AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Matthew James Upson was born in Suffolk on 18 April 1979 and we were reminded of him once again following an atrocious tackle on Alexis Sanchez on 10 February 2015 in a Premier League match, while Upson was playing for Leicester. He came up through the Ipswich Academy to Luton Town for whom he played just …
David Reno Bacuzzi was born in Islington 12 October 1940 into a family that had Italian connections on his father’s side. His father became a footballer playing for Fulham and played a war time international for England. Dave was one of the first players brought into Arsenal by Ron Greenwood and he came as a trainee …
Read More “Dave Bacuzzi: Arsenal right back who took an amateur team into the Cup Winners Cup.”
10 stories the press probably won’t mention, and one that they might. In the build up to the Tottenham v Arsenal game on 7 February 2015 the English press has got very excited talking about the best players to play in the match, the best players in each team, and so on. Quite a contrast …
By Tony Attwood Royal Arsenal played their first ever FA Cup match against Lyndhurst on 5 October 1889 and I’ve covered the story before – and that earlier report has details of the team. I won’t go over all the issues from that article, but there was a debate therein as to which Lyndhurst FC Arsenal …
Alfred Edward Haynes (known as Alf) has been mentioned in passing before, both in terms of how he missed the notorious Walsall match (he played in the reserves that day and so missed out on the subsequent Chapman cull) and how he had one season of playing at number 4 for Chapman but an email from …
The January file of data that will ultimately be turned into chronological order to create the new volume “Arsenal: the Chronology” has now been updated once again, thanks to the help and support of many readers of the blog. You can find the new edition here. There’s still plenty of time to send in corrections …
By Tony Attwood In December 1957 Ron Greenwood became assistant coach at Arsenal, having been a coach at Eastbourne United, and stayed in the post under April 1961 when he replaced Ted Fenton as manager of West Ham. During this time he also coached the England under 23 team, having been spotted by Sir Harold …
Read More “Ron Greenwood at the Arsenal: was he the cause of the failure from 1958 to 1961?”
By Tony Attwood Reuben John “Ben” Marden was born on 10 Feb 1927. He was an outside left and joined Arsenal from Chelmsford City in 1950 and over a five year spell (spent mostly in the reserves) played 42 games for Arsenal scoring 11. Season Games Goals 1950/51 11 2 1951/2 7 2 1952/3 8 4 …
Read More “Ben Marden: league winner and star of our triumph at Anfield”
My colleagues and I at the Arsenal History Society need some help with our new book “Arsenal: the Chronology”. The rewards are not great (I’ll be open and say that from the start) but even so, I’m hoping you might want to join in. I’m currently revising the data that we have for each month, …
Read More ““Arsenal: The Chronology” needs researchers. Can you help?”
1. As we found in the last quiz, Arsenal were directly implicated in the development of transfers and the introduction of the retain & transfer system in 1893. But the new system quickly got out of control. On 1 January 1908 a new maximum for transfer fees was introduced. What was it? a) £350 …
Read More “January 1 and January 2. The answers to the quiz”
By Tony Attwood In the near future we’ll be publishing “Arsenal: the Chronology” – a book of over 4500 major events that have defined Arsenal across the years. Looking at the book it turns out that the opening days of the year have been quite significant for Arsenal’s history. Here are a few from …
Read More “In the first 2 days of January: the Arsenal quiz (and its easier this time)”
By Tony Attwood 10 consecutive league games without a win. In eight of those games Arsenal failed to score. In the other two games Arsenal got one goal, in each. It wasn’t Arsenal’s worst ever run – that was in 1977 and was 11 without a win, including seven consecutive defeats under Terry Neill. But …
Read More “1987 – the trophy, the awful games, the modest signings”
Jackie Henderson – the key dates 17 January 1932: Jackie Henderson born 6 May 1953: Jackie Henderson’s first international cap 3 October 1958: Jackie Henderson signed from Wolverhampton for £17,500 4 October 1958: One day after signing Jackie Henderson makes his Arsenal debut v WBA where he scored twice as Arsenal beat WBA 4–3 at …
Read More “Jackie Henderson: the Arsenal man who moved to my village”
16 January 1976 Gavin McGowan born in Blackheath 6 May 1993: Sheffield W 1 Arsenal 0. First game for Gavin McGowan and Scott Marshall – the last in a run of five without a win. ? May 1994: Gavin played in the FA Youth Cup final v Millwall held over two legs Arsenal winning 5-3 overall. 21 …
Read More “Gavin McGowan. One of the talents defeated by injury”
Matthew Thomas Martin Connolly was born on 24 September 1987 in Barnet, and joined Arsenal Academy, graduating through the academy teams, becoming captain of the senior academy team, and then moving into the League Cup team for whom he played on 24 October 2006, in the match against West Brom. Having made his breakthrough on 23 November …
Read More “Matthew Connolly: Arsenal academy man who won the Championship 3 times.”
