Anniversaries 06: June

Last major update of this file:  3 July 2021

 

? June 1892: Alf Singleton and Henry Stewart surprisingly failed to get elected to the committee running Royal Arsenal – the first sign of the split within the club that ultimately led to the formation of professional Woolwich Arsenal and amateur Royal Ordnance Factories as two separate clubs.

? June 1893: In response to the demand for a much higher rent for the Invicta Ground Woolwich Arsenal instead purchased the Manor Field opposite the Invicta as their new ground.

? June 1913: William Hall resigned as a director of Fulham, allowing him to focus full-time on the preparation of the Highbury ground and taking Woolwich Arsenal FC to Islington for the 1913/14 season.

1 June 1940: Arsenal 5 Southampton 0 in the final wartime League South “C” Division game.  Because of the abandonment of the actual League programme after three matches the wartime league had not started until the end of October, hence its late finish.  The next season however still started in August.

1 June 1953: Alex James died suddenly from cancer on 24th anniversary of his signing.  During the war he served in the Royal Artillery, and in 1949 he was invited back to Arsenal to coach the club’s youth sides.  He was mentioned in the 1930s song “With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm” by Stanley Holloway.

1 June 1955: Ben Marden was transferred to Watford.  Although playing only 42 games for Arsenal these included the last game of the 1952/3 season to win the league and Liverpool 1 Arsenal 5 on 15 November 1952.

1 June 1979: West Bromwich Albion who had just had their best season since winning the league for the one and only time in 1920, decided to sell winger Laurie Cunningham to Real Madrid for £995,000.  It caused uproar.  The end of football was predicted by the media.  As ever, they were wrong. 

1 June 1999: Moritz Volz joined Arsenal from Schalke.  He stayed for five years but never played a league game (but did play two league cup games) before being loaned to Wimbledon and finally transferred to Fulham.

1 June 2001: Lee Conoville transferred to Torquay on a free transfer.  He had had a short loan spell with Northampton before playing 112 league games for Torquay, scoring two goals.

1 June 2001: John Lukic retired from football.  He is one of just a tiny number of players who have played top flight football across four decades.   Others were  Peter Shilton, Steve Ogrizovic and Sir Stanley Matthews.

1 June 2002: Sol Campbell, David Seaman and Ashley Cole featured in England’s 1-1 World Cup draw with Sweden.

1 June 2003: Philippe Senderos joined Arsenal from Servette having played 26 games in one season with the club.    He went on to play 84 times for Arsenal across four seasons before moving on loan to Milan.

1 June 2007: Gilberto Silva captained Brazil against England, becoming the first and thus far the only Arsenal player ever to captain Brazil.  In the last minute of the game Gilberto Silva provided the cross that allowed Brazil to score to make it 1-1.

1 June 2010: Aaron Ramsey signed a new long term contract having signed for Arsenal in 2008 and having made 27 league appearances in his first two seasons.

1 June 2010: Silvestre and Gallas left Arsenal at the end of their contracts.  Silvestre moved on to Werder Bremen while Gallas went on to play for Tottenham Hotspur.

2 June 1891: The International Football Association Board (the forerunner of Fifa, and which at the time consisted of the FAs of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) approved the notion of awarding a penalty for fouls close to the goal.

2 June 1908:  James Quayle signed for Arsenal for a second time, before receiving an offer from Northfleet where he played for two seasons, before turning professional and rejoining Woolwich Arsenal.   He made just one appearance for Arsenal on 12 November 1910 but was badly injured and tragically did not play football again.

2 June 1934:  Wilf Copping joined Arsenal from Leeds United for whom he had played 162 games.  He stayed at Arsenal until 1939 whereupon he returned to Leeds.

2 June 1936: The League announced that Arsenal should pay a £250 fine for playing weakened teams in league games, throughout the run up to the FA Cup Final.  But giving the earnings from the FA Cup final the accountants probably thought it had however been worth it. 

2 June 1937: Reg Lewis played his third game in a row in which he scored, in 3-0 win over Copenhagen.  He was one of the few players who played for Arsenal either side of the war, and managed 103 goals in 154 league games. For the tour see here.

2 June  1947: Tom Whittaker became manager of Arsenal, thus continuing the dynasty of managers who had a direct connection with Herbert Chapman.  See also here

2 June  1968: Last appearance for Jim Furnell as David Jenkins scored a hattrick in a friendly in Kuala Lumpur.

2 June 1980.  Raphael Meade was given professional status.  He had been at Arsenal since 1977 but although staying until 1985 only managed 41 league games

2 June 1985: As a result of the attack by Liverpool fans on Juventus fans at the Heysel stadium Uefa banned English clubs from playing in Europe.  The ban prohibited Arsenal from playing in the Uefa Cup in 1988 and 1991 even though Arsenal fans had not been involved in any European crowd trouble. The argument appeared to be, if Liverpool can’t be in it, no one can be in it.

2 June 1991:  Gus Caesar moved to Cambridge United on a free transfer but did not play for the club.  He soon moved on to Bristol City, but it was not until he reached Airdrieonians and then Colchester Utd that he showed the form that George Graham suspected he could maintain.

2 June 2002: Campbell, Seaman and Cole play for England in a World Cup game against Sweden. 

2 June 2005: Ashley Cole was fined £100,000 for having illegal talks with Chelsea.  He claimed he had done so because he was made to feel physically sick by the lowness of Arsenal’s offer in its contract discussions with the player.

3 June 1912: At the AGM of the Football League William Hall applied to be a director of the League.  He didn’t get elected but gained the highest number of votes of those not elected.   Thus when Tom Houghton of Preston North End died in September, Hall gained a place on the Football League board, and was the first Arsenal man on the board, and the only man from the south of England to do so for over 25 years.

3 June 1918:  The penny post countrywide postal service, initiated by Sir Roland Hill in January 1840 came to an end as the price of posting a letter was raised by 50% to “three ha’pence” (1.5d – around one half a decimal penny.)  By 2020, just over 100 years later, it had risen by 4600%.

3 June 1931: Jack,   Lambert and Bastin scored in a 3-2 win over Gothenburg.  Final senior appearance of Jimmy BrainIn September 1931 he moved to Tottenham for a transfer fee of £2,500.  He played 47 games for Tottenham and scored 10.  This game came at a time when Arsenal toured after the season was over, rather than before it had begun, and is the only Arsenal game on record played on this date.

3 June 1939  Jimmy Logie signed from Lochore Welfare.  He served in the Royal Navy through the war before returning to Arsenal with whom he won the league twice.

3 June 1939: The Military Training Act came into force.   It re-introduced conscription for all men aged 20 and 21. Six months military training was now compulsory.

3 June 1970: Bobby Gould transferred to Wolverhampton.  In all he played for ten clubs, and the 65 league games he had with Arsenal was only beaten by the 82 he had for Coventry.

3 June 1997: One day before his birthday Alex Manninger joined Arsenal from Grazer AK, to become understudy to David Seaman.  Seaman was injured in Manninger’s first season giving him the chance to play six games in a row without conceding.

3 June 2000: The song “Arsenal number 1″ entered the top 50 for one week.

3 June 2003: David Seaman was transferred to Manchester City.  (Quoted in some sources as 4 June), after 405 games for Arsenal.  He stayed one season at Man City and played 19 league games before retiring after 731 games.

3 June 2008: Jens Lehmann, the only player to play in every game of the Unbeaten Season, transferred to VfB Stuttgart.

3 June 2010: Philip Roberts signed from Norwich City where he had been a youth player.  He was quickly loaned to Inverness and then transferred to Falkirk without playing a league match for Arsenal.

4 June 1902: Joseph Williams born in Rotherham on 4 June 1902, He started playing for Rotherham County and in September 1929 moved to Arsenal making his Arsenal debut in the 5–2 defeat by Aston Villa on 25 September 1929.

4 June 1915: Henry Norris launched a recruitment campaign in the West London and Fulham Times gathering men for the new 177th (Fulham) Royal Field Artillery Brigade.  In all Norris was responsible for raising and providing basic training for three separate brigades in this way all at his own expense.  It was for this work that he was knighted two years later, to the day.

4 June 1917:  Henry Norris was knighted in the birthday honours list in recognition of his unstinting work in evolving and developing the idea for and then raising the first footballers battalion.  Other such battalions followed.

4 June 1920: In a seemingly unique event, Sir Henry Norris spoke about his source of income, this being rents from property his company had built in Fulham, retaining about 20% of them and renting them out.

4 June 1925: Herbert Chapman returned to England early from a tour with Huddersfield, ready for talks with Arsenal about becoming the club’s new manager.

4 June 1939: Dave Nelson and George Drury scored two each in a friendly win against the wonderfully named Diables Rouges in Brussels. (It sounds so much better in French). 

4 June 1949: Last appearance of Bryn Jones in a friendly away to Sao Paulo (Brazil).  He had been Arsenal’s record signing but only played 76 games and scored 8 goals (his career of course interrupted by the war).   He left Arsenal to become player-coach at Norwich City 

4 June 1977: Alex Manninger born in Salzburg.  He first played for SV Austria Salzburg, moving into their first team squad in 1995 and came to Arsenal in 1997. 

