HM: Do you think the media's perspective of football is skewing the fans' opinion of the game and its players?
TW: Um, to some extent, perhaps. I'm not saying the media are wrong, but in large part they do misjudge someone like David Beckham spectacularly. The UK media love the tall poppy syndrome. They love to create heroes and then cut them down.
There's a lot of that goes on. The other thing is that there have been huge changes in the media. The advent, for example, of 24-hour news kind of changed everything.
HM: Because they've got to fill those hours with something.
TW: Exactly. It used to be that there needed to be a back-page lead every day. Now it seems there needs to be a back-page lead every hour. We're constantly trying to turn things that are just another story into some big drama. I think that puts pressure on the media to make something out of very little.
HM: Everyone seems a bit impatient now.
TW: Definitely. I remember when I was growing up watching Arsenal, I had to wait years for them to do anything. And then after they won something, I had to wait ages to see them win anything else.
There are plenty of football supporters who will go through their entire lives watching their local clubs and never see them win anything. That's kind of part of the deal. Somehow we're losing track of that.
I'll use another Arsenal example.
We had a pre-season tournament at the Emirates a couple of weeks ago. There's a young boy at Arsenal by the name of Jack Wilshere. I've been watching him in the youth team for two or three years and you can tell he is an exceptional talent. So he gets half a game on Saturday and gets a start on Sunday, against very modest European opposition. But it's not enough to say, `Ooh, Arsenal have got a promising player. It'll be interesting to see how he develops'.
That's not a story. The story is, `Fabio Capello must take Wilshere to the World Cup'. It's that kind of hysteria that I don't like.
HM: What do you think today's players are like compared with players from your childhood?
TW: The top players seem so distant these days. They're almost like movie stars. When I was growing up in the late 1960s and the early 1970s and following people like Charlie George, there was kind of a connection there.
HM: The players are now extremely wealthy and swapping clubs at the drop of the hat. Hasn't that shaken your faith in football?
TW: It can if you don't have the sort of perspective that comes from 18 months putting together The Beautiful Game. You're right, there is this kind of whirlwind of media hype and huge amounts of money changing hands. But that's just an element of football. It's a function of football as a business.
I hope my book is a reminder that football is actually a game. What you see on TV is actually essentially the same game that my little boy plays on the fields of our village on a Sunday afternoon. And it's the best game on Earth. I get fed up with people saying football is just a business.
Yes, it is a big business but if you lose sight of the fact that it's a game, then the business won't last long.
HM: When did your love of football and of Arsenal begin?
TW: I grew up in north London. I guess from the age of 5 or 6, I was following Arsenal. It was the 1960s and you could just go and kick a ball around a street until it got dark. There was a block of flats about half a mile away and you knew there would always be a big game going on.
It's strange, because I was never any good at the game. I've spent so much time playing football and got a lot of pleasure out of it. Later in my life I ran a charity side for seven or eight years and we played 60 or 70 games a season.
It's strange to spend so much time in a sport when you're not very good at it. Most kids dream of being a great player but I knew early on that I was never going to get there. I was used to people laughing at my lack of skills and I didn't really care.
HM: And Arsenal?
TW: They were my local club. And I thank the gods of football every day that Arsenal turned out to be my local club.
HM: Who was your hero?
TW: My Arsenal hero was a guy called John Radford. He was a centre forward, a giant, dour Yorkshireman. For some reason, he was the guy I wanted to be. I've been very lucky to get to know a lot of the players from my childhood and I got to play charity football with John. Fantastic man.
HM: Do you still go to watch Arsenal?
TW: Oh, God yes. As I get older, I'm probably getting worse. I do some work for the club now. I've been doing a fan phone-in show, which I suppose is my little attempt to bridge that divide between the people who play and the people who pay.
We try to get fans on the club's TV channel and get them arguing and talking about what's happening. I still enjoy watching Arsenal. But to be honest, I also like watching other teams play football. I watch lower-league football and get a real kick out of it.
HM: Are you worried Arsenal might be slipping behind the big three?
TW: No, no, no. I'm a great believer in what's going on at Arsenal. I actually think Arsene Wenger is one of the few men on Earth who is as romantic about football as I am. I absolutely believe in what he is doing and how he's going about it.
He's got a great understanding of the balance and relationship between football and the business of football. Arsenal fans died and went to heaven the day Arsene Wenger came to our club. He is fantastic.
Yes, they've come up a bit short recently, because they're young and they've had horrendous problems with injury. But they play football that is quite unlike any other team in England. Sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn't.
I'll wait. I'll be patient, because they are building something special. It's not a question of whether Arsenal is falling behind. It's a question of whether these other clubs can afford to keep spending extraordinary amounts of money on players.
HM: As a Liverpool fan, can you offer me some hope that I'll be celebrating a league title for the first time in 20 years?
TW: I certainly hope not, because if you are, that means I'm not. I thought last year was Liverpool's big, big chance. You'll miss Xabi Alonso badly.
Every team needs that guy who's kind of a metronome, someone who sets the pace for the team. Arsenal have got Fabregas, Chelsea have got Lampard, Manchester United have a couple who have that ability.
For all that Steven Gerrard is Liverpool's talisman, Alonso was the guy who set the pace. I think Liverpool can put out a great starting XI, but beyond that I'm not convinced.
