If you follow the lives of ex-Arsenal players you will know of Thierry Henry’s managerial spell at Monaco which ended on 24 January this year with the club facing the possibility of relegation. What you might perhaps have missed is that the assistant manager at Monaco is another Arsenal man: Kwame Ampadu, who left Arsenal on this day in 1991. He is still at the club – at least as far as I know.
Here are the anniversaries. Details of our books are at the end…
5 June 1903: Fred Dwight signed. 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, the cause blamed 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
5 June 1919: A black man 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 black men took place. The police, rioters, and the media all blamed West Indian men for the trouble. The courts however blamed the obvious culprits: white mobs. Liverpool council and police force drew up a plan to house all black 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.
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.
Publications
“Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” and “Making the Arsenal” are now available as printed books, and on Kindle. Please see here for more details.