4 June 1977: Scotland beat England at Wembley, with Scots outnumbering English fans 10 to 1, in a match remembered for the pitch invasion at the end.  The inadequacy of ticketing and safety measures were on show for all to see, but the FA remained in total denial.

4 June 1983: Emmanuel Eboué born in Abidjan.  He started his career at ASEC Mimosas Academy before moving to KSK Beveren in 2002.  .

4 June 1985: Lukas Podolski was born in Gliwice.  He joined 1 FC Köln in 1995 where he broke into the first team in 2003 and made 81 appearances for the club before moving to Bayern Munich. 

4 June 1992: David O’Leary played for Ireland in a 2-0 defeat by Italy.

4 June 1997: Gilles Grimandi signed by Arsenal from AS Monaco for £1.75m.  When his playing days were over he became the chief scout in France for Arsenal and also appeared for the Arsenal Legends team occasionally.  

4 June 1996: Cliff Holton died.  He retired from football in 1968, and took up a new career in engineering.  Soon after his retirement from that career he died suddenly while on holiday, at the age of 67.

4 June 2008: Bac Sagna signed a new long term contract.  It turned out to be his last, and at the end of the contract in 2014 he rejected a new deal with Arsenal and instead moved on a free transfer to Manchester City.

5 June 1903: Fred Dwight signed for Arsenal. He played for Chesham Town from 1899 until 1901 when he moved to Fulham, and then after a further two years moved on to Woolwich Arsenal in 1903. 

5 June 1914: All Saints Church Dreadsall in Derbyshire was gutted by fire, which was  blamed by the government on a suffragette arson attack.

5 June 1915: Henry Norris was given the rank of Lieutenant as he started to work for the War Office on recruitment programmes.  It was something of an insult as the War Office didn’t believe that a mere London mayor who didn’t go the right school, could sort out recruitment where they had failed.  

5 June 1919: A man of Caribbean origin was stoned to death in Liverpool by a mob and race riots involving an estimated 10,000 men roaming the streets looking for and attacking Caribbean men took place, who were in turn blamed by the police, rioters, and the media.  The courts however were not so corrupted and blamed the obvious culprits: white mobs.  Liverpool council and police force drew up a plan to house all Caribbean citizens in compounds and then repatriate them as the city adopted apartheid.

5 June 1922:  An interview with Sir Henry Norris appeared in the prestigious football journal, Athletic News, which raised the question of transfer fees which were once more on the rise.  Sir Henry wanted them controlled but player wages liberated.  Neither change happened.

5 June 1991: Kwame Ampadu sold to WBA.  He had played just twice for Arsenal, but went on to have another 16 years in football including playing four times for Ireland.  He then returned to Arsenal as an Academy coach and is currently assistant manager at AS Monaco where he has been for the last two years.

5 June 1999: Keown, Seaman and Parlour played for England v Sweden in a world cup qualifier.  It ended 0-0.

5 June 2013 It was announced that Arsenal’s record signing, Andrey Arshavin, would be released on 30 June 2013.  He returned to Zenit St Petersburg and played on to the end of the 2014/5 season.  He finally retired from football on 3 December 2018

5 June 2018: Unai Emery’s first signing was announced: Stephan Lichtsteiner, who joined on a free transfer from Juventus.

6 June 1891: Alf Singleton (who was himself a competent referee) was elected top of the poll to the Committee of Royal Arsenal FC.  One year later, as a result of his expression of his views on the future of the club, he lost his place, coming bottom of the poll.  He then became a leader of the rebels who felt that “working men” could not run the club, and was instrumental in the 1893 split of the Royal Arsenal club which led to the ultimate setting up of Royal Ordnance Factories FC, playing in a stadium directly opposite Woolwich Arsenal’s ground.

6 June 1903: At the meeting which created Fulham Football and Athletic Club Company Limited, Henry Norris was elected the company’s first chairman.  He took up the reigns at Arsenal in 1910, but did not break with Fulham until after the first world war, following a dispute over the post-war cup match between Fulham and Arsenal. 

6 June 1906: Archie Low was transferred from Ashfield in Glasgow.  He only went on to play three games for Arsenal before moving back to Scotland.

6 June 1910: At a meeting in Rotherhithe, the supporters’ committee set up to rescue Arsenal resolved not to hand over to Henry Norris any of the money it had raised, pending further developments, but instead they applied for shares in the new limited company set up to rescue Arsenal.

6 June 1930: John Butler (the man who played for Arsenal at the heart of their “WM” tactical revolution in 1925) was sold to Torquay United.

6 June 1937: Final game (v Feyenoord) of Alex James, arguably our greatest ever player.  He played 231 league games as an inside forward scoring 26 goals.  He later became a youth coach but died of cancer aged 51.

6 June 1985: Fifa extended Uefa’s ban on English clubs in Europe to a worldwide ban lasting an indefinite amount of time but excluded from the ban the England national team.

6 June 1990: Gavin Andrew Hoyte was born.  He signed for Arsenal aged nine, and became captain of the under 18 and the reserve teams.  However he only played one senior league game for the club. He was last heard of in 2019 playing for St Ives Town in Cambridgeshire and signing for Maidstone United.

6 June 2002: Henry, Vieira and Wiltord all played for France in  a World Cup game against Uruguay.  The score was 0-0 but Henry was given a red card on 25 minutes.

6 June 2014: Elias Chatzitheodoridis, a defender, joined Arsenal from Mas Kallitheakos for an undisclosed fee.  He was last heard of in 2020 playing for Panathinaikos, Athens.

6 June 2017: Arsenal announced the signing of Sead Kolašinac, on a free transfer from Schalke 04 with whom his contract had expired.

7 June 1915: The Football League opened its enquiry into the Manchester Utd 2 Liverpool 0 match; the second match involving Liverpool in which match fixing was alleged and this time there was so much evidence that it was impossible to hush the whole thing up any further.  Henry Norris who had first raised the issue in 1913 in his newspaper column (and been ordered never to speak another word about Liverpool match fixing) was about to be vindicated.

7 June 1917:  The British army detonated 19 ammonal mines (an alternative to TNT) which had been placed under the German lines.   10,000 enemy soldiers were killed in what is said to have been the deadliest deliberate non-nuclear man-made explosion in history.

7 June 1922: Sir Henry Norris, the Arsenal chairman and major shareholder, began to split completely from his political work in Fulham, telling his party he would engage with them no more because of the financial demands they made upon him.

7 June 1928: Dave Bowen born.  He first played for Northampton but was spotted by Pat Whittaker, the son of Arsenal’s manager, and signed by Arsenal after only 12 games for Northampton.  See also here

7 June 1928: After two years at Arsenal, Jack Lee was sold to Chesterfield for £250.

7 June 1941: Tim Rogers played in a wartime international for Wales against England.  England won 3-2.

7 June 1947: Arsenal lost 1-2 to Sheffield United away in the final league match of the season – the only time AFC played a league match in June, until the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.  The 1947 season was extended because of the number of postponements due to the exceptionally bad winter weather.

7 June 1948: Alf Morgan (also known as Stan Morgan) was transferred from Arsenal to Walsall.  He was on Arsenal’s books for 1946 to 1948 but played just twice in the league.

7 June 1970: Brazil 1 England 0 in the world cup finals group stages  There was a consensus in the media that England would retain the world cup they won at Wembley four years earlier.

7 June 2013: David Bentley, once of Arsenal, who had pushed for a transfer in order to get the games he felt he deserved, was released by Tottenham, and heard of no more in football.  He then set up his own restaurant.  He is since said to have invested in a restaurant with Alex Oxlade Chamberlain and other businesses in Spain and England and done a job-swap TV show.

8 June 1899: Duncan McNichol signed from Scottish junior club St Bernards.  He became a regular at full back and played in the record breaking 12-0 victory over Loughboro.  For the context in the club see here

8 June 1905: Jimmy Sharp signed for Woolwich Arsenal from Fulham, then of the Southern League. He had won a runners-up medal with Dundee, and Scottish caps before moving on to play for Arsenal.  

8 June 1910: Henry Norris, Arsenal’s new owner, told manager George Morrell that his job was safe despite missing relegation by just one place and two points, in the season just finished.  For all the events of this period see here.

8 June 1914: Frank Bradshaw signed from Everton.  In 1907, he played in Wednesday’s FA Cup winning team and got an England cap before moving to Northampton, and then Everton for whom he played 66 times.

8 June 1925: The Football League voted to change the offside rule to two men behind the ball rather than three, leading to numerous experiments with variant “WM” formations in the following season.  Chapman’s approach helped Arsenal come second in 1925/6.  For the momentous events of this summer which changed Arsenal forever see here.

8 June 1936: Arsenal fined £250 for fielding weakened teams in order to protect their FA Cup squad (which won the cup the previous April).   For the story of the summer of 1936 see here.

8 June 1954: Lionel Smith sold to Watford.  Although a regular in the title winning 1952/3 team he only played ten games in 1953/4 and left on a free transfer.  He played just seven times for Watford before moving onto Gravesend.

