Welcome to what could become a regular Gunners Town Soap Opera if the readers enjoy the simple concept. It could be a weekly visit, probably post Thursday’s Press Conference to a popular Arsenal Pub. Yes it is your opportunity and to read about and contribute to the goings on in ‘The Wenger’s Head’.
The Wenger’s Head has always been a popular venue, but of late, some of the landlord’s decisions on how to run his pub, have given cause for concern to his regulars. Here are just a few of the unusual happenings and decisions of which I speak.
In late August, there was a young Spanish lad who had been drinking here since he could legally do so. He is a creature of habit and ever since I can remember, he has always stood in the same position at the back of the lounge bar on the right. Two weeks ago with seemingly no rhyme or reason, the landlord told the lad he was no longer allowed to drink on the right hand bar and was only allowed to buy a drink if he moved to the left-hand lounge bar. We were all surprised but not entirely so, as a week earlier he had asked another youngster to do the same. He was a young English lad who had been drinking here longer the Spanish chap, but not perhaps as regularly. Anyway, the second lad became so fed up with being moved around by the landlord, he refused to drink here anymore and has moved to a new pub, run by a German landlord. Shame, I will miss him, although he did dribble a lot and clumsily spill his beer quiet often.
Another strange affair was a week last Sunday when he changed the choice of House Wine unexpectedly. We had a lovely new crisp, fresh, French number, which was new on the Wine list and proving very popular with the punters. Without warning, surprising all his staff he removed the popular French wine from the list and replaced it with a hit or miss English one and an older Chilean one. The Chilean one was undoubtedly of a superior vintage but the regulars were unsure if it tasted as well as they were used to. It turned out that our punters were right as this week the landlord confessed that he knew the Chilean wine was corked before he served it!
To be honest I am not sure if he can make his mind up on the Vintage Chilean full stop but that’s another story.

Chilean replacement was corked
Equally odd around the same time was his refusal to serve the newly imported extra strength Eastern European lager that arrived in the summer. The regulars here loved the stuff in the heat of July and even coined the phrase ‘getting tanked up’ when they drank it. There was no doubting the Sead Lager’s popularity and it was a refreshing change from the English and Spanish lagers the pub had served for years. I can tell you, those the other side of the bar were not impressed when the landlord said he was not convinced his new lager was ready to be served from when the pub opened and might only be introduced for last orders. Last orders at the Wenger’s Head is always 20 minutes before closing time, as you probably know.

He may revert to how the back bar stools used to be
I will probably have more tales from the Wenger’s Head next week but if you are regulars and have your own takes from drinking there please let me know. One last one though I did not witness but I gather from one of his bar staff has been going on a while, is equally curious. Apparently, when the pub is closed the landlord is constantly asking his staff to move the stools around in the back bar. For years, he had four stools positioned at the bar. Although it has to be said, the ones on either side often were moved forward and did not come back. (Actually, I think the young Spanish lad used to move his stool forwards too often!) More recently, he changed the set up so there were only three stools at the back bar and in the main they were left there. Now it seems he is constantly changing his mind behind closed doors and seeing how the bar looks with 3 stools or how he used to have it with 4. The staff I speak to say the landlord is in a tizzy with the dilemma and simply cannot make his mind up. Ah well I am going there again on Saturday so I will see if he has settled on 3 stools or 4 at the back
Until next time, when we will hear of more bizarre goings on in the Old ‘Wenger’s Head.
If you have a tales from Wenger’s Head feel free to leave them in comments of email via the site 🙂

Passionate fifty-something Arsenal supporter who has been making the journey to N5 regularly since the early 1980s – although his first game was in 1976. Always passionate when talking about The Arsenal, Dave decided to send a guest blog to Gunnersphere in the summer of 2011 and has not stopped writing about the Gunners since.
He set up his own site – 1 Nil Down 2 One Up – in February 2012, which he moved on in 2016 to concentrate on freelance writing and building Gunners Town, which he launched with Paul in 2014.
The objective of GT was to be new and fresh and to give a platform for likeminded passionate Arsenal fans wishing to write about their team. Dave still of course, writes for the site himself and advises the ever-changing writing crew.
Brilliant! After reading all of this, I think I would be disorientated before I had a drink. Clear risk of being Breathalised. I think I`ll give this pub a miss.
All I know is The Wenger’s head serves a fine pint of Welsh Brains Bitter, it’s the pub’s star attraction