Looking back to that final, I have to say that I was really proud of everyone connected with the Arsenal that night both on the pitch and off it. The end result was somewhat unfortunate to a large extent but even so, I will always treasure the moment when I saw an Arsenal team finally walking out into an arena, passing the hallowed European Cup on the way before lining up to take part in the biggest one-off game there is in European football. Nobody, but nobody, can take that memory away from me as an Arsenal fan no matter how they try or the fact that we were the first London club EVER to take part in a final for Europe's biggest prize.
Of course, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Whilst we have brought in Tomas Rosicky, Pires has moved on to Spanish outfit Villarreal, Campbell has (rightly in my opinion) been released and Bergkamp has drifted into retirement. Talk about the end of an era. Still, at least Dennis got the kind of send-off he truly deserved at our new Emirates Stadium. It was great to see some of the old Arsenal faces from the recent past like Wrighty, Parlour, Petit, Vieira, Winterburn, Dixon and even a remarkably spritely Marc Overmars, putting in an appearance alongside the likes of Thierry Henry, who broke off from his holiday to came back especially to play at Dennis' farewell party.
As for the stadium itself well, just by looking at it on TV, it is a seriously impressive structure, isn't it? All I can say is that no matter what people outside of Highbury may say, we now have a stadium that a club like ours deserves – quality, sheer quality.
When reeling off my little list of departures out of Arsenal just now, I forgot to mention one other person, didn't I? The person in question is a chap by the name of Ashley Cole. Well, it just goes to show how very easy it is to consider someone being out of sight and therefore out of mind. Contrary to any assertion from Cole that he is a victim, a slave or whatever he else he considers himself to be, I think it's safe to say that he is a man that going to find out one day that you never quite realise what you have got until it's gone.
It's almost a sure fire certainty that by the end of this week, Cole will get his (tongue firmly in cheek at this point) dream move to the Phoney Russian Franchise. As far as I am concerned, if ever a player and a "football club" ever deserved each other it would be him and his new employers in waiting. After all, both parties like to think that they can go around fooling all of the people all of the time, don't they?
It would be pretentious of me to think that Cole will ever get to read this article. After all, it doesn't contain cartoons, dots that need to be joined up or pictures that need colouring in with crayons for a start. But in leaving, there will always be a few facts that he will never, ever escape from. He will leaving the club where he made his name, the club that gave him a chance, the club that turned him into a winner, the club that turned him into an England international with 50 caps and counting to his name, the club where he was potentially on his way to becoming a genuine legend and the club where he was even given the chance to play in a Champions League final when he scarcely deserved it - and for what? To join some jumped up middle of the road club in West London that could be here today and gone tomorrow, for more money! Hundreds and hundreds of players (and not just English ones) would give their right arms to have achieved half of what he has with Arsenal .If I honestly didn't find so tragic, it would be downright funny!
Still, the fact of the matter is that Arsenal have lost players that have been far more influential than Cole in recent years and invariably been none the worse for it, if not better. In fact, I'll go as far as saying that Arsenal have lost the services of far better left backs over the years and still come out the other side better for it. There's absolutely no reason for me to think that we won't do so again.
As for the season coming up, I think the key thing for Arsenal is not so much about who comes in or who has or will be leaving the club. I think the key to the season lies with those players who are staying and this, in turn, this leads me on to the two questions that I want to see answered by Arsenal both this year and in the foreseeable future.
Firstly, what did the Arsenal players learn from last season's campaigns both at home and abroad? Secondly, how much desire do the Arsenal players have to improve on the campaigns they had both at home and abroad? Despite the fact that we have lost so many highly influential players in the last two years, it's clear that Wenger (regardless of whether he has got a sizeable transfer kitty at his disposal or not) has no intentions of really going gung-ho in the transfer market.
And, to that end, it's the group of players we have now and how much desire they have as a collective unit that will determine whether we will start moving forward again on the domestic front and who knows, maybe one step further in Europe than we did last year. And, speaking of Europe, it's time to quickly assess the first leg of Arsenal's Champions League qualifying tie against Dinamo Zagreb tonight.
It may sound rather simplistic but whenever you go to Eastern Europe for a game at this level, you always have to cater for the fact that you will come up against opposition that will be well drilled, technically sound and invariably a lot better than you bargained for.
Dinamo are the reigning Croatian champions, a fact which instantly should command respect and they have a reputation for being free scoring. Apparently, their last seven fixtures have yielded 34 goals for and against. Given that the Arsenal are invariably not too bad at creating chances and scoring goals as a rule themselves, it suggests that tonight's game should be far from dull.
The atmosphere will be both pretty hot and severely hostile. The Croats are very much along the same lines as the Greeks and the Turks in terms of creating fervent atmospheres in their own back yards and it's a guarantee that our black players will be subject to some heavy racial abuse. How I would love to see someone like Gilberto, Eboue, Toure or Adebayor go out and hit the racist elements within the crowd where it really hurts - by sticking the ball in the back of the Dinamo net.
Still, I digress slightly. The press and the media, never slow to disappoint when it comes to creating new negative angles from which to have a pop at the Arsenal, have (surprise, surprise) been quick to stress the supposedly damaging financial implications of defeat to the Croatians over two legs but I think that this is not by any means just about money. As I have already said, I am looking to find out, and I mean really find out, about how much desire the Arsenal players have right now.
There's a lot of unfinished business at Arsenal, particularly as a result of last year's campaign. The objective for us is to start putting one or two things right. The job starts tonight in Zagreb.