8 June 1982: Tony Woodcock signed from Cologne.  He had been in Germany for three seasons, scoring 28 goals in 81 games.

8 June 1995: Bruce Rioch appointed manager of Arsenal from Bolton.  In 1994/5 Bolton were losing League Cup finalists, and beat Reading in the Division One play off. It is said Bolton supporters think of him as one of their best managers. 

8 June 2010: Philippe Senderos joined Fulham from Arsenal on a free.  He played 57 times for them before moving on to Valencia and then in 2014, Aston Villa.  In all he won 57 caps and was included in the Swiss squads for three World Cups.

8 June 2011: Carl Jenkinson signed for £1m.  He showed great promise and was loaned to West Ham for 2014/15 where he became a regular with the side but his career was later hampered by injury.

9 June 1928: Jack Lee  who had won the London Combination with Arsenal transferred to Chesterfield.  He had come from Horndon Athletic and played just seven times in the 1926/7 season for Arsenal as outside left before moving on.

9 June 1984: John “Alex” Mackie died.  He played for Portsmouth in two cup finals after leaving Arsenal, and later for Northampton and Sittingbourne before retiring from football at the outbreak of war.

9 June 1986: Martin Keown sold to Aston Villa after George Graham decided that Keown was not good enough to play for Arsenal.  Upon his return in 1993 he went onto play 310 games winning three league championships and three FA Cups.

9 June 1993: Dixon and Wright played for England in their defeat by 2-0 to the USA in the US Cup. 

9 June 1999: Fabián Caballero, who had been on loan to Arsenal from Cerro Porteño  returned to his club before moving on to Sol de América   He only played one league game for Arsenal, but in 2000 returned to the UK to play over 100 games for Dundee. 

9 June 1999: Remi Garde announced his retirement having won the Premier League with Arsenal in 1998 having played 31 games.  He went into management and later became manager of Lyon and subsequently Aston Villa.   He was manager of Montreal Impact but left in August 2019.

9 June 2008: Alex Song signed new long term contract.  He continued at Arsenal, but amidst rumours of a dispute with the management he was sold to Barcelona in 2012 having played 160 league games for Arsenal.   He signed for Swis club Sion in 2018, and played for them in the 2018/19 season. 

9 June 2008: Gary Lewin agreed to leave Arsenal as the head of their medical team to take up a place with the FA on 1 August.  His cousin Colin Lewin took over at Arsenal and remained there until 2018 when he was suddenly sacked following Arsene Wenger’s departure. On 20 March 2017, Gary Lewin rejoined Arsenal as physiotherapist for the women’s team but quickly moved on to be head of medical services at West Ham, but left there in the summer of 2018.  In 2020 the two cousins set up their own clinic in London.

9 June 2017: Arsenal released Yaya Sanogo, Stefan O’Connor, Kostas Pilea and Kristopher Da Graca. Sanogo had been dogged by injury during his four-year stay and only played 11 league games.  The other players never appeared for Arsenal.  

10 June 1910: Local press reports in SE London confirmed that Henry Norris was willing to sell his Woolwich Arsenal shares to local people.   But it was also confirmed that the last share issue itself had failed because local people were not taking up the offer.  This failure to buy was a major cause of the decision to move Arsenal to north London.

10 June 1919: Dr Kevin O’Flanagan born – he played for Arsenal in 1946/7.  He also played for Ireland at both football and rugby, was also a sprint champion, and later played football for both N Ireland and the Irish Free State.  

10 June 1921: The UK reached crisis point with 2.2 million unemployed, 2 million involved in wage disputes and in the midst of it all, 100 days of drought.

10 June 1925: Having returned early from Huddersfield’s European tour Herbert Chapman met with directors of Huddersfield prior to agreeing to manage Arsenal.

10 June 1936: Arsenal released Frank Hill and Ehud Rogers.  Hill moved on to Blackpool after playing 76 league games.  Rogers had signed for Arsenal in 1934, making 16 league appearances and scoring 5 goals and moved on to Newcastle.  

10 June 1945: Tommy Baldwin born.  Some sources quote 1946.  He played first for Wrekenton Juniors before joining Arsenal. He turned professional in 1962, and made his league debut in the 3–0 defeat of Birmingham City in April 1965.

10 June 1966: David Platt born. He was an apprentice at Man U before moving on to Crewe and then Aston Villa.  After that he played in Italy before joining Arsenal from Sampdoria.

10 June 1984: Almost unimaginably, given the state of their relative teams, England beat Brazil 2-0 in Rio, with Sansom and Woodcock in the side.

10 June 1985: Brian Talbot sold to Watford after 254 league games and 40 league goals for Arsenal.  After that he moved on to Stoke, WBA, Fulham and Aldershot before playing finally for Sudbury Town, and then moving into management.  He became chief scout and assistant director of football operations at Fulham in February 2017.

10 June 1985: Park Chu-Young was born in Korea.  His transfer to Arsenal on 30 August 2011 was one of the strangest transfers of all time and he never showed any promise at all at Arsenal.  

10 June 1993: Archie Macauley died.  After a playing career which earned him numerous plaudits he had a very successful managerial career with Norwich, WBA and Brighton, but then, aged 50, having just taken Brighton up, he gave it all up and is said to have become a traffic warden.

10 June 2009: George Eastham finally presented with his World Cup medal.  As a squad member who did not play in the 1966 World Cup Final he had not been granted a medal – but finally got one 43 years later.

10 June 2013: On his birthday (see above) Park Chu Young, on loan to Celta Vigo, was fined for failing to turn up at a match.  He then went on loan to Watford, for whom he played two games, before being sold to Al Shabab. He was last heard of winning the Korean League for FC Seoul in 2016. 

10 June 2015: Josh Vickers’ released by Arsenal.  Two months later he signed for Swansea City.   He was released by Swansea at the end of the 2016–17 season and then joined Lincoln City on a two year deal. 

10 June 2022: The media reported that Arsenal has announced that they were to release nine players including Eddie Nketiah.   Yet eight days later Nketiah signed a new long-term contract.  Did Eddie change his mind or did the media get it wrong?

11 June 1920: The third reading in Parliament of Sir Henry Norris’ anti-gambling legislation.  At this time bookmakers would hand out coupons on the street for punters to complete. At one Liverpool match in 1915 138,500 coupons were handed out and 79,000 were returned with money.  With Liverpool players found guilty of match fixing Parliament felt it was time to act.

11 June 1925:  Herbert Chapman became the manager of Arsenal, replacing Leslie Knighton who had been manager since the resumption of football after the first world war.   Chapman went on to become the manager who gave Arsenal its first Championships, and its first FA Cup triumph before his untimely death.

11 June 1971: Liam Brady joined Arsenal as apprentice professional from St Kevin’s Boys, aged 15. He turned pro two years later.    See also here and then again here

11 June 2002: Despite Vieira and Wiltord playing, World Cup holders France went out of the competition to Denmark in South Korea.   

11 June 2009: Arsenal opened an Arsenal shop in Bahrain as part of the deal with Emirates Airlines.

11 June 2012: Sylvain Wiltord retired from football. In 2015, he competed on the reality show Dropped, which puts sportspeople in inhospitable environments. The day after his elimination from the programme, three contestants died in a helicopter collision.  Wiltord played 104 league games for Arsenal and 526 league games all told.

12 June 1945: Pat Jennings born.  In his early years he played for Shamrock Rovers and Newry Unite, and had a spell playing Gaelic football before joining Watford in 1963.

12 June 1946: Bobby Gould born.  He started his career with Coventry, making his debut for them at the age of 16, before joining Arsenal in 1968.  In all he played for nine and managed 11 major clubs.  He was last reported as assistant manager at Western League side Portishead Town. 

12 June 1951: Final appearance for Ian McPherson.  He played 152 games for Arsenal before moving back to Notts County – the club from which he had been signed in 1946.  He was a regular in the championship team of 1948.

12 June 1974: Death of  Peter Dougall who played 21 league games for Arsenal in the 1930s.  He later played for Everton and Bury before retiring from football.

12 June 1977: Even a full-back pairing of Rice and Nelson could not stop N Ireland being beaten by Iceland 2-0 in the World Cup.

12 June 1980: Clive Allen was signed by Arsenal from QPR in one of the strangest transfers ever.  He never played for Arsenal in the league (although he played in three pre-season friendlies) and moved to Crystal Palace in a swap deal for Kenny Sansom before the season began.  He played three games for Carlisle in 1995/6 and NFL for the London Monarchs in 1997. 

12 June 1998. Emmanuel Petit played for France in their opening world cup game.  He played 63 times for France and scored three goals including one in the world cup final. He is reportedly now working as an online trading broker and a pundit on French TV as well as being an ambassador for the Homeless World Cup.

12 June 2001: Nelson Vivas moved to Inter on a free transfer.  He played 69 times for Arsenal scoring one goal, moving first to Celta de Vigo on loan before moving on to Italy.  He later moved into management but in 2013 attacked a fan in the stands and then resigned.  Wiki has him noted as Argentina manager of the year in 2017 and from 2018 he has been assistant manager of Atletico Madrid

12 June 2008: Derek Tapscott died.  After retiring from playing football he worked in the sporting goods business until retiring in 1997.  He also wrote an autobiography, “Tappy”.

