AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Ray Daniel war born in Swansea on 2 November 1928and died 6 November 1997. He started at his local club Swansea Town and in 1946, as clubs started to get themselves together for the first post-war championship he was signed by Arsenal. He elder brother had also played for Arsenal and died in the …
Read More “Ray Daniel, the man who left Arsenal for an illegal opportunity”
Lee Harper was perhaps the most curious signing of George Graham – or maybe George Graham saw something in the goal keeper that no one else could see. Here is his Arsenal career in brief: He was signed by Graham in June 1994and cost the club £150,000 – apparently one of the biggest fees paid …
Read More “Lee Harper – the Arsenal keeper who never let in a goal”
Jovan “John” Lukic was born on 11 December 1960 who played for two spells with Leeds and two spells with Arsenal playing 668 league games in total, across four decades. He was also an England under 21 and England B international. He played first for Leeds as a schoolboy and then started with the first …
Read More “John Lukic shares a remarkable record with Stanley Matthews, Shilton and Ogrizovic”
This article is based on the more detailed approach provided in “Woolwich Arsenal: the club that changed football” Everyone who was involved in professional football in 1910 knew one thing: Woolwich Arsenal FC were in severe financial trouble. The white knight who had so often ridden in and save them in the past, George Leavey, …
Read More “13 June: The day Arsenal came within five minutes of extinction”
Ian Buchanan McPherson was born 26 July 1920 and died in St Albans in March 1983). He is one of those Arsenal players who tends to be forgotten despite his vital contribution to one of the club’s league winning sides. Indeed he does not even warrant any text on Arsenal.com. He started with Rangers but …
11 June is the day Herbert Chapman signed for Arsenal and became the manager that started our road to glory. As you might expect, the Arsenal History Society site has a mass of articles about the great man – and we ourselves have done a little somethng to help commemorate Mr Chapman, for it was …
Jumpers for Chapman’s Iconic Kit Design By Mark Andrews (@RoyalArsenalMRA) and Andy Kelly (@Gooner_AK) Recently, Andy and myself had a long chat with Patrick Barclay about Arsenal stories for his impending and eagerly awaited new book on the greatest manager of all time: Herbert Chapman. One of the topics we discussed was the change of the shirt design from red …
Read More “Jumpers for Goalposts…No! Jumpers for Chapman’s Iconic Kit Design”
By Tony Attwood Alexander “Alex” Manninger was born 4 June 1977 and has one of the most extraordinary histories in modern football I have ever seen. So odd is his story that I have no idea which bits are right, not least because I am having trouble with Alex’ basic appearance figures for Arsenal as …
Robert Hewitt “Bobby” Gould was born 12 June 1946 and started his football career with Coventry City – his home town, playing for them at the age of 16. He offered great potential by scoring 40 goals in 82 games, and helping with the winning the second division in 1966/7. On the basis of such …
The heart of our work at the moment is to expand the Anniversary section of the site – although we are also interested in continuing to develop the Arsenal Managers section. Arsenal manager by manager. Arsenal’s anniversaries. If you know of an anniversary that we have missed or which we have not yet written up, …
Read More “Do you know your Arsenal history? Would you like to contribute to this site?”
Norman William Sidey was born 31 May 1907 joined Arsenal as an amateur from Nunhead (in the Isthmian League) in March 1929 before turning professional two years later in February 1931. He was a midfield player and made his début in playing at number 4 on December 27 1932 in a 0-0 draw with Leeds. …
Alexander Rooney Forbes (known as Red) was born 21 January 1925 in Dundee. He initially played for Dundee North End, and then after the war ended moved to Sheffield United. He played his first game for Scotland, against England,on 12 April 1947. However he had appendicitis and did not seem to make a full recovery initially …
Martin Hayes was born 21 March 1966 in Walthamstow Having played schoolboy football he joined Arsenal as an apprentice in 1982 and played centre forward and left wing. His first game in the first team was against Oxford United on16 November 1985 aged 19. It may be a reason for what happened latter, for Martin …
By Tony Attwood John James Rimmer known as Jimmy, was born in Southport on 10 February 1948. He joined Manchester United on schoolboy forms in 1963 and became a professional for the club in 1965. He stayed at Manchester United for nine seasons as second keeper to Alex Stepney, appearing 34 times in the league …
27 May anniversaries 27 May 1933: Alex Wilson purchased from Greenock Morton 27 May 1948: Doug Lishman signed from Walsall for £10,500 27 May 1953: Final game for Freddie Cox DFC 27 May 1973: Final game for Peter Marinello 27 May 1998: Ian Wright and Martin Keown play for England 27 May 1998: Remi Garde …
By Tony Attwood, Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews 26 May 1913 is a most important date in our “ISLINGTON 100” series – the series that tells of Arsenal’s move to north London – which will culminate with the 100th anniversary of the first match at Highbury in September 2013. An important date since it was …
Read More “Tottenham’s demand for anti-Arsenal League EGM, defeated: 26 May 1913”
Joe Wade was born 7 July 1921 in Shoreditch and joined Arsenal as an amateur in 1944 – while Britain was still at war. He was in the RAF at the time and based near Hereford, and also played for them during the war years. He is also listed as playing for Hoxton. He played …
Ernest Williamson (generally known as Tim) was born 24 May 1890 in County Durham Durham. Tim Williamson began his career at local sides such as Murton Red Star, and Wingate Albion before joining Croydon Common of the Southern League in 1913. During the first world war he was in the Royal Army Service Corps and …
By Tony Attwood (written 23 May 2013) Tomáš Rosický will be 33 within three months of the start of the 2013/14 season – and as the story goes Mr Wenger does not retain players over 30 years of age. Except of course he does, on occasion, and watching Arsenal in the 2012/13 season with Rosický …
This article by Tony Attwood was updated 26 January 2017 with pictures kindly supplied by Martin Levy. Jimmy Brain was born on 11 September 1900 in Bristol, and played for Ton Pentre having worked previously as a coal miner. In 1923 he was sold to Arsenal. The table below shows his league record, …
by Andy Kelly (@Gooner_AK) Ingrained within the heritage of The Arsenal is the long standing latin motto “Victoria Concordia Crescit”. Over the years there have been a number of variations of the translation but all are roughly the same: “Victory Grows Through Harmony.” But when was this motto first attributed to The Arsenal, and why? …
Danny O’Shea was born on 26 March 1963 and played six league games for Arsenal in the 1982/3 season – Terry Neil’s last full season in charge. As that is all I knew of him before starting this little delve into the archives I was rather amazed to find that he actually made 461 football …
Read More “Danny O’Shea – just 9 games with Arsenal, but success in lower leagues”
John McClelland (also known as Jack) was born 19 May 1940 and tragically died on 15 March 1976 at the age of 35 and played for Arsenal as a goalkeeper for four seasons. He was also an international for N Ireland gaining six caps. The names of John and Jack are confusing simply because there …
Read More “John (Jack) McClelland; one major season for Arsenal.”
David O’Leary was born 2 May 1958 and is Arsenal’s all time top appearance man. He signed as an apprentice for Arsenal in 1973 and played for the reserves from the age of 16, playing his first game for the first team on 16 August 1975, aged 17. Twenty years later, on 17 May 1993 …
Read More “David O’Leary remembered on the anniversary of his farewell game.”
By Tony Attwood The FA Cup Final of 1993 is one I particularly remember, having been there (which always helps the memory). It was played in the days when Wembley was, to my mind, a horrible, grotty ground where, as I recall, we sat on bench seats that had been put on the original terraces, …
Read More “15 May 1993: Arsenal v Sheffield W in the FA Cup”
