AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
On this day in 1913 Arsenal finally gained possession of the Gillespie Road site which became Arsenal Stadium – universally known as “Highbury”. Arsenal however didn’t own the ground; they had simply acquired a full repairing lease, meaning that they could do pretty much what they liked with the area (except sell alcohol therein) but …
Read More “The gamble of Arsenal’s move to Highbury – a success from Day One.”
Here are the Arsenal anniversaries for today. The list of Anniversaries for all of July can be found here. There is a separate file for the anniversaries for each month of the year adding up to a total of over 7000 entries – just take a look at the right hand column of the page and …
Here are the Arsenal anniversaries for today. The list of Anniversaries for all of July can be found here. There is a separate file for the anniversaries for each month of the year adding up to a total of over 7000 entries – just take a look at the right hand column of the page …
Read More “Arsenal anniversaries on 26 June, from Neill to Gould, from Nasri to Denilson”
It is interesting how the commentaries of writers in past years are so often taken as being documentary proof of what happened, when in fact those who write about football in the past, often end up taking just one writer as their source of evidence. In other historical contexts this doesn’t happen, as researchers seek …
Read More “The truth about Chapman’s centre half revolution”
The 1950 world cup began on this day, and as you can read in the summary below, it was a total farce. One might have hoped that after this fiasco Fifa could have started to get things sorted out, but it seems not. At the moment of writing today’s anniversary page we find that Infantino, …
Read More “The fiasco of the 1950 world cup, and a few problems for the 2022 finals.”
Today is Patrick Vieira’s birthday. Here’s part of what Wiki says about him… Regarded by pundits as one of the best players ever in his position, Vieira was a complete, powerful, tenacious and aggressive footballer, with outstanding physical, athletic and technical attributes, who was also known for his grace on the pitch when in possession …
Read More “The very curious signing and first appearance of Patrick Vieira”
Many of the supporters I have talked with about the development of the Arsenal anniversary files have told me that on finding the whole set of 7000+ anniversaries on this set the first thing they have done is look to see what happened on their birthday. And I think of this because today, by chance, …
Read More “What happened to Arsenal on your birthday? Here is the data for 22 June”
When the wonderful Dennis Bergkamp arrived on this day in 1995 he obviously had no notion what was going to happen. His life in Italy had been miserable, as the media had regularly made fun on him and his alleged inability to get through a match without making a howler. In his first season at …
Read More “Celebrating the anniversary of Dennis Bergkamp’s arrival at Highbury”
Bertie Mee became manager on Arsenal on this day in 1966, and was in charge of Arsenal for 539 games of which his team won 241; a win percentage of 44.71%. Worse than Terry Neill and Don Howe, although better than Billy Wright. Of course what he is remembered for is ending the drought of …
On this day two years ago, Bernd Leno signed a five-year contract with Arsenal having played 233 games for Bayer Leverkusen between 2011 and 2018. He played his first game in a 4-2 win against Vorskla Poltava in the Europa League and his Premier League debut in the 2–0 home victory over Watford, replacing Petr Čech, who picked …
Read More “Two years ago today Bernd Leno signed for Arsenal”
One of the most intriguing elements of Arsenal’s history, is the exact nature of Henry Norris – the man who paid off all of Arsenal’s debts in 1910, moved them to Highbury (with himself, having paid off all those debts now guaranteeing all the costs of the development of the new ground) and eventually brought …
Read More “Arsenal’s history: can we really believe all the evidence?”