12 June 2009: Fabianski signed a four year contract with Arsenal which ended with him lifting the FA Cup.  He then moved on a free transfer to Swansea having refused to sign a new contract with Arsenal and in 2018 moved on to WHU.

12 June 2018: Yassin Fortune joined FC Sion after rejecting new Arsenal deal.  He played 8 games for Sion in 2019/20 but is not recorded as having played for any team since.

13 June 1910: Woolwich Arsenal came to within five minutes of extinction at the AGM of the Football League, as the League executive turned down the idea of Arsenal merging with Fulham and playing in the first division.  See also here; and again here.  For a detailed account of the month’s proceedings see here.  In the end Norris paid off all Arsenal’s debts and agreed the club would stay in Plumstead for a year to see if support could be re-ignited.  Ultimately Arsenal stayed until May 1913.

13 June 1917: Henry Norris attended Buckingham Palace to be knighted by King George V in the midst of the first ever daytime bombing raid over London.

13 June 1943: Real Madrid 11 Barcelona 1 (Cup semi-final) A team talk prior to  the match by the director of state security to the Barcelona players reminding them that they were only playing because the regime had forgiven them their lack of patriotism did the trick. Real Mad lost the cup final 1-0 to Atletico Bilbao, themselves not averse to thoughts of separatism.

13 June 1966: Billy Wright finally resigned.  He was the first Arsenal manager since Chapman who was appointed to the club without having had a previous link with Arsenal and was by and large a total and absolutely unmitigated disaster.

13 June 1980: Having signed the day before, Clive Allen at the age of 19 was now heralded as the most expensive teenager in Europe in joining Arsenal from Queens Park Rangers for £1,250,000.  

13 June 1983: John Devine joined Norwich on a free transfer having been out of the side with a long-term injury.  He had played 112 league games for Arsenal and continued playing for another eight years.  He later worked for the Football Association of Ireland as a Tutor/Assessor and was last seen as Technical Director for Almaden Soccer in the Silicon Valley.

13 June 1985: Fifa’s ban on all English teams playing overseas was introduced following the Heysel riot by Liverpool supporters   This was subsequently modified to allow friendly matches by English teams.

13 June 1988: Steve Bould signed for Arsenal for £390,000.  He had played 183 games for Stoke City and nine on loan with Torquay.  Both Arsenal and Everton made offers.  He made the right choice.

13 June 2008: Aaron Ramsey signed from Cardiff.  Both Man U and Arsenal bid for him, but he chose Arsenal undoubtedly in part because of the connection between Arsenal and Cardiff via Terry Burton.  He finally left in the summer of 2019 as his contract came to an end.

13 June 2014: After rejecting the offer of a new contract Bacary Sagna moved to Manchester City on a free transfer.  He had played 213 league games for Arsenal in a seven year spell, but made only a handful of appearances for Man C.  He was last heard of playing for Montreal in Major League Soccer for the 2019 season.

13 June 2014: It was said in some sources that Arsenal sold Chelsea their rights to the re-signing of Cesc Fabregas to Chelsea for approx £5.6m.   Arsene Wenger later reported that he had no contact with Fabregas at this time.

14 June 1912:  Andy Ducat was sold to Aston Villa.   He was Arsenal’s one great player at the time, and was still only 26.  He had remained loyal to the club through all its troubles and had played 175 league games for Arsenal, but the club was desperate for funding.

14 June 1920: Athletic News magazine gave fulsome praise to Sir Henry Norris for his work on steering the anti-gambling bill through the Commons.  It now moved onto the Lords where their Lordships who were fond of a flutter on the horses did all they could to hold the bill up.  However it did eventually pass.

 14 June 1973: David O’Leary signed for Arsenal.  He went on to become Arsenal’s all time record holder for first team appearances.  He stayed for 20 years whereupon he transferred to Leeds.  Since getting compensation from Al-Ahli in the UAE for the early termination of his contract he doesn’t seem to have worked.

14 June 1973: Peter Storey made his 19th and last appearance for England.  He also played twice for England Schoolboys and twice for the Football League. In 2004, he moved to a village in Southern France and in September 2010 he released his autobiography. Other than that we have not heard of him for a while.

14 June 1974: Ian Selley born.  He joined Arsenal in 1990 as a trainee and won the SE Counties League and the Floodlit Cup winners’ medal in his first season.  He later moved on to Wimbledon and a number of smaller clubs.   He ended his playing career in the summer of 2012 and was appointed as the new head coach at Arsenal Soccer Schools Dubai.

14 June 1990: John Lukic left Arsenal for Leeds for £1m.  He played 265 league games for Leeds before returning to Arsenal in 1996 where he remained as backup keeper until 2001.  He now works as a freelance goalkeeping coach and tours the country as an after dinner speaker

14 June 1993: Eddie McGoldrick joined Arsenal from Crystal Palace.  In all he played 57 times for Arsenal and scored one goal, before moving on to Man City, after a loan spell.

14 June 1997: Luis Boa Morte signed from Sporting CP to Arsenal for £1.75m.  The press were very critical of Arsenal’s signing of overseas players and in reporting the move the Daily Telegraph sarcastically said of Luis Boa Morte he was “apparently just one player, not three”.

14 June 2001: Francis Jeffers signed by Arsenal for £10m from Everton.  His transfer was not a success and in 2003 he was loaned back to Everton.  In all he had 12 clubs but never played more than 55 games with any of them.

14 June 2013: Denilson transferred to São Paulo who gave him a four year contract, after he had played 96 times for Arsenal, followed by a loan spell to the Brazilian club.

14 June 2014: Sir Chips Keswick announced as Arsenal’s new chairman, replacing Denis Hill-Wood who had been chair from 1962 to 1982.  Denis Hill-Wood was the third generation of his family to serve as chairman of Arsenal going back to his grandfather, Samuel Hill-Wood who ousted Sir Henry Norris in a coup.

14 June 2018: The Football League announced the fixtures for the new season showing Arsenal and new manager Mr Emery having the toughest of starts: at home to Man City, away to Chelsea.

 

15 June 1899: George Leavey was elected chair of Woolwich Arsenal.  Through his extensive chain of gentleman’s outfitters including one in Plumstead he became to be a major source of revenue for the club until pulling out in 1910 – a factor which caused the club’s crisis that summer.

15 June 1910: Woolwich Arsenal factories started to lay off men due to a long-term downturn in work following the end of the Boer War – spelling catastrophe for Woolwich Arsenal FC which depended on a vibrant workforce to boost its attendance figures.

15 June 1912: Andy Ducat sold, confirming the club’s policy of selling off its best players in order to try and balance the books.  The policy led directly to relegation the following season with the worst Arsenal record of all time.

15 June 1919: John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight.  (They took off on 14 June).

15 June 1925: Arsenal announced that the club had bought the Highbury stadium, and some additional land around it, and that the lease of the site had ended.  Sir Henry Norris’ huge gamble in taking the ground on a full-repairing lease 12 years earlier had paid off.

15 June 1929: England played a tour of Australia, which included Tom Whittaker and Joey Williams. Joey played 22 games for Arsenal but only two on this tour, despite travelling across the world by sea. 

15 June 1935: Arsenal signed Jackie Milne for a fee reputed to have been £5000.  He played 49 league games and scored 19 goals.

15 June 1935: Ray Swallow born.  Aside from playing 13 times for Arsenal he also played 38 first class cricket matches for Derbyshire.    

15 June 1974: Trevor Ross signed as a professional.  He played 58 times for Arsenal before moving on to Everton.  He later became a non-league manager before becoming an HGV driver.

15 June 1995: Bruce Rioch became Arsenal manager and simultaneously Stewart Houston resigned from his post as temporary manager.  Rioch lasted just one season and managed to get Arsenal a European slot on the final day of the season, before being sacked.

16 June 1917:  With newspapers forbidden from writing anything about the war other than (often invented) victories on the battlefield, the local newspaper in Fulham started a long running series of attacks on the Borough’s mayor, Henry Norris following the flooding of local sewers caused by a lack of repair (itself caused by a lack of manpower to carry out the repairs and a lack of funding). The campaign continued for a staggering six years. 

16 June 1934: Margate became Arsenal’s feeder club.  With the school leaving age of 14 but league clubs prohibited from signing players until 17, the nursery idea allowed Arsenal to train youngsters as amateurs and monitor their development.  Other clubs quickly followed Arsenal’s innovation.

16 June 1982: Graham Rix and Kenny Sansom became the first Arsenal players to play for England in the final stages of the World Cup.  In April 2017 Rix suffered a heart attack while in 2018 he was accused by multiple Chelsea trainees of racism and physical assault.

16 June 1983: Arsenal lost to VSNIAC Mitra of Indonesia 2-0 in an away friendly.

16 June 1986: Danny Clapton died aged just 51. He moved to Luton Town in September 1962 and lived (and for a while played football) in Sydney from 1963 to 1970 before returning to London to run a public house in Hackney.

