A most talented but tainted footballer

by Tony Attwood We are used to contemporary reports appearing about footballers who despite their talent are troubled souls, having disputes with their club, being involved in dubious activities that bring them to the attention of the law, leaving clubs after a row, going absent without permission from the club… But few can equal Henry …

Searching out the location of Arsenal’s first FA Cup match

by Tony Attwood For many people history is just the dry recording of facts, and I get a regular stream of correspondence telling me that I should be more concerned about Arsenal in the present day than bothering with all this history stuff. But I find history interesting, and over the years it has given …

The falsification of Arsenal’s history by repeating what the last guy said

by Tony Attwood One of the most fascinating results of studying Arsenal’s history is just how commonly held views about the club’s past turn out to be utterly untrue. For example, it is reported in many histories of the club that after Arsenal turned professional in 1893, one way or another all the local clubs …

One of the famous stories about Arsenal turns out not to be true at all.

This is the day in Arsenal’s history in 1925 when supposedly a conversation took place between manager Herbert Chapman and club captain Charlie Buchan as to how the club could counter the approach teams were taking to the new offside law introduced in the summer of 1925. The rule change meant that only two men …

There are managers who can question referees, and those who have to stay silent

It is not just the fact that some clubs play a more industrial style of football than Arsenal it is also the way in which some managers are able to get away with saying anything they like about referees, while if an Arsenal manager speaks in that way, he is immediately hauled up before the …

The ex-Arsenal player who gained access to the club and then went too far

As a player at Arsenal Alan Smith was widely admired.  A George Graham purchase he delivered as a centre forward in as much as he scored 86 goals in 264 games.  Not the very best centre forward rate, but still a very welcome input into the team. After retiring he took up journalism, appearing on …