Arsenal buy Highbury, Wilshere gets the number 10 shirt

Here are the Anniversaries from 15 August – part of our regular daily look at Arsenal’s history.

Our most recent article is Arsenal’s first ever FA Cup match at Highbury and a challenge for promotion: Jan 1914


 

16 August 1912.  Ted Drake born.  He started at Winchester City, and then went on to Southampton, Herbert Chapman quickly spotted him, but at first could not convince him to move.  Drake was eventually signed in March 1934 for a fee of £6,500.

16 August 1925: Arsenal FC finally bought Highbury Stadium – which until that point had been leased.  It meant that Sir Henry Norris was no longer under an obligation to return the ground to its previous state at the end of the lease.

16 August 1927: First reported use of numbers on players backs, over a year before Arsenal tried it out.  Arsenal worked hard to popularise numbering, but didn’t invent it.

16 August 1975: David O’Leary made his league debut for Arsenal – he went on to play 558 league games.

16 August 1975: The rapid decline of Mee’s ability is plain to see as Arsenal opened a new season with a 0-0 away to Burnley and went on to achieve just one win in the first ten league games.

16 August 1978: John Matthews sold to Sheffield United.  He had played 43 league games for Arsenal but went on to over 100 games for Sheffield Utd before moving on to Mansfield.

16 August 1980.  Kenny Sampson played for the first time for Arsenal v WBA and went on to play every game that season.  Arsenal won 1-0 with Stapleton scoring.

16 August 1981: Steve Gatting played his last game for the first team v Olympiacos in a friendly.  He moved to Brighton for whom he played over 300 league games before finishing his playing career at Charlton.

16 August 2008: Justin Hoyte signed for Middlesbrough from Arsenal.  He had played 68 league games for Arsenal and went on to play 142 times for Middlesbrough before moving on to Millwall.

16 August 2008: Arsenal started the season with 1-0 win over West Brom, with Nasri getting the first goal of the new season on his debut.

16 August 2011: Emmanuel Eboué joined Galatasaray for a fee of £4m.  He had played 132 league games for Arsenal before leaving, having previously played 70 games for Beveren.

16 August 2012: Jack Wilshere was given the number 10 shirt and said “Getting the No. 10 shirt again at the club means so much to me…It has a special place for all attacking or creative players. I feel proud to wear it now after some real club legends have worn it, such as Dennis Bergkamp.”

16 August 2012: Kyle Bartley sold to Swansea for £1m.  In July 2014 he was given a further three year contract.

16 August 2013: Wellington Silva loaned to Real Murcia for the season.  He played 38 games for them and scored 3 goals, before moving on to Almería for 2014/15.

Details of the whole list of 5000 Arsenal anniversaries and other activities undertaken by the Arsenal History Society are below.

If you spot any errors please do write in and say, and we’ll correct them.  We think we’ve got up to about 97% accuracy, and anything you can do to help us weed out the final 3% of wrong-uns would be much appreciated.


Elsewhere on this day

Bela Lugosi, the original great Count Dracula actor, died in poverty in 1956 and was buried in a Dracula cloak.

Elvis Presley the great populariser of rock n roll to white audiences died in 1977

 


The current series from the Arsenal History 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 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.

Among the many other series we have run are…

There are details of many other series covered by this site on our home page.

One Reply to “Arsenal buy Highbury, Wilshere gets the number 10 shirt”

  1. But for how much longer will Jack be wearing the No.10 shirt? Whilst referencing the legend that is DB10, somehow I don’t think in years to come we will remember Jack in quite the same way. Sorry Jack.

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