On the day David O’Leary turned professional: all the Arsenal anniversaries & videos

We’ve updated the index of videos on the site, and there are now 295 videos we have gathered commemorating events on individual days are to be found via this link. In addition to those 295 we are also developing our video collection series in which we are gathering together the best videos we have against each club we have played in recent years – and adding some new ones to the list as we go. Here is the list of clubs covered so far… the latest addition is Manchester City

Today’s Arsenal anniversaries are published below. We don’t have a video for this day but another collection from a particular club will go up shortly.

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100 Years in the First Division: the absolute complete story of Arsenal’s promotion in 1919.

Here are the anniversaries

8 July 1970: David Court sold to Luton Town having missed out on the Fairs Cup final games through injury. He played 168 league games for Arsenal, and in 1996 he returned to Arsenal as head of youth development where he stayed until his retirement.

8 July 1971: Don Howe left Arsenal to manage WBA. The move was not a success and WBA were relegated in 1973. Don moved on to Leeds and to Galatasaray, before coming back to Arsenal in 1977 as coach with Terry Neil as manager.

8 July 1975: David O’Leary became a full professional. He played his first game in the league aged 17, and went on to play 27 games in 1975/6, his first season.

8 July 1977: Wilf Rostron moved to Sunderland. He had played 17 league games for Arsenal and scored two goals. In all he played nearly 500 league games, including 317 for Watford. After ending his playing career he spent a few years in management before leaving football in 1994. Thereafter Wilf worked for a furniture company. He later went on to establish his own furniture business

8 July 1990: Anders Limpar signed from Cremonese. He played 94 league games in a four year spell at Arsenal, before moving on to Everton. He later won the Swedish league with AIK. After retiring in 2000 he went into coaching and then business.

8 July 1997: St Albans 1 Arsenal 4. The first friendly in what was to be the second Double season. The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

8 July 1999: Kaba Diawara sold to Marseilles after just 12 games. He played for 17 different clubs but never more than the 60 games, but he did win the league with Bordeaux. He retired in 2011 and moved on to be pundit with Canal +

8 July 1999: After loan spells with Brentford and Millwall, Under 15 international Michael Black transferred to Tranmere on a free. In 2011 he dropped into non-league football playing for eight different clubs before retiring in 2009.

8 July 2002: Pascal Cygan joined from Lille for whom he had played 179 league games. He played 98 matches for Arsenal (including 20 games in the Champions League). He retired from professional football in 2011 after two years with Cartegena of the Spanish second division.

8 July 2006: Sol Campbell confirmed his departure from Arsenal after 135 games. He moved on to Portsmouth, where he played another 95 league games. In 2009/10 he returned to Arsenal once more for a further 11 games. He was assistant manager of the Trinidad and Tobago national team and then Macclesfield. He moved on to be manager of Southend United but left before the end of the 2019/20 season.

8 July 2018: Greek central defender Sokratis joined the club from Borussia Dortmund for £14.8 million. He played 25 league games for Arsenal in his first season.

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