By Tony Attwood
Steve Gatting joined Arsenal as an apprentice in July 1975 and became a professional footballer two years later.
His first game with the first team was as a sub versus Lokomotiv Leipzig on September 13, 1978 which Arsenal won 3-0. He then retained his place throughout much of 1978-79 but did not appear in the cup final against Manchester United.
After two more years he was displaced by Brian Talbot and in September 1981 after 76 appearances in all competitions having scored six goals he went to Brighton & Hove Albion and reached the 1983 FA Cup Final, again against Manchester United.
His league appearances (followed by goals) were…
| 1977/81 | Arsenal |
58 |
5 |
| 1981/91 | Brighton & Hove Albion |
316 |
19 |
| 1991/93 | Charlton Athletic |
64 |
3 |
After retiring he worked at Christ’s Hospital school as a coach and rejoined Arsenal as youth team coach under Steve Bould in July 2007. On 16 October 2012 Arsenal confirmed that Pat Holland had left his role as under-18s coach for personal reasons and Steve Gatting took over as the under-18s coach.
(The Anniversary File is now split in two, because of its size. January to June and July to December)
Other main series on the site (full list of indexes below)
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
I always liked Steve Gatting – he always gave his all in an Arsenal shirt, despite never really being fancied by the management to hold down a permanent first team spot? A fine player who is now giving his knowledge and experience back into our wonderful club.