AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Brian Marwood had played over 300 games for Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday, scoring 80 league goals before he came to Arsenal in 1988. Across two seasons he then played 52 league games and scored 16 goals, and was a clear fans’ favourite. In 1990 he moved to Sheffield United and then on to Swindon …
Marc Overmars won the Double in his (and Mr Wenger’s) first full season playing on the left wing using his great speed alongside Dennis Bergkamp. In March 1998 he scored the all-important goal to beat Manchester United 1-0, and then (as often shown in films) looked around as if to say “where are the rest …
Rhys Wilmott only played eight times for Arsenal between 1980 and 1989, but did have successful loan career with Herefore, Leyton Orient and Swansea City, before moving to Plymouth Argyle, playing 133 league games for them between 1989 and 1922. He then played 33 games for Grimsby (1992/4) and 6 for Crystal Palace (1994/6) before …
Steve Morrow played 62 games for Arsenal in the league and 23 games on loan for Barnet, QPR, Reading and Watford. He signed for QPR in 1997 and played 91 league games for them and finally 41 games for Dallas Burn in 2002/3. He was also a Northern Ireland international playing 39 games. In 2004 …
Graham Rix played 351 league games for Arsenal and scored 41 goals. He then moved on to France and played 89 times cor Caen and 12 for Le Havre, before finishing his career with Dundee (14) and Chelsea 1 game. However that one game was as emergency cover – he was primarily on the coaching …
Mr Wenger once touted Mark Randall as a really important player for Arsenal with a huge potential. But it never happened for him, and he has moved regularly from club to club. And yet despite that constant urge to move on he has (according to the latest figures) played over 230 matches almost all in …
Kwame Ampadu played just two games for Arsenal between 1988 and 1991, and had a six match loan spell at Plymouth Argyle during that time as well. He then moved to West Bromwich Albion (49 games), Swansea City (144 games), Leyton Orient (72 games), Exeter City (162 games), Newport County (8 games) and finally Tiverton …
On this day in 1907 Arsenal lost in the FA Cup semi-final for the second year running. They did not make it back to the semi-final for 20 years. At the time of writing (March 2020) Arsenal have not only reached more finals and won the cup more than any other team they have also …
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Yennaris was born in Leytonstone,to a father of Greek Cypriot origin and a mother of Chinese origin. In view of what happened later, those details are relevant. He played just once for Arsenal and after a couple of unsuccesful loan spells he moved to Brentford and played 144 games between 2014 and 2019. Then in …
Read More “Whatever happened to Nico Yennaris? You might be surprised.”
Martin Hayes was never a particularly favourite at Arsenal, except that there were a few of us who saw exactly what he could do for the team. And indeed for one season our top scorer, and the player who kept the team in a reasonable position in the league. That season was 1986/7, George Graham’s …
Arsenal signed Andy Linighan for £1.2m in the summer of 1990. Given that we had Tony Adams and Steve Bould, two players revered in Arsenal’s history it seemed something of a strange move by Graham. He had played over 70 games with each of the clubs he had previously been with (Hartlepool, Leeds, Oldham and …
Billy McCullough was a great Arsenal player from 1958 to 1966 playing 253 league games, who had the great misfortune to play under two managers (Swindin and Wright) who managed to achieve precious little beyond keeping Arsenal in the first division. The league position and cup record were awful, and Arsenal were always seen as …
Frank Stapleton played 225 league games for Arsenal and scored 75 goals between 1974 and 1981, before moving on the Manchester United where he played 223 games and scored 60 goals. After that he played for nine more clubs, but only two (Blackburn Rovers and Bradford city saw him knock up more than 50 games. …
In the “Whatever happened to” series, which is written to coincide with an anniversary, we are often dealing with players who simply didn’t make it at Arsenal, or simply didn’t make it at all. And Luke Ayling has the look of one of these players having never played for Arsenal. But for him, his first …
If you have been glancing at the Arsenal anniversary series you’ll know that we have been running a note at the top of many of the articles with the headline “Whatever happened to…” and then looking at what the player in question did after Arsenal. Roger Davidson is different because he played just one game …
Read More “Whatever happened to Roger Davidson who played but one game for Arsenal”
Between 1997 and 2005 goalkeeper Stuart Taylor played 18 times for Arsenal, as well as having loan spells with Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace, Peterborough United and Leicester City. He then moved to Aston Villa, Cardiff (on loan), Manchester City, Reading, Yeovil Town (on loan), Leeds and Southampton. The 18 league games he played for Arsenal …
14 March 1892: Arsenal 0 Third Lanark Rovers 1. Arsenal played a remarkable nine friendly games in March 1892 as behind the scenes the battle for control of the club’s committee (and thus the club’s future) between the “gentlemen” and the “workers” heated up. 14 March 1894: Henry (Harry) Woods born. After the first world …
Read More “Remembering the days when they used to play football. Arsenal events on 14 March”
Phil Brown was the manager of Hull City when he particularly came onto our radar in 2009, accusing Cesc Fàbregas of spitting at Hull’s assistant manager Brian Horton, and being improperly dressed on the pitch, after Hull were beaten at Arsenal Stadium. Fabregas was cleared of all charges. Then Brown claimed Arsène Wenger refused to …
Read More “Whatever happened to Phil Brown, the man who accused Faberegas and Wenger?”
Loughborough FC may well not be a club you’ve heard of, unless you study Arsenal’s earliest history, in which case you might know they turn up several times. They won the Midland League in 1894/5 and then were elected to the second division of the Football League. They didn’t fare well however and in 1900 …
Read More “Whatever happened to Loughborough FC? Arsenal’s strange involvement”
Lukas Podolski played for Bayern Munich and FC Koln before joining Arsenal in 2012, playing 60 games and scoring 19 goals before going on loan to Inter Milan in 2015. He then played for Galatasaray, Vissel Kobe and is now with Antalyaspor in Turkey. Between 2004 and 2017 he played 130 times for Germany scoring …
by Tony Attwood As you can read from the entry for this day in 1905 below, Tottenham made a number of attempts in the early part of the Football League’s history to try to secure their place as the dominant team in the area. They blocked Chelsea from the Southern League, tried to block Arsenal’s …
Read More “When Tottenham were rejected by the Football League, but Arsenal helped them out.”
By Tony Attwood I ask that question today because this is the anniversary of the earliest St Totteringham Day of the modern era (and perhaps of all time) (see 2008 below). St Totteringham Day is, as you will know I’m sure, the day upon which it is impossible for Tottenham to overtake Arsenal, and we …
Read More “Could there actually be a St Totteringham Day this year”
By Tony Attwood Having played 49 games for Everton, Francis Jeffers joined Arsenal in 2001 and stayed until 2004 playing just 22 games and scoring four goals. He then returned to Everton on loan, before a meandering career which took him to Charlton, Rangers, Blackburn, Ipswich, Sheffield Wed, Newcastle Jets in Australia, Motherwell, Floriana and …
Read More “Whatever happened to Francis Jeffers? Arsenal anniversaries for 8 March”
by Tony Attwood There would, I imagine, be uproar of the first order with demands that the manager be sacked, for most of the players in the team never to play for Arsenal again, and for the owners to go if we lost 7-0 in any game this season, or indeed next season. Fortunately in …
During the first and second world wars, normal league and cup football was suspended – although the 1914/15 season was played, largely because of the view that the war would be finished by December 1914, and thus not inconvenience the Football League. There was a major campaign to get football banned, particularly supported by Sir …
Read More “What happened to Arsenal in the wartime leagues?”
