Below are today’s anniversaries including the anniversary of the extraordinary transfer of Overmars to Barcelona, which knocked up the amazing statistic of £4m a game.
You might also like to note that the Arsenal in the Summer series has itself now been updated to include seasons up to 2018 – you can find the latest articles listed under recent posts on the left hand side.
Here are today’s anniversaries…
28 July 1901: Bill Seddon born in Clapton and after playing junior football moved to Gillingham, and had an unsuccessful trial with Villa before coming to Arsenal in December 1924.
28 July 1920: The first ever women to serve on a jury in the Quarter Sessions (the Crown Court) were sworn in.
28 July 1937: There was an assassination attempt on King George VI in Belfast by the IRA.
28 July 1951: Ray Kennedy born. He was initially rejected by Stanley Matthews, when he was manager at Port Vale as an apprentice being told at the age of 16 that he was “too slow to be a footballer”.
28 July 1970: A pre-season friendly away to Gothenburg Alliance started the season
that no one who was there could ever forget. Arsenal won 4-2 with goals from George (2), McNab and Graham.
28 July 1972: David Price signed professional forms having joined Arsenal in 1970, and made his first team début aged 17 in the end-of-season game against Leeds on 9 May 1973.
28 July 1975: Arsenal had a 2-1 win over Notts County, Hornsby and Kidd getting the goals. Then, in a further sign of cutting back, and the decline in Arsenal’s esteem, rather than go to Europe, the club did a three match tour of Scotland.
28 July 1978: First game for goalkeeper Paul Barron (friendly v B. Dortmund) which Arsenal won 1-0. Barron came on as a sub for Pat Jennings.
28 July 1979: First game for John Hollins (friendly v Munich 1860). Hollins came on as a substitute for David Price in a 1-1 draw. It was noted that Macdonald was not playing, and indeed the following day he retired from football.
28 July 1989: Sigurður Jónsson known as Siggi signed from Sheffield Wednesday for £475,000 but his time with Arsenal was plagued with injury and he only made 8 appearance. He was subsequently voted one of the 10 top Icelandic players.
28 July 2000: Overmars and Petit signed for Barcelona. At €40.6 million Overmars was the most expensive Dutch player of all time but injuries inhibited his style and he rarely showed the quality that he had delivered at Arsenal. Including wages he cost Barcelona around £4,000,000 a game.
28 July 2002: Arsenal signed Gilberto Silva for just £4.5m. The low fee came because Atlético Mineiro had not paid their players, were banned from transfer deals, and there were problems getting the work permit despite the fact he went on to captain Brazil.
28 July 2008: In a knock about pre-season friendly against Burgenland XI, Bendtner scored four in the first half and Vela three in the second as Arsenal won 10-2
28 July 2009: Kolo Toure sold to Man City for £14m thus making Arsenal a profit of £13,850,000. He played 82 games for City before being transferred on to Liverpool on a free.
28 July 2014: Alex Forbes died. After finishing as a player he had worked with the coaching team at Arsenal training the reserves and A team, before emigrating to South Africa when he coached school children. He was the last survivor of the 1950 FA Cup team.
28 July 2014: Calum Chambers signed from Southampton for £16m. He came as a full back, but there was soon talk that he could also play central defender or defensive midfield. He played 23 times for Arsenal in his first season – more than in his entire Southampton career before this.
