in Portugal when the call came: stay as third-choice goalkeeper, take over as goalkeeping coach from Bob Wilson - and accept a 75% drop in wages. He said no, went to Manchester City, and found a club where nobody knew what the players were eating 😅
That's one story in an hour of them on this episode of The Jeff Stelling Show 🙌
He talks about arriving at Arsenal in 1991 to replace a fans' favourite, and being sung at by the supporters who'd soon be cheering him - "Lukic is better than Seaman, you'll never play for Arsenal" - while his contract was already signed. He explains how Sir Alex Ferguson rang him first, and how close he came to being a Manchester United goalkeeper instead 😱
He describes walking into a dressing room with Tony Adams, Steve Bould, David O'Leary, Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon, and having to prove himself on the training pitch before any of them would have him. Eighteen goals conceded in a title-winning season. Adams still calling himself invincible despite missing the one game they lost - because he was in prison 😳
Then Wenger arrives. The players had never heard of him, thought he looked more like a schoolteacher than a manager, and were openly suspicious. Within weeks the diet, the nutrition and the training had changed everything. Seaman saw him lose his temper exactly once, at Old Trafford, five goals down at half time, with Ray Parlour laughing like a schoolboy in the corner 🤣
There's the save Peter Schmeichel called the best he'd ever seen, and why Seaman's face was deadpan afterwards. Three penalties saved against Sampdoria. Nadal at Euro 96, and watching Stuart Pearce walk up knowing what had happened in 1990. Nayim from the halfway line. Ronaldinho, and standing on the pitch with half an hour still to play wondering whether he was about to be treated the way Beckham had been in 1998 💔
And the moment that still stands as his worst in football - which isn't any of those. It's being released by Leeds at 19, by his own club, with no idea what he'd do instead. He tells the Arsenal academy players the same thing now: follow my path, look where I got to 🙌
Plus David Raya, Ben White and the art of blocking goalkeepers at set pieces, why goalkeepers will never be good with their feet, Bob Wilson's coaching tricks, the origin of "Safe Hands", and a 42lb carp 🎣
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