There’s more than one way to please an Arsenal fan, or a Chelsea fan. Apart from winning the League and going on to a Euro cup double, of course. Try looking around for an item of Chelsea memorabilia, or Arsenal memorabilia, and you’ll come across a world of memories, of souvenirs, and even of investments that could be traded in in the future.

Here’s the thing about football, and the signatures of the people who play it: it, and they, will always be popular to the point of overweening passion. And that means that the memorabilia that goes with it, the signed photos, the scribbled on boots and the shirts and gloves, continue to hold their value long after the players who wrote on them have moved into a TV studio or started plying the white van route around the windows of Nottinghamshire. And in the case of Chelsea memorabilia or Arsenal memorabilia representing the name and achievements of one of the all time greats, a player who becomes recognised after he has hung up his boots as a genuine footballing legend – those prices, and those values, just keep on getting better.

The sports memorabilia market is a collector’s one as well as a fan’s one. The modern fan is likely to want the signatures of his or her heroes, on a shirt or a photograph or a pennant, because he or she loves the team and so loves the players. The collector, who tends to be a modern fan with a little more depth to his or her obsession, wants something more – to spot tomorrow’s legends in today’s heroes. The fan able to do that ends up with a collection of Chelsea memorabilia or Arsenal memorabilia that really stands out from the crowd – the kind of thing that really is as much an investment as it is a private joy. Imagine, 10 or 20 years ago, having the foresight to collect autographs from Arsene Wenger. The manager is as much a part of the successful club as the players (some may say more so, even) – so to have sourced a piece of memorabilia holding the signature of the man who became Arsenal’s most successful coach ever would be to have made an investment capable of paying off forever. And how about Chelsea memorabilia including the scribbles of some of that first team that really started to make an impression – the Frank Leboeufs, the Gianfranco Zolas? When football first started to go international, the world beating Chelsea side were at the forefront of the move – and the top of the League. Holding that kind of memorabilia – like having Arsenal memorabilia featuring Dennis Bergkamp or Thierry Henry – is like owning a piece of football history. After a while you can’t even put a value on it. The modern fan, so used now to the shape of a game that was shaped by these two clubs, is probably half unaware of the effect these last generation players had, and the value that resides in their autographs. Look back a decade in memorabilia and you’ll find the whole shape of the modern game.