A golden age

Martin Samuel thinks English club football is enjoying a belle epoque, as he told the Supplement this week.

It is the time of year when we all reflect on what has gone before us, picking out our highs and lows from the previous 12 months, and football is, of course, no different. So the Sunday Supplement asked Martin Samuel this week what were his outstanding memories from 2007 and The Times journalist chose his assignments to watch Arsenal and Manchester United as his most fond recollections of the year, saying they have taken English club football into a 'golden age'. He said: "The highs would certainly be just about any visit to the Emirates Stadium this season or to Manchester United, to Old Trafford, pretty much at any stage throughout the year apart from perhaps the away game in Milan, because of the football that has been played. "It has been absolutely fantastic. You can get so het up some times with what is wrong with football and, 'crisis here, England, where are we going', but we are in a 'golden age' as far as club football is concerned. "I really do believe that in terms of the quality of the football we are seeing and the technique of the players we are seeing. I am not saying that they are English necessarily. "But when Arsenal and Manchester United really take off, which is not usually against each other funnily enough, when those two teams when you go and see them and they are on form, it is some of the greatest football you will ever see. "That is always a high." To appreciate the highs though, you must also endure the lows, so what was Samuel's worst moment of the year? The Tevez affair? Bung scandals? England 2 Croatia 3? Not a chance. "The low would probably be trying to open an orange on TV," he said. "Which was just a mortifying experience."