16 June 1994: Lee Harper signed from Sittingbourne.  He only played once for Arsenal before moving on to QPR.  In his career he played over 100 times each for QPR, Northampton and Kettering.

16 June 2000: Lauren signed from Real Mallorca.  He had already played for four pro clubs by the time he joined Arsenal, but it was Arsenal where he made his real mark, playing 159 league games.  In recent years he has occasionally worked as a pundit.

 

17 June 1895: William Blyth, the man who became Arsenal’s first film star, and first cup final captain, was born.   See also here.

17 June 1910: Henry Norris made it clear that he thought Arsenal deserved more support, and suggested that although he and Hall had done their bit, there was nothing more they could do.  He stated that if people thought he was not the right person to take the club forward, all they had to do was to indicate by 17 June 1910 that they wanted to take over from his efforts, and he would leave.  No one did; he continued..

17 June 1911: One year on from Norris’ offer to step aside the AGM of Woolwich Arsenal FC was seemingly a cautiously optimistic meeting.  The club, far from being relegated, which had been looking on the cards the previous season, had ended up in 10th position in the league, 

17 June 1919: Tommy Rudkin born.  He joined Wolverhampton just before the second world war started, and played primarily for Peterborough during the war, and then joined Arsenal.  But only for a short while…

17 June 1919: Canadian troops, who had been getting restless after their return to their homeland had been repeatedly delayed, now became angry at the arrest of two of their number, attacked Epsom police station and killed a police officer.  All told about 400 soldiers were involved and a lot of property in Epsom was destroyed.

17 June 1922: Bob John signed from Barry Town.  He was perhaps Leslie Knighton’s best signing for Arsenal and went on to play 421 times for the club.  For details of  the player see here.

17 June 1952: Gerry Ward signed as an amateur.  He turned pro the next season but then had to do his national service, and so lost a lot of football time to square bashing.  But he finally went on to play 81 times for the club.

17 June 1953: Ray Daniel sold to Sunderland.  Ray played 87 league games, taking over at centre half from Leslie Compton and played every match save one in the 1953 league triumph.

17 June 1997: Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit, and Alberto Mendez were signed in one day!  For their first game together see here.   Mendez was discovered playing for German non-league side 1 SC Feucht  but only played four times for Arsenal.

17 June 2010: Kyle Ebecilio signed from Feyenoord on a free transfer as a youth player.  He never played for Arsenal, and despite being offered a new contract in 2013 he chose to move on to FC Twente.  In 2019 he signed for Den Haag.

17 June 2013: Geoff Strong died.  He retired from football in the summer of 1972 and ran a hotel-furnishing company and co-owned a pub.   In later life he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, but continued to be seen at Anfield, where he played after leaving Arsenal, but maintained no connection with Arsenal.

17 June 2020: After a pause of 100 days, the Premier League resumed, playing the fixtures that had been stopped as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.  It was only the third time that matches had been stopped for anything other than the weather – the previous two occurrences being for the two world wars – those pauses being for four years and seven years respectively.  Having had just one defeat in their last 13 games prior to lockdown Arsenal lost 3-0 to Man City.

18 June 1914: George Jobey sold to Bradford PA.  He had won a league winners’ medal with Newcastle and was the first Arsenal player to score at Highbury as well as being the first player to be stretchered off at Highbury.  He later went into management.  For broader context see here.

18 June 1921: “The Football and Sports Favourite” magazine carried an interview with Leslie Knighton which in its best interpretation might be called eccentric, but is probably best called utterly bizarre.

18 June 1962: Andy Linighan born in Hartlepool – both his brothers were also footballers.  He started with Hartlepool, then moved through Leeds, Oldham and Norwich before coming to Arsenal. After leaving football he became the owner of a plumbing company

18 June 1979 Paul Davis signed professional forms for Arsenal having signed as an apprentice in 1977.  He made his debut in 1980 and played 447 league games for the club.  In March 2016, Paul joined the FA where he continues to work with the elite coach development team

18 June 1993: Eddie McGoldrick signed for Arsenal for approx £1m, playing his first game in the charity shield against Man U on 7 August 1993.  He was last heard of as the head of Crystal Palace’s academy which he took over in the summer of 2016.

19 June 1913: Wally Hardinge joined from Sheffield United.  He was a first class cricketer scoring 33,519 runs and playing in one test match.  He played the two pre-war seasons at Highbury and the first post-war season and retired in 1921.

19 June 1921: The annual census was undertaken in Britain.  For the first time individuals in a household could make separate confidential returns if they wished rather than have the “head of the household” answer for everyone.

19 June 1933: Len Julians born.  His first club was Walthamstow Avenue, followed by Leyton Orient whom he joined in 1955. After 66 games and 35 goals, it was not surprising that Arsenal would come knocking.  Len passed away on 17 December 1993

19 June 1944: Death of Herbert Roberts aged just 39.  He worked as a trainer for Arsenal’s reserves and then joined the Royal Fusiliers in the war.  He died while on active service and was buried at Southgate Cemetery.

19 June 1993: Martin Keown, Paul Merson, Nigel Winterburn and Ian Wright played for England in a defeat 2-1 to Germany.

19 June 1998:  David Grodin signed from AS Saint-Étienne.  He only played one league game with Arsenal and went on a series of loans before being sold to the last of these: Dunfermline.   

19 June 2001: Gio van Bronckhorst signed from Rangers for £8.5m.  He played 42 games for Arsenal before going on loan, then transferring permanently, to Barcelona.  He ended his playing career with Feyenoord with whom he then moved into management leaving them in 2019.

19 June 2007: Jeremie Aliadiere sold to Middlesbrough for £2m.  He played 78 times for them before moving on to Lorient.  In 2014 he moved onto the  Qatari side Umm Salal.  He appears to have retired from football in 2017, but apparently remains in touch with Arsene Wenger.

19 June 2009: Thomas Vermaelen signed from Ajax.  He went on to play 110 league games for Arsenal and became club captain, but then injuries struck and after the 2014 Cup victory (for which he was an unused sub) he moved to Barcelona.  He appears to have retired from football totally in 2017, when he got married.

19 June 2018: Bernd Leno was announced as signing from Bayer Leverkusen.  He started the season on the bench for Arsenal but after Cech was seen to be having problems with playing out from the back, Leno took over as the first choice keeper. 

19 June 2018: Jack Wilshere confirmed his departure from Arsenal.

 

20 June 1900: Jim Ashcroft signed from Gravesend Utd.  He played 273 games for Arsenal and was a member of the promotion winning side in 1904.  He also made three appearances for England in 1906.

20 June 1949:  Ronnie Rooke transferred to Crystal Palace to become player-manager.  After Palace Ronnie became player manager of Bedford Town, and later worked as a porter at Luton Airport, dying of lung cancer in 1985 aged 73. 

20 June 1966: Bertie Mee became Arsenal manager.  After the experience of taking a very high profile ex-footballer as manager, Arsenal sought to repeat the success of Tom Whittaker by promoting the club’s physiotherapist. 

20 June 1984: Dave Madden was transferred to Charlton after making just two league appearances.  His career subsequently took him to Los Angeles, Reading, Crystal Palace and Maidstone.

20 June 1987: Ian Allinson released to Stoke City.  After further moves to Luton and Colchester, Ian subsequently had a career managing in non-league football, including notably at Boreham Wood, where his connection with Arsenal continued.  In February 2019, he was inducted into the Colchester United Hall of Fame

20 June 1987: Frank Boulton died.  Having left Arsenal he played for Derby in 1938/9 but missed out on their Cup Final appearance due to injury. He played for Swindon Town from 1946 to 1950 before moving on to Crystal Palace and then Bedford Town.

20 June 1989: Goalkeeper Andrew Marriott sold to Nottingham Forest.  He never played a league match for Arsenal, but between 1989 and 2011 he played for 17 clubs, with Wrexham (255 games) being his one long term playing engagement.  He has since become part of the McLaren Formula 1 team and worked with WBA.

20 June 1998: Netherlands 5 South Korea 0 Marc Overmars scored the second goal on 42 minutes, and became the first Arsenal player to score in the world cup final stages.  Bergkamp scored on 71 minutes.  Dennis also signed for Arsenal on this day but “arrived” on 21 June.   And later…

20 June 2007: Scarborough FC went out of business with debts of £2.5m.  The club was formed seven years before Arsenal and the clubs met on January 1993 with the result Scarborough Town 0 Arsenal 1.  It was Cup Match 6 of Arsenal’s Cup Double season, in the fourth round of the League Cup.  

20 June 2008: Gaël Clichy signed a new long term contract and went on to play 187 times for Arsenal in the league before moving to Manchester City in 2011. On 7 July 2017, İstanbul Başakşehir announced that Clichy had signed a 3-year contract to play for the Turkish club

 

21 June 1919:  Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, fearful that the German fleet might be taken over by the British navy, which had interned it in Scapa Flow, scuttled the whole fleet.  52 vessels sank, and all but seven were eventually salvaged and the metal reused.

21 June 1951: Alan Hudson born.  He was rejected Fulham after a trial as a schoolboy but then signed for Chelsea Juniors.  After six years in the first team squad he moved to Stoke, and then in 1976 to Arsenal. After a period of alcoholism, being declared bankrupt and a very serious road accident which left him unable to walk without crutches, he re-invented himself as an author. 

