Yes, it’s the Arsenal legend's birthday today and surely that’s a good reason to send your congratulations to the much-maligned ex-Arsenal man.

The former Gunners defender turns 42 today, and the nine years he spent at the club will remain part of the clubs history. Gus has become a one-man myth,  thanks to recollections of his performances through the mid 80s and into the early 90s. It seems to have been pretty torrid, but was he really that bad?

We all know the quote from Fever Pitch, but here it is again and I think it pretty much hits the nail on the head when considering the footballing career of Gus Caesar.

'Yes, he was at best average and at worst a walking catastrophe'


"To get where he did, Gus Caesar clearly had more talent than nearly everyone of his generation . . . and it still wasn't quite enough. [...] Gus must have known he was good, just as any pop band who has ever played the Marquee know they are destined for Madison Square Garden and an NME front cover, and just as any writer who has sent off a completed manuscript to Faber and Faber knows that he is two years away from the Booker. You trust that feeling with your life, you feel the strength and determination it gives you coursing through your veins like heroin . . . and it doesn't mean anything at all." Nick Hornby, Fever. Pitch

I remember fondly the exploits of our former defender. Yes, he was at best average and at worst a walking catastrophe, but he has become synomous with a time in the past that I recall vividly, from my time as a Junior Gunner when football was a very different animal to the massive money-eating beast it is now.