That first Emery signing was not an event to rouse excitement among supporters or the media – it was Stephan Lichtsteiner. He left Arsenal after one year having played 14 times for the club, and moved on to Augsburg, where he has since played 17 games.
This is also the anniversary of an event which it is hard to believe happened in England just 101 years ago. It is not a football event but at a time when many people are horrified by the attitude of some white police officers in the United States towards black men it is worth remembering that just 101 years ago on this day in England that mobs took over the streets of Liverpool looking for black men to attack while 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. Fortunately the government stepped in and stopped the Liverpool scheme.
Here are the anniversaries…
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 could sort out recruitment where they had failed.
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 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.