21 June 1958   George Swindin became manager.  He was the final manager after the Shaw – Allison – Whittaker – Crayston sequence who had worked for the club in various guises before becoming manager but he was not a success.  He died in 2005 aged 90.

21 June 1982: Pat Jennings gave a masterclass in goalkeeping in N Ireland 1 Honduras 1 in the world cup.

21 June 1995: Dennis Bergkamp arrived from Inter where he had played just 52 league games.  He had been attacked by the press in Italy where a column highlighting the worst mistake of the weekend’s games was named Bergkamp della settimana  See also here.    And particularly about Inter, here.    

21 June 2002: Seaman, Cole and Campbell played in the 4-2 defeat of Croatia as England qualified for the European championship quarter finals

21 June 2004: Thierry Henry scored twice in France’s defeat of Switzerland 3-1.  As a result France finished top of their European Championship grop.

21 June 2014: Chuks Aneke left Arsenal on a free transfer to Zulte Waregem.  He never played for Arsenal in the league, but subsequently played regularly for the Belgium club. In 2016 he joined MK Dons and in 2019 moved to Charlton Athletic appearing 12 times for their first team in the 2019/20 season.

22 June 1893:  The first AGM of Woolwich Arsenal was held under the chairmanship of  Jack Humble; as the club’s first directors were elected ahead of entry into the Football League for the first time.  Humble later took a break as an Arsenal director but returned to serve with Norris until 1927. 

22 June 1894: Robert Turnbull born.  He played initially for the Royal Engineers AFC – who appeared in four of the first eight FA Cup finals, and who were  pioneers of the passing game. He joined Arsenal in 1921 as an amateur.

22 June 1900: Frederick Coles joined from Nottingham Forest.  Little is known of his pre-Arsenal life but he is recorded as having also played for Notts County and Nottingham Post Office, probably the only Arsenal man to have done so.

22 June 1901: George Lawrence, benefactor extraordinaire to the Woolwich Arsenal, and the club’s very first historian, died of a heart attack. He is one of the men, without whom there would have been no Arsenal.

22 June 1904: James Henry Bigden joined Arsenal from West Ham.  He was a local lad, and having been a near ever-present player over two seasons there was considerable upset in West Ham as he and other key players moved.

22 June 1911: The coronation of George V. 

22 June 1921: The King opened the new Parliament of N Ireland, and three days later the months of drought ended with heavy rain.  Two days after that the coal strike ended.  The mood of the country lifted.

22 June 1922: There was outrage as it became known that Irish Republican Army activists had killed Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson MP (a leading opponent of the separation of Ireland into two states) at the front door of his house in Belgravia.

22 June 1925: Herbert Chapman took up the job of Secretary Manager of Arsenal FC.   It was a moment of supreme importance within the club, ranking alongside the move to professionalism in 1891, the application to join the League in 1893, the rescue of the club by Henry Norris in 1910 and the move to Highbury in 1913.

22 June 1983: Arsenal signed Charlie Nicholas.  He played 84 times for Celtic scoring 48 goals and when Terry Neill wrote his autobiography he made the signing of Charlie the first chapter of his book.   In December 1983 Terry Neill was sacked. Nicholas later became a pundit for Sky.

22 June 1988: Graham Rix transferred to Caen, followed by Le Havre and Dundee.   He retired in 1993 from playing, went to Chelsea where he became youth team coach, and also played once in an end of season game in 1995 against Arsenal. 

22 June 1998: David Seaman and Tony Adams played in England 1 Romania 2 in the World Cup Finals in France.  Only Sherringham in the England team was older than the Arsenal pair.  In 2019 Adams became the honorary President of the Rugby Football League.

22 June 2000: Nigel Winterburn, a member of the most famous defence in football history, joined WHU on a free transfer (also reported as 23 June).  Since retiring he has done some work as a defensive coach and some media work.

22 June 2017: Arsenal announced that Asano’s loan to Stuttgart had been extended for another season.  Having joined Arsenal in 2016 from Sanfrecce Hiroshima he never played for the club, but went on loan to Stuttgard and Hannover 96 before joining Partizan in 2019.

23 June 1914: The RAF was established.

23 June 1953: Alf Haynes died.  He played 29 games as a centre half under Herbert Chapman.  Later he ran a newsagents in Oxford and wrote a sports column for the local newspaper and kept his connections with Arsenal under Tom Whittaker, acting as a scout.

23 June 1971: Ex Arsenal man Jimmy Bloomfield became manager of Leicester.  After that he went to Orient, and led them to an FA Cup semi-final and later managed Luton, before his tragically early death from cancer.

23 June 1976: Patrick Vieira born in Dakar, Senegal.  Qualifying for French citizenship he played for Cannes, and made two appearances for Milan before they unexpectedly released him, and Mr Wenger bought him, while he was still managing in Japan.  On 11 June 2018, Vieira was appointed as the manager of OGC Nice

23 June 1976: Terry Neill resigned as Tottenham manager.  He had lasted 2 years.  At the time such an early departure at Tottenham was unusual, but since then only four of the club’s 25 subsequent managers have lasted longer.  See also here

23 June 1953: Death of Alf Haynes.  After ending his playing career he had become a scout and had among other things recommended Cliff Holton to Arsenal.

23 June 1955: David Price born in Surrey.  He joined Arsenal in 1970 and made his first team début aged 17 in an end-of-season game against Leeds.  His career ended aged 28 because of an injury after which he became a taxi driver.

23 June 2016: After rumours that Arsenal had tried to sign Vardy from Leicester the club and player admitted that he already had signed a new contract.  The clear implication was that the whole scenario had been set up by newspapers anxious to distract Arsenal and make Arsenal fans angry at another “failed” bid.

24 June 1905: Arsenal’s AGM reported the annual income from the rent of the bars in the Manor Ground as £110 5s 0d.  (£110.25 – about £13,000 today)/

24 June 1949: Bryn Jones transferred to Norwich as player coach.  He remained there for just two years before returning to north London as a newsagent.

24 June 1962: Brian Sparrow born in Bethnal Green.  He played for Arsenal twice and went on loan to Wimbledon, Millwall, and Gillingham before settling with Crystal Palace.  

24 June 1987: Arturo Lupoli born. He started out with Parma and as an under 21 scored an unbelievable 45 goals in 22 games. In 2004 he moved to Arsenal as a scholar with Parma getting £200,000 compensation.  However he never managed to settle and at the last count had played for 17 different clubs the latest being Virtus Verona of the 3rd division in Italy.

24 June 1998: Petit and Vieira played in the World Cup match for France against  Denmark.  Petit scored the winning goal as it finished France 2 Denmark 1.

24 June 1999: Stefan Malz signed from 1860 Munich for £650,000.  He went on to play six times in the league in the next two years, before moving on to 1. FC Kaiserslautern.  

24 June 2001: Two years to the day after signing from Munich, Stefan Malz was transferred to Kaiserslautern for £580,000.  After finishing his playing career at FSV Oggersheim he went into management from 2005 to 2008 but seemingly not since.

24 June 2014: Arsenal sold their rights in Carlos Vela (secured under a buy-back option) to Real Sociedad for around £12m.  He had played 29 times for Arsenal and had had five different loan deals before the transfer was agreed in 2012.  This move ended the saga.  In 2018/19 he played for Los Angeles having also played 72 times for Mexico.

24 June 2015: Arsenal bought Vlad Dragomir from Poli Timișoara.  He did not make it at Arsenal and in 2019/20 he was playing for Perugia.

25 June 1904: Fred Coles transferred to Grimsby.  He later became a cricket and football coach in Sweden and was also trainer of Hague in Holland between 1910 and 1911. 

25 June 1910: Sidney Cartwright born.  He signed for Arsenal as an amateur in April 1931 and as a professional on 9 May.    He made his debut on 22 Feb 1936 against Portsmouth.

25 June 1914: Henry Norris was adopted as one of two Conservative Party candidates to contest the parliamentary seats in Stockport both strongly held by the Liberals.  He did not fight the seat however as he was subsequently offered the chance to fight the seat in Fulham where he was Mayor.

25 June 1960: Death of Charlie Buchan aged 68. After retiring from playing he became a football journalist, wrote a coaching manual and was a commentator for the BBC.  He co-founded the Football Writers’ Association, and edited Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly.   See also Buchan’s first period at Arsenal.

25 June 1975: Steve Gatting signed as apprentice professional.  He became a professional two years later and played his first game with the first team as a sub versus Lokomotiv Leipzig on September 13, 1978 which Arsenal won 3-0. 

25 June 1978: Paul Davis joined Arsenal as a professional.  He had signed for Arsenal in 1977, and played for the first team for the first time against Tottenham on April 7 1980 at Tottenham.  We won 2-1.

25 June 1982: Pat Jennings played as N Ireland beat the hosts Spain in the World Cup 1-0.  In all he played 119 games for the Province.