Today’s stories from the Arsenal Anniversary Files 27 December 1902: Arsenal start their record breaking 10 match unbeaten run with 5-1 home defeat of Burnley 27 December 1904, Nottingham Forest (away). One of five games in eight days. We won two of the five including this one (0-3) but lost our next three without scoring a goal, …
Read More “27 December: from the man who saved the stadium to the man who saved the season”
By Tony Attwood Albert Sigurður Guðmundsson is said to have been the first ever Icelandic professional footballer, and he included in his varied footballing career a couple of league games for Arsenal, as well as playing in France and Italy. He was born on 5 October 1923 and is first found playing for Valurootball Club of …
Read More “The Arsenal player who became Minister of Finance and stood for President”
By Tony Attwood The fact that we know so little about Henry Edward King is an absolute tragedy of overwhelming proportions. For he was a true hero of Arsenal, scoring 26 goals in 37 league games in one season. He also scored the first ever hat trick at Highbury on 14 November 1914 and undoubtedly …
Read More “Harry King – our greatest hat trick scorer of them all”
23 December 2000 Liverpool 4 Arsenal 0 By Tony Attwood There is a tendency in the season 2014/15 to imagine that when the great players of the Invincibles era played together, Arsenal always won, or at the very least, did well. Put out a team including Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira, Dixon, Keown, Parlour, Ljungberg, then even if …
Read More “When Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira played we could still lose 4-0”
9 April 2004: Arsenal come back from 2-1 down to beat Liverpool 4-2 in the 31st league game of the unbeaten season. Henry scores a hat trick It was the moment when all the press turned out in order to knock Arsenal and their “pretentiousness” of thinking they could win the league without …
Read More “The Unbeaten Season: Henry hat trick destroys Liverpool”
Laurie Brown – one of the few players who played for Arsenal and Tottenham, and indeed surely the only player who signed for Tottenham from Arsenal and then played for Tottenham against Arsenal the next day. Plus a player who played in two of the most memorable Arsenal – Tottenham matches of the 1960s. So, …
Read More “From Arsenal to playing for Tottenham v Arsenal, in one day.”
By Tony Attwood The trouble with looking into the lives of players no longer with us is that quite often you find the same story in several places, but with no source and no verification, repeated on site after site. And just because it is there, does not make it true. So we have …
Read More “George Curtis: the Arsenal player who managed Norway”
Don Roper: the key dates… 14 December 1922 Don Roper born in Botey, Hampshire 11 August 1947: Dan Roper signs from Southampton (See background article here) 23 August 1947: League Debut for Archie Macauley and Don Roper. Arsenal 3 Sunderland 1. 4 September 1956: Final Arsenal match for Don Roper 8 January 1957: Don Roper …
David Nelson: the vital dates… 3 February 1918 David Nelson born, Douglas Water, Scotland ?May 1936: David Nelson joins Arsenal (exact date unknown) 28 December 1936: David Nelson’s first game, a 3-1 win over Preston 9 November 1946: David Nelson last match Preston 2 Arsenal 0 12 December 1946: David Nelson and Cyril Grant to …
Read More “David Nelson, an Arsenal career interrupted by war”
Here are the key dates for Alex Mackie’s footballing career 23 February 1903: John Mackie born in Co Antrim 10 February 1922: John Mackie signed from Forth River Belfast and the infamous monkey incident 9 December 1922: First league game for John Mackie 14 April 1923: Mackie plays his first international for Ireland against Wales …
Read More “Ending the story about Alex Mackie – the man who didn’t demand a monkey for signing on.”
