The first Arsenal player to captain Brazil


The Anniversary Files

Here are the Arsenal (and occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the complete files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website.  An index to the Anniversary files can be found in the left column of this site under “Pages”

The current historical series on this site is Henry Norris at the Arsenal.   An index of all our series can be found on the home page.


 

? June 1892: Alf Singleton and Henry Stewart surprisingly failed to get elected to the committee running Royal Arsenal – the first sign of the split within the club that ultimately led to the formation of professional Woolwich Arsenal and amateur Royal Ordnance Factories as two separate clubs.

? June 1893: In response to the demand for a much higher rent for the Invicta Ground Woolwich Arsenal instead purchased the Manor Field opposite the Invicta as their new ground.

? June 1913: William Hall resigned as a director of Fulham, allowing him to focus full-time on the preparation of the Highbury ground and taking Woolwich Arsenal FC to Islington for the 1913/14 season.

1 June 1953: Alex James died suddenly from cancer on 24th anniversary of his signing.  During the war he served in the Royal Artillery, and in 1949 he was invited back to Arsenal to coach the club’s youth sides.  He was mentioned in the 1930s song “With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm” by Stanley Holloway.

1 June 1955: Ben Marden was transferred to Watford.  Although playing only 42 games for Arsenal these included the last game of the 1952/3 season to win the league and Liverpool 1 Arsenal 5 on 15 November 1952.

1 June 1979: West Bromwich Albion who had