Edward John Paul McGoldrick known as Eddie was born in Islington 30 April 1965 (although he played for the Republic of Ireland) and is one of the continuing line of people from Herbert Chapman onwards who has been involved with clubs in Northamptonshire and with Arsenal (you will recall Chapman’s first managerial post was with Northampton. Indeed as I write this in 2013 Eddie is youth team manager of Northampton Town which gives him quite an involvement in sporting events in general looking out for the right players etc
Eddie’s earliest clubs were in and around Northants – starting at Kettering, moving to Nuneaton, and then winning the fourth division with Northampton in 1987.
He then went to Crystal Palace where he played alongside Ian Wright and won promotion with the club to the first division, via the play off final of 1989 (while Arsenal were engaged in a minor matter elsewhere.) This was the golden era at the Palace. They played in the FA Cup Final of 1990 (although Eddie was not selected) and came third in the top division in 1991 – when of course Arsenal won the league, 14 points ahead of them. Liverpool were second.
League App | Goals | ||
1981-1985 | Kettering Town | 110 | 9 |
1985-1986 | Nuneaton Borough | ||
1986-1988 | Northampton Town | 107 | 9 |
1988-1993 | Crystal Palace | 147 | 11 |
1993-1996 | Arsenal | 57 | 1 |
1996-1999 | Manchester City | 39 | 1 |
In 1991/2 Palace dropped to mid-table and the following season they were relegated, losing out on goal difference to Oldham Athletic. Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough went down with them.
Thus it was that on June 18 1993 Eddie signed for Arsenal for £1m (Lerman and Brown) or £850,000 (Arsenal.com), returning to play alongside Ian Wright once again, and playing his first game in the charity shield against Man U on 7 August 1993.
He was a sub in the Cup Winners Cup final win over Parma but after that gradually faded away from contention. His one and only goal for the club came in Arsenal’s record away victory at Standard Liege in 1993 – where we won 0-7 in the 1993/94 Cup Winners’ Cup campaign.
League App | Subs App | |
1993-4 | 23 | 3 |
1994-5 | 9 | 2 |
1995-6 | 0 | 1 |
After Arsenal he went to Man City, first as a loan then permanently, for £300,000 – the only signing by Steve Coppell at the club (who was their manager for 32 days).
He went on loan to Stockport, and his career at the top level was over. He returned to Northants for a short period as commercial manager and then as player manager of Corby Town and in 2008 became youth team manager with Northampton Town, which means getting to see a wide range of games. He is also involved in fund raising in relation to campaigns supported by Crystal Palace, and there is an interesting local paper article on one such event here.