By Tony Attwood
From Malcolm MacDonald to Wojciech Szczęsny, the anniversaries for 29 July
29 July 1912: David Neave transferred to Merthyr. He had played for Arsenal in two separate spells between 1904 and 1912, making 168 appearances (154 in the league) and scoring 32 goals (30 in the league).
29 July 1956: Viv Anderson born. He joined Arsenal from Nottingham Forest and played 120 games over 3 seasons before moving on to Man U. While with Arsenal he made 16 appearances for England and scored two goals for them
29 July 1976: Malcolm MacDonald signed from Newcastle for £333,333There was an argument about the price between the clubs and eventually the Arsenal chairman said, “one third of a million and not a penny more.” And so it was.
29 July 1979: Three years to the day after being signed Malcolm Macdonald announced his retirement from football. There is no doubt that without his injury he could have helped Arsenal to greater things and his loss was a major blow. He final games was the final game of the 1978/9 season – a 1-1 draw away to Chelsea in which he scored our goal.
29 July 2000: Micky Thomas joined Wimbledon (his final club) playing nine times for them. After retiring from football, he set up his own security service, called Stop Taking the Michael, and has played for Liverpool legends.
29 July 2003: Arsenal beat Beşiktaş 1-0 to make it two wins, two draws, one defeat
in pre-season. Bergkamp scored the only goal, slipping the ball through the keeper’s legs.
29 July 2004: Kanu joined WBA. He played 53 times for WBA and 141 for Portsmouth. He left Portsmouth with them owing him £3m but dropped the legal case in order to help the club survive. See here for memorable incident. Here for first game
29 July 2012: After a 2-0 pre-season defeat to Man C Arsenal could only draw 2-2 with Kitchee. Walcott and Eisfeld scored in the Hong Kong Stadium. The team won only one of their first team pre-season games and it presaged a poor start to the season.
29 July 2015: Following Diaby’s release on 10 June 2015, he signed for Marseille on this day. Following continuing injury problems in the first half of the season, he made his return on 18 March 2016, coming on as a substitute in Marseille’s 5–2 home defeat to Rennes. On 3 April 2016, he started in a league match against Bastia, his first league start in over three years.
29 July 2015: Wojciech Szczęsny loaned to Roma for one year playing 31 league games for the club in the course of the 2015/16 season.
Also on this day Bob Dylan was apparently injured in a motorcycle accident near his home at Woodstock New York. He was said to be completely incapacitated by the accident but across the years considerable doubt has been expressed about this, and many now believe that the event was much less serious.
Aside from being linked to Untold Arsenal the Arsenal History Society also has a close connection with Untold Dylan, which also publishes every day.
- Arsenal day by day – over 5000 anniversaries of the club
The current series being developed on this site is Henry Norris at the Arsenal.
Covering all aspects off the life and work of the man who rescued Arsenal from extinction, secured the club’s future by moving it to Highbury, and then brought in Herbert Chapman as manager.
The most recent article is Arsenal relegated amidst allegations of match fixing
The previously untold tale of how it was that Norris came to choose Highbury as the suitable location for Arsenal’s new ground.
The series is being worked on daily, and the articles thus far are here.
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- Arsenal day by day – over 5000 anniversaries of the club
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