AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
What can one say about this evening 23 years ago? Liverpool were on a sensational run of league victories: 1972–73, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90 11 championships in two decades – and having won the league in 1988 they undoubtedly expected to win it again in 1989. Compare this with …
Read More “The 23rd anniversary: 26 May 1989. Liverpool 0 Arsenal 2”
This is part of the continuing series of articles looking back at Arsenal from the perspective of the managers. There is an index to the series at “The Managers” – from which you will notice we still have a long way to go – but quite a bit has been written thus far. If you …
By Tony Attwood 4 May 2010. Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote denies moving to buy a 15.9% stake in Arsenal. It was a story that was all over the blogs and some of the newspapers – the shares in Arsenal that were up for sale (the Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith shares, or the Lady Penelope shares as …
Read More “24 May. Arsenal in Nigeria, and the return of something that never happened”
by Tony Attwood Steve Bould played as a professional football for 20 years, starting with his local club of Stoke City. After turning pro he went on loan to Torquay United (a club with which I have a special affinity, and so like to mention whenever I can) during which time the manager was Bruce …
By Tony Attwood OK, unless you are in Australia or somewhere like that, I am delivering 18 May anniversary news a day early (unless you are reading this on 18 May in which case I am spot on time). But I’m on holiday on the 18th for a few days, and I didn’t really want …
By Tony Attwood 16 May 1910 Following the collapse of Woolwich Arsenal’s attempts to launch a new share issue, and the widespread knowledge that the club was in such deep financial trouble that the League had demanded a meeting with them about next season, rumours began to circulate. Was the club about to fold? Was …
Read More “The anniversary files: how Rangers owned part of Arsenal – and then sold it”
14 May 1910 was a difficult moment for Arsenal. The club put out a new share issue, and … it failed. Share issues then as now had only a limited lifespan. If you did not complete the sale by the set date, the share issue fell, and the previous share issue still applied. On 14 …
The 12 May 1979 FA Cup Final is regarded, not just by Arsenal fans, as one of the great games and certainly one of the most exciting FA Cup Finals. For 85 minutes we played them off the park. It wasn’t sensational football – it was effective football with moments of fun and the enjoyment of …
Read More “Today’s Anniversary: we won the cup against Man U”
by Tony Attwood Pat Rice (who was born on 17 March 1949 and who has just left Arsenal, after a lifetime’s service), made his first-team début in the League Cup match against Burnley on December 5 1967. I believe that the game against Norwich last week is counted as his last match. An astonishing man, …
Read More “Pat Rice: a tribute from the Arsenal History Society”
By Tony Attwood It is late in the afternoon and I’ve only just had it pointed out to me (by a colleague on the committee of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association) that 10 May is Dennis Bergkamp’s birthday. He was born… 10 May 1969 Happy Birthday Dennis. I’ll add the date to the anniversary list, …
by Tony Attwood I am grateful to Uncle Mike for writing in and pointing out two anniversaries for May 8. Pressure of work and the like meant that I was not able to prepare a note at the start of the day about this, but better late than never. May 8 was the day on …
Read More “May 8 – a double anniversary – we win the League and the FA Cup”
7 May 2003 The start of Arsenal’s 49 games without defeat. We had, as I recall, just lost the chance of winning the league through draw away to Bolton and an unexpected home defeat to Leeds a couple of days before. On the walk up to Highbury for the Leeds game tickets from the touts …
Read More “7 May 2003. The most wonderful moment in the history of Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood Continuing the occasional series about life under Terry Neill. Bertie Mee went into his final season of 1975/76 with this team: Rimmer Rice Mancini O’Leary Nelson Kelly Brady Cropley Armstrong Hornsby Kidd After a while the team changed a bit and Ball, Stapleton and Ross became regulars. But it was a highly …
Read More “The end of Bertie Mee and the start of Terry Neill’s era”
By Tony Attwood 4 May 1994 – Arsenal won the EUFA Cup Winners Cup by beating Parma 1-0. Parma were the defending champions having beaten Antwerp the previous season, and were trying to be the first team to retain the trophy. The game was held at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, which had opened in …
Read More “Arsenal Anniversaries: 4 May 1994, we win the Cup winners Cup”
By Tony Attwood Returning to the theme of last weekend, here is the analysis of the number of top 4 finishes achieved by managers against the number of games the managers were in charge for. As mentioned before the “top four” notion is arbitrary, as are all other measurements – but it gives a reasonable …
Read More “The search for Arsenal’s most successful manager”
We’re building a list of anniversaries of the club. It is quite interesting that as we are in the 125th year of the club, and approaching the 100th anniversary of the move to Highbury, there is no big list of anniversaries available, so clearly this is something to be set up. Our list has …
Read More “The Anniversaries of Arsenal (please help us build the list)”
By Tony Attwood With each of the articles on managers in this long-running series I have tried to do a little summary of their achievements. But I felt that before I went further with Terry Neil it would be good to have an overall summary of all Arsenal managers. The table of Arsenal management and …
Read More “Arsenal’s managers analysed by history, games and success”
By Tony Attwood We have been building up a series of files on Arsenal managers and recently did some work on Bertie Mee. Bertie Mee reigned until his resignation at the end of the 1975/76 season. The side that had contested five cup finals in five years, had won the club’s first ever European trophy, …
Read More “The Terry Neill Years: three cup finals a 3rd and two 4ths”
By Tony Attwood I have been writing about Bertie Mee and his players – but there is another issue that I would like to cover. Indeed I would say I have been rather remiss in not covering this in earlier eras that we have looked at, and I hope to go back and make up …
Read More “The flavour of football 1973: fights, bookings, and the end of civilisation”
——————- Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football. New info on publication date. Updated information here When Arsenal and Fulham were within moments of merging into one club… full details in “Making the Arsenal” ——————————— By Tony Attwood So far in this series on Bertie Mee’s years at Arsenal we have looked at the players …
Read More “The players he let go and the signings that Bertie made”
By Tony Attwood This article was written with a few games to go in the 2011/12 season. Now we know Arsenal finished 3rd, Tottenham 4th this season, and Chelsea… well, Chelsea… Anyway, here’s the record and in due course I’ll add the extra line to show this season… ——- The issue of beating Tottenham in …
Read More “When was the last time Tottenham finished above Arsenal?”
By Tony Attwood Peter Edwin Storey was one of the key players in the Mee era – he came into the first team a year before Mee arrived and left a year after Mee met. He is a man who, perhaps almost more than anyone else in the team, I would want to say thank …
Read More “Peter Storey: the man to whom I would most like to say thank you.”
Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football. New info on publication date. Updated information here When Arsenal and Fulham were within moments of merging into one club… full details in “Making the Arsenal” ——————— By Tony Attwood Frank McLintock, our player of the year, and footballer of the year, during the Double season, was brought …
Read More “Frank McLintock; brought in by Wright after success at Leicester”
—————– By Tony Attwood John Radford was born in Yorkshire in 1947 and played 475 league and cup games between 1964 and 1976 for Arsenal, scoring 149 goals. After that he went on to West Ham where he played 28 and scored none, and then had one season with Blackburn where he played 38 and …
Read More “John Radford: signed by Wright but developed by Mee.”
By Tony Attwood Peter Simpson is another of our long serving players who hit gold during the brief period of the Mee era when we won three trophies. In terms of league football, he was an Arsenal man throughout, and his only other clubs were in America, and Hendon. Here’s the record – effectively …
Read More “Peter Simpson, one club, three managers, unusual loans and gaps…”