25 June 1997: Arsene Wenger signed Manu Petit for the second time.  He had signed him originally in 1988 from ES Arques-la-Bataille and now, this time from Monaco for £2.5m.  Luis Boa Morte also signed on this day.  In June 2019 Boa Morte became assistant coach at Everton.

25 June 2007: After 254 league games and 174 goals Thierry Henry transferred to Barcelona for €24 million in a deal that ultimately cost the Catalan club over £250,000 per match.  Also quoted as 23 June in some quarters.  On 24 Jan 2019 Henry was dismissed as manager of Monaco who were 19th in the league.  He subsequently became manager of Montreal Impact.

25 June 2020: After the three month shut down of football in England because of the coronavirus outbreak, Arsenal had re-started their season with two defeats.  However in the third match on this day they finally gained a win – 0-2 away to Southampton.  This was  the start of an 11 match run in which Arsenal won 8, drew 1 and lost 2.    In a reversal of earlier form, Arsenal were unbeaten at home in this run.

26 June 1875: Ly Burrows born in Northumberland.  He played in Glasgow and Sheffield, before playing for Woolwich Polytechnic while a student there and was given his chance with Arsenal while still only 16, in January 1892.

26 June 1939: Wilf Wash sold to Derby.  He had spent two years at Margate before making his three league appearances as a forward, but was not considered up to the standard required and was transferred shortly before the outbreak of war.

26 June 1970: Ex-Arsenal captain Terry Neill joined Hull as player manager.  He was at the 2014 FA Cup final between Arsenal and Hull, invited by the media as a man with connections with both sides and gave an unbelievably lopsided half-time interview which he hopefully subsequently regretted.

26 June 1972: Frank Stapleton signed from school as an apprentice (having tried his hand first with Man U) and played his first game in 1975 against Leicester in a 1-1 home draw.  It was Mee’s last season as Arsenal finished 17th in the league. 

26 June 1987: Samir Nasri born in Marseille and joined Olympique de Marseille aged nine, spending seven years in the youth academy at La Commanderie.  He was last heard of in 2019 playing for Anderlecht after just five league outings for West Ham, but was released by the Anderlecht in 2020.

26 June 1987: Bobby Gould left Bristol Rovers to become manager of Wimbledon.  In all he played for 10 different clubs (including Arsenal 1968-1970) and managed 11 clubs and one country (Wales).

26 June 1998: Gavin McGowan sold to Luton Town, having played seven times.  His league career was cut short by injury and he moved on to play non-league football before retiring aged 25 to become a sports teacher.

26 June 1998: David Seaman and Tony Adams played for England in the World Cup v Colombia.  England won 2-0 with goals from Anderton and Beckham.

26 June 2012: Olivier Giroud joined Arsenal from Montpellier for about £9.6m. He had scored 30 goals in 61 games for Tours and then 33 goals in 73 games for Montpellier.   (Giroud scores his first goal).  He went on to make 180 appearances for Arsenal before moving to Chelsea in 2018.

26 June 2014: With additional funds pouring into the club Arsenal announced its biggest clear outs of all time with 11 players leaving the club on 30 June as their contracts expired.  Denilson, Arshavin and Sanchez Watt were among those leaving.  Sagna spoke on TalkSport claiming he was not leaving Arsenal for the money.

27 June 1908: James Bigden sold to Bury after making 75 appearances in the league and 12 in the Cup for Woolwich Arsenal across four seasons.

27 June 1910: Athletic News carried an article saying Woolwich Arsenal did not yet have a full squad of players, and although this was not a total disaster (since pre-season training did not start until August) it meant that many of the most promising young players who might be available were being signed elsewhere.

27 June 1913: At the Fulham FC AGM on the shareholders passed a resolution to go to the Football League asking that Hall and Norris, now both directors at Woolwich Arsenal should be allowed to continue to serve as directors at Fulham.  There was in fact no rule against this, and Fulham were just seeking clarification.  The League agreed.

27 June 1914: Archduke Ferdinand von Hapsburg and his wife were shot dead by a Serbian nationalist in a Sarajevo side-street after their driver had taken a wrong turning.

27 June 1919: The London Combination held a meeting to ratify the decision to make the Combination the new reserve league.  This was a direct challenge to the reserve leagues that had existed before the war – the South Eastern League and the London League.

27 June 1932: Ernest Tuckett joined Arsenal as an amateur at the age of 18.  He first hit the headlines with six goals in a London Midweek League match in 1933 and then moved on to the nursery club Margate between 1934 and 1936 became a professional for Arsenal in 1936.

27 June 1978: Paul Davis joined Arsenal as a professional.  He had signed for Arsenal in 1977, and played for the first team for the first time against Tottenham on April 7 1980 at Tottenham.  We won 2-1.

27 June 1999: Silvinho signed for Arsenal from Corinthians of Sao Paulo for £4m (also quoted as 30 June 1999 in some places).  He had played 136 times for them, before moving to Arsenal where he played 55 games across two seasons.  Since retiring he has had a significant coaching and managerial career and in 2019 became the manager of Olympique Lyonnais

27 June 2002: Arsenal played a pre-season friendly against Rapid Vienna, but the game was abandoned after the home crowd threw flares and stewards moved into the crowd.  After the game was restarted both sides colluded to get the ball down the far end of the ground away from the fighting.  The ref then blew and the players ran for the changing rooms.

27 June 2005: Stuart Taylor sold to Aston Villa, one week before Vito Mannone arrived.  In all he had made 30 appearances in all competitions winning a league title, an FA Cup winner’s medal and two Charity Shield winners’ medals.  He was last heard of registered with Southampton, and retired in 2018  having played 86 first class games, and said that “every coach I have had, every goalkeeper I have worked with, has said I should have played 200 or 300 Premier League games. I look back at it and think the same.”

27 June 2005: Alex Hleb signed for Arsenal.  Like many before and after him he was subsequently seduced and then abandoned by Barcelona – a move he described as the greatest mistake of his life.  His final club was BATE Borisov in 2018/19.

27 June 2014: Arsenal announced the departure of Nic Bendtner, Park Ju-young, loanees Kim Kallstrom and Emiliano Viviano, plus Chuks Aneke, Daniel Boateng, Zach Fagan and Leander Siemann.  In November 2018 Bendtner was sentenced to 50 days in prison in Denmark for assaulting a taxi driver. 

 

28 June 1913: Arsenal gained possession of the Gillespie Road site for the first time thus leaving them just 10 weeks before the first match of the season to make the ground ready.  There is no record of the club making any arrangements to have matches played elsewhere in the event of the ground not being ready.

28 June 1913: Joseph Lievesley signed from Sheffield Utd who had bought him after having been beaten by Southern League Swindon, for whom he played.  Swindon’s victory in 1908 was one of the great cup shocks of the era; Lievesley went on to play in the FA’s tour of South Africa in 1910. 

28 June 1919: Five years and a day after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand the Treaty of Versailles was signed, finally confirming the end of hostilities. 

28 June 1921: Reg Boreham joined Arsenal from Wycombe.  Although Bernard Joy said of him “His sparkling displays nearly gave him an England professional cap as well as amateur ones,” we know little of him save for the fact that he played 53 games and scored 18 goals for Arsenal.  See also here.

28 June 1922: Archie Roe signed from Castleford Town; one of eight players who made his first appearance for Arsenal in the 1922/3 season.  However he only had four games for Arsenal before moving on.

28 June 1923: Harry Woods joined Arsenal from Newcastle U.  He served his country in the Tank Corps in France during the war, and then played for South Shields before moving to Newcastle United in January 1922 for £2600  – a fee that for a few months was the world record.

28 June 1928: John “Alex” Mackie transferred to Portsmouth for whom he made 257 appearances over seven seasons, including playing in the FA Cup finals of 1929 and 1934. 

28 June 1929: Stan Charlton born in Exeter.  His father played for Exeter and Crystal Palace while Stan junior started his career with Bromley, moved to Leyton Orient in 1952, then Arsenal and played 80 league games for the club. 

28 June 1998: France v Paraguay.  Manu Petit played in the first ever “golden goal” game in the world cup.  It was an experiment that was quickly abandoned.

28 June 2000: Davor Suker joined WHU on a free transfer.  He later moved to 1860 Munich, and later became president of the Croatian Football Federation and worked as a football agent.  In 2015, Croatian Journalists’ Association accused Suker, then the president of the Croatian Football Federation of preventing freedom of information and for physically blocking journalists from reporting and doing their work

28 June 2013: Sanchez Watt joined Colchester after a period on loan.  It was the last of six loan deals during his time at Arsenal and he went on to be a regular player for Colchester. In 2018/19 he played for Hemel Hempstead.

28 June 2020: After the prolonged break due to the corona virus Arsenal played their fourth catch up match as clubs tried to finish the 2019/20 season.  Having lost the first two games after resumption but won the third, Arsenal won again, beating Sheffield United 1-2 away in the FA Cup.

29 June 1900: Loughborough FC, the team against whom Arsenal had their largest league victory, finally folded.  They had been in serious financial difficulty for some time and Arsenal had paid their train fares so they could complete their final visit to Plumstead.  The town gained a new team in 1955 – Loughborough Dynamos now in the Northern Premier League.

