AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
On 13 June 2014, David Bentley announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 29, having failed to find a team who would sign him since being loaned by Tottenham to Blackburn the year before, where he had played five matches. In an interview he called modern football “robotic” blaming the influence of …
After playing 225 games for Arsenal and scoring nine goals Kolo left the club in 2009 and played for Manchester 82 times until he moved on to Liverpool in 2013 and finally Celtic for the 2016/17 season in which he played 20 games under his former manager Brendan Rodgers. He was thus part of the …
After Kanu left Arsenal he played 53 times for WBA and then between 200 and 2012 he played 143 games for Portsmouth. In return Portsmouth failed to pay him, and ended up owing him £3m. The debt was never paid. After that Kanu became a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador and brand ambassador in Africa for the …
Benik Afobe – whose birthday it is today – was registered with Arsenal from 2010 to 2015, but never played for the first team. He had loans with Huddersfield, Reading, Bolton, Millwall, Sheffield Wednesday and MK Dons before signing for Wolverhampton (scoring 22 goals in 46 games), and later Bournemouth and most recently Stoke – …
On this day in 2013 Andre Santos was loaned out to Gremio after finding himself just the latest in a long string of players against whom some in the Arsenal crowd had turned. Despite playing 24 times for Brazil he was deemed by some as unsuitable for Arsenal after he had been seen swapping shirts …
On this day in 2001 Arsenal found themselves having been criticised for having no ambition (having sold Anelka, Overmars and Petit for £55m) but were clear at the top of the league. Unfortunately, they lost the next game 6-1 to Manchester United and finished the season in second, with widespread reports that they were not …
Read More “Why it’s never good to judge a club on just one result or a set of player sales”
Kyle Bartley never played for Arsenal’s first team but had loan spells with Sheffield United and Rangers before moving on to Swansea City on 16 August 2012 for £1 million. On 2 July 2013, Bartley agreed a season-long loan move to Birmingham City. The loan was ended the following January after he had played …
Johann Djourou was always a reserve player at Arsenal and in his ten years registered with the club only made 86 first team appearances. After loans to Hannover (January 2013) and Hamburger SV (1 July 2013) and in April 2014, Hamburg confirmed that they had signed Djourou on a permanent deal He played 74 times …
On 7 February 2019, goalkeeper James Hillson from Reading was brought into Arsenal on loan for the rest of the season from Reading as cover in goal for their Under-18 team after losing Karl Hein to injury. This came after Arsenal had to use 15-year-old Hubert Graczyk as a substitute for the FA Youth Cup …
Clem Voysey was an Arsenal player who was endlessly tracked by the Football Association who were desperate to show that there was something amiss with his signing by Arsenal. Not because they disliked the player, but because he was signed while Henry Norris was at the club. In fact not only was nothing ever proven, …
After playing for Roma and LA Galaxy on 21 January 2019, Cole joined Derby County then managed by Frank Lampard. He was released at the end of the season and on 18 August 2019 announced his retirement. Among his many other achievements, on 27 February 2011, Cole shot a 21-year-old student on work experience …
On 4 July 2012, Van Persie announced that he would not be signing a new contract with Arsenal claiming that inner voices in his head had told him to sign for Man U. He transferred on 17 August for £22.5 million plus £1.5 million to follow if Man U won the League or Champs League …
Andre Arshavin left Arsenal in 2013 and signed on 27 June 2013 for Zenit, for whom he had been on loan and from whom he had transferred to Arsenal in 2009. However he only scored two goals in his opening return season and on 13 July 2015, Arshavin moved on again and signed for Kuban …
Kim Kallstrom was one of many Arsenal signings who discovered just how much the media would make up negative stories about Arsenal players – in this case the story that after Arsenal signed him he injured himself playing beach football. In fact, Arsenal had a deal in which they would only pay the player when …
Sanchez Watt, who is now 28, came up through the Arsenal youth academy and was a notable member of the 2008/9 FA Youth Cup winning season making his debut for Arsenal the following season. After that he had numerous loan spells at clubs such as Leeds, Sheffield Wed, and Colchester United before signing for the …
Nacho Monreal returned to Spain on 31 August 2019, joining Real Sociedad on a two-year contract. He scored on his competitive debut two weeks later, converting an easy tap-in at the hour mark of an eventual 2–0 victory over Atlético Madrid . He had played 187 times for Arsenal and must rank as one of …
Chuba Akpom was an Arsenal player from 2002 to 2018 during which time he made four appearances for the club but played 44 times for England at various youth levels from under 16 to under 21. Starting in 2013 he went on a series of loans to Brentford, Coventry, Nottingham Forest, Hull City, Brighton and …
Jens Lehmann was the only member of the Invincibles team to play in every one of the league games. As such he really ought to have a statue to him outside the ground – but there seems to be no plans for this. Lehmann returned to Arsenal after retiring as a player as assistant coach …
Is a new Arsenal club being born? Actually, probably not Follow the video on Untold Gooner News On 26 January 2015, Gabriel was granted a UK work permit allowing him to join Arsenal. The fee was around £11m with Joel Campbell moving on loan to Villareal. Unusually for a player of some stature he spoke …
Is a new Arsenal club being born? Actually, probably not When Arsenal signed Joel Campbell in 2011 aged 19 from the Costa Rican team Saprissa he looked like a typical Wenger signing of a young player pretty much no one outside of Costa Rica had heard of. That he then went on a series of …
The closing of the Woolwich Arsenal ground for two games following crowd incidents, doesn’t sound too horrific, although the initial punishment was for the rest of the season. It was an unprecedented punishment, and no explanation was given as to why this punishment was dished out, other than a lot of comment about it being …
On this day in 2013 Emmanuel Frimpong joined Fulham on loan. However he played only 90 games of football in his professional career. After a number of loans in England on 8 August 2016, Frimpong signed two-year contract with Arsenal Tula in Russia, and then AFC Eskilstuna in Sweden.. On 17 August 2017, Frimpong signed a …
On this day in 2017 Gedion Zelalem, for a long time predicted to be one of the young players who would come through Arsenal’s ranks and do extremely well with the club, was loaned to VVV Venlo. He had seemed to be making a major comeback from injury when on August 24, 2015, he started …
On this day in 2005, Jermain Pennant crashed his car, and gave the police his name as Ashley Cole. His final club was Billericay Town in 2017. Then in October 2018, he appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show having recently written an autobiography, Mental: Bad Behaviour, Ugly Truths and the Beautiful Game, that was also …
After joining Arsenal from Luton town in 1997 Matthew Upson played 35 times for Arsenal, and made loan spells to Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace and Reading before moving on to the two main clubs of his career, Birmingham City (on this day in 2003) and West Ham. He later played for Stoke, Brighton, Leicester and …