The Woolwich Arsenal managers Woolwich Arsenal had only three long term managers, Bradshaw, Kelso and Morrell. Before that they had short term holders of the post, and the further we go back the more we get towards managers who were more orientated towards the Committee that ran the club, sitting alongside the Secretary and Chairman, …
Read More “William Elcoat: an update on the Woolwich Arsenal manager”
By Tony Attwood Quite often the significance of an event in Arsenal’s history does not become apparent until many years later, although quite clearly today’s return of the Premier League after 100 days’ absence is going to be written into our anniversary files for this day from now on. And it is interesting from an …
Read More “Arsenal shares now worth 20,000 times what they were sold for when first offered”
86 years ago Arsenal took over Margate FC, to create the first feeder club in the country. Over time the FA instituted a number of rule changes which made the idea far less attractive, but not before many other clubs had copied Arsenal’s lead. After nursery clubs were completely forbidden the idea was replicated on …
An audience with Mark Pougatch – live tonight Arsenal Independent Supporters Association (AISA), is inviting all its members to an audience with Mark Pougatch tonight (15 June). Mark Pougatch, the TV and radio football broadcast journalist is also an Arsenal fan, and has agreed to join us for an evening of chat and reflection. The …
Read More “On this day 95 years ago, Arsenal finally bought Highbury.”
Six years ago on this day, the Hill-Wood dynasty at Arsenal came to an end. It was Sir Samuel Hill Wood who ousted Sir Henry Norris 5 March 1920: Sir Henry Norris was very active in Parliament working to stop bent bookmakers using football as a way of offering ludicrous odds to the detriment of punters. …
Read More “On this day Arsenal’s longest dynasty came to an end…”
Our regular summary of today’s anniversaries is below but first…. An audience with Mark Pougatch – live Arsenal Independent Supporters Association (AISA), which I have mentioned many a time before as I am a member, is inviting all its members to an audience with Mark Pougatch. Mark Pougatch, the TV and radio football broadcast journalist …
Read More “When Arsenal were within five minutes of going bust; one man saved them.”
The event Normally I drop straight into a review of the anniversaries, but something a little different today as the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association (AISA) is inviting all its members to an audience with Mark Pougatch. Mark Pougatch, the TV and radio football broadcast journalist is also an Arsenal fan, and has agreed to join …
Read More “An audience with Mark Pougatch – live, plus today’s anniversaries”
It is interesting that 100 years ago today the British House of Commons gave the third reading to a law to control gambling on football matches – a law introduced by Arsenal chairman and MP for Fulham, Sir Henry Norris. And yet here we are exactly 100 years later with there still being much gnashing …
Read More “100 years ago to the day the Arsenal chairman moved to stop gambling on football”
Last night Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association (AISA) had one of its regular “pub quiz” nights, held on line. (Our new website will open very shortly, and I’ll give you the link to that when it happens). There were six rounds of five questions each, with a splendid time had by all. Here are the five …
Read More “The Arsenal History quiz questions from last night’s Zoom quiz, plus the anniversaries”
Today 9 June the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association, of which the Arsenal History Society is part, is holding one of its regular on line quizzes for members. If you are a member you should have received an invite to tonight’s event – and as ever the quiz will kick off with a history quiz. We’ll …
Read More “Martin Keown comings and goings, and the day’s anniversaries”
The story of Carl Jenkinson’s terrible injury problems are well known, and in 2018/19 he saw out the end of his contract with Arsenal. Under Unai Emery, Jenkinson made eight appearances across all competitions. On 27 February 2019 he started his first Premier League match for Arsenal in 830 days, playing the full 90 minutes …
The Football League did not come out of the match fixing scandals of the early 20th century very well. They had initially refused to accept the possibility that match fixing could be taking place and threatened anyone who mentioned the possibility of a lifetime ban from football. And then when they were finally forced to …
Read More “How the League refused to acknowledge that directors could be involved in match fixing”
It was the research that was undertaken for the writing of the book “Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” that revealed the previously lost story of Royal Arsenal splitting in two, over a dispute as to who should run the club and whether players should be paid. From its earliest days the club had …
That first Emery signing was not an event to rouse excitement among supporters or the media – it was Stephan Lichtsteiner. He left Arsenal after one year having played 14 times for the club, and moved on to Augsburg, where he has since played 17 games. This is also the anniversary of an event which …
Read More “The anniversary of Unai Emery’s first Arsenal signing”
