Ray Parlour's story of how Arsenal signed Igors Stepanovs for a laugh is amazing

published 28 March 2017

We’ve got a lot of time for Ray Parlour. He was a quality midfielder, unquestionably made the most of his talents, and seems like a genuinely nice bloke.

Plus, he’s responsible for this: the greatest autobiography cover ever made on Photoshop in about five minutes:

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Naturally, contained within the pages of this hallowed tome, are a host of belting stories from his time at Arsenal, for whom he played 339 games and, despite the book originally being published in May 2016, one of his tales is going viral – and for good reason, as it’s brilliant.

It concerns the arrival at the club of Igors Stepanovs, who joined the club from Latvian side Skonto Riga in 2000.

We’ll let Ray pick up the story from here:

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Absolutely tremendous – and for those wondering if it’s just a tall tale from Ray Parlour’s imagination, it’s not – a version of the same story appears in Denis Bergkamp’s book Stillness and Speed.

Wonderful stuff.

[Image: Rex]