29 June 1914: The international exhibition opened at the “White City”.  It closed on the declaration of war and the site was used as an armaments depot.

29 June 1923: Ernest Williamson was granted a free transfer to Norwich after over 100 games in goal.  He played for Norwich for two seasons, before retiring from football in 1925 after which we lose sight of him completely

29 June 1929: Billy Warnes, one of the “Walsall Experiment” players in Herbert Chapman’s last ever FA Cup match, was signed.  The FA Cup match against Walsall was his only first team game for the club.  See also here

29 June 1971: Don Howe left Arsenal having helped guide the club to the Double as first team coach.  He moved on to WBA where he stayed until 1975 before a year at Galatasaray SK after which he returned to Arsenal as manager.

29 June 1982: Kenny Sansom and Graham Rix – two players who had troubled times in later life – played for England against West Germany in a goalless draw in the world cup.

29 June 1998: Dennis Bergkamp scored in the Netherland’s 2-1 world cup win over Yugoslavia in France.  Mark Overmars was also in the team.

29 June 2003: Thierry Henry scored in the 97th minute with the golden goal that gave victory over Cameroon in the Confederations Cup Final.

29 June 2015: After much expectation, Arsenal purchased Petr Cech from Chelsea for around £10m.  It was reported that the Chelsea manager Mourinho was particularly unhappy about the sale. Cech returned to Chelsea as a coach in 2019.

30 June 1884: Tower Bridge was opened.  It was the furthest easterly bridge over the Thames until the opening of the Queen Elizabeth II bridge at Dartford. 

30 June 1905: The Kentish Independent published a list of season ticket prices at Woolwich Arsenal – showing a price of £2 2s – about two thirds of the weekly wage of a skilled artisan and equivalent to about £250 today.  At the same time Woolwich Gazette revealed that Arsenal did not run the bars in the Manor Ground but leased them to others.

30 June 1914: Steve Stonley transferred to Brentford.  He scored 13 goals in 28 league games in 1913/14, but left for Southern League Brentford after Harry King was signed.

30 June 1915:  The 177th (Fulham) Royal Field Artillery Brigade which was raised and paid for by Henry Norris had, by this day, recruited everyone it needed apart from the hard to find skilled metal workers who maintained the guns in the field.  Norris was immediately asked to raise a second artillery brigade and subsequently went on to raise a third.  They were billeted in Fulham Town Hall, at Norris’ expense.  It was for this work that he was knighted in 1917.

30 June 1932: Derek Tapscott born in Barry.  He was one of 16 children, After leaving school at 14 he worked as a delivery boy, TV repairman’s assistant and bricklayer, before serving with the Royal Engineers.  He was signed by Arsenal in 1953.

30 June 1975: Rami Shaaban born in Stockholm of Egyptian and Finnish parents.He started at Saltsjöbadens IF before playing in Cairo while also studying at university. He later moved to Djurgården and in August 2002 to Arsenal.

30 June 1995: Kevin Campbell transferred to Nottingham Forest who were European Champions.  However the side were relegated and then promoted during his time there.

30 June 1999: Michael Black given a free transfer.  He had signed as a pro for Arsenal in July 1995 having won the Youth Cup in 1994 and played his one and only game for the club as a sub in the Champions League match away to Panathinaikos in December 1998.  Subsequently he played for Millwall, Tranmere, Southend, and then for a wide variety of non-league clubs.

30 June 2009: Amaury Bischoff and Rui Fonte left Arsenal while Luke Ayling, Craig Eastmond, Cedric Evina signed pro forms.  Bischoff was signed as “a gamble” because of his injury record and only made 1 appearance.  Rui Fonte did not make the first team appearance and signed for Sporting Lisbon but didn’t play for them either.

30 June 2009: Craig Eastmond signed pro forms, and went on to make 10 first-team appearances for Arsenal before being loaned to Colchester Utd on 27 September 2012.In 2015 he signed for Sutton United

30 June 2010: Luke Ayling transferred to Yeovil one year after signing professional forms with Arsenal.  After 162 games for Yeovil he moved on to Bristol City and won League One with them in 2014.  During the 2018–19 he played 42 games for Leeds United in the Championship and in February 2020 he was awarded the EFL Championship Player of the Month title

30 June 2010: Kerrea Gilbert transferred to Portland Timbers.  He was unable to obtain a visa to play in the US however, and ultimately signed for Yeovil and played for them 8 times.  He subsequently played for Shamrock Rovers, Maidenhead and St Albans City. 

30 June 2010: Jens Lehmann, the only player ever to go 42 games in a 1st Division or Premier League season unbeaten, retired as a player.  Although he did make a comeback – by chance.

30 June 2010: Jérémie Aliadière’s contract at Arsenal ended and he left as a free agent, but injured himself in pre-season training, and was left without a club and without being able to play.  He did however recover and went on to play for Lorient, and Umm Salal finishing his career back at Lorient in 2017.

30 June 2012: Manuel Almunia at the age of 35 was released by Arsenal and moved on first to West Ham and then to Watford for whom he played 76 league games in two seasons. His transfer is also reported as 30 July.

30 June 2013:  Andrey Arshavin released and transferred to Zenit for whom he had been on loan in 2011/12.   He retired in 2018 after playing 536 first class games.

30 June 2014:  Park Chu Young left Arsenal after just seven games in three years.  His transfer was one of the strangest in the history of the club and appeared to have as much to do with passport requirements as anything else.  (See link for details).

30 June 2015: The loans of a number of young Arsenal players expired, including Wellington Silva, Carl Jenkinson, Austin Lipman, Jon Toral, Ryo, Josh Vickers, Lukas Podolski, Yaya Sanogo, Joel Campbell, Semi Ajayi, Chuba Akpom and Jack Jebb

30 June 2017: Arsenal’s loan of Calum Chambers to Middlesbrough and Jack Wilshere to Bournemouth officially came to an end and the players joined the first team squad at Arsenal.

30 June 2017: Chris Willock joined Benfica upon the expiry of his contract, signing a five-year deal.  Sadly for him his decision to turn his back on Arsenal didn’t work out – he played 64 games for Benfica B, went on loan to WBA and didn’t play, and eventually ended up at QPR

30 June 2018: The loans of Takuma Asano, Marc Bola, and Emiliano Martínez to Stuggart, Bristol Rovers and Getaffe respectively, came to an end.

30 June 2019: Arsenal released a whole clutch of players: including Petr Cech (to Chelsea), Daley-Campbell, Gilmour, Lichsteiner, Pleguezuelo (to FC Twente), Ramsey (to Juventus), Spencer-Adams, and Danny Welbeck.

30 June 2020: The initial loan spell of Dani Ceballos Cédric Soares and Pablo Marí officially came to an end.   The loans for a number of other Arsenal players also came to an end including Jordi Osei Tutu at VfL Bochum, William Saliba at Saint Etienne, Henrick Mkhitaryan at AS Roma, Mo Elneny at Besiktas, Emile Smith Rowe at Huddersfield 

30 June 2021: Arsenal released Dani Ceballos, David Luiz, Leonie Maier, Martin Odegaard and Mat Ryan

 

30 June is quite a day in history including

1520 the king of the Aztecs Montezuma II is killed by Cortez

1884 the opening of Tower Bridge

1934 having been democratically elected Adolf Hitler eliminates all his political opponents

1938 the first Superman comic appeared

1960 Psycho opens in American cinemas

1997 the first Harry Potter book is published

1997 Hong Kong is handed over to the Chinese

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Note: The anniversary file pages have over time been split and split again as they have grown.  Please use the index below to find the month you want.

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The anniversaries file aims is the biggest database of Arsenal events ever produced.  However in trying to build it I always openly acknowledge that some of the details recorded here will be  wrong, and facts will be inaccurate and will need correcting, not least because information may be taken from inaccurate sources, or (in my specialist way) I may have made copying and typing errors.   So far over 250 people have contributed to the articles that make up the anniversary files, and if you can help us improve the data, please do either comment on an article (and I’ll correct the file itself), or write a new article for us. A correction and a citation of sources would be good however, rather than just saying “you’re wrong”.   A special mention as always must go to Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews, who helped with the early development of this site.   But whether you can add original research or corrections with the right data, or articles on people we have not yet covered, that will be very welcome indeed.

The dates in this file are being added to all the time, and come from a whole variety of sources including the internet and a variety of printed volumes.  If you notice an error please write to Tony@schools.co.uk – ideally with a correction and a note of your source.

I would particularly like to mention Richard Lerman and David Brown, and their wonderful (but now tragically out of print) volume The Gunners: Day to Day Life at Highbury”, which is a mine of information.     Also to “Arsenal On This Day” by Paul Donnelley (Pitch Publishing).  Also where would any of us be without “Arsenal a complete record” by Fred Ollier (Breedon Books), and “Arsenal the football facts” by Dean Hayes (John Blake).  If I have missed another sourcebook, please do let me know and I will correct this at once.

If you know of any anniversary dates not yet listed, please do write in and add them.   Not only are new dates being added at the rate of about half a dozen a day, but so are links being added to articles on this site.  It is intended to produce a book based on this site in due course – but the date gets put back as I find more and more info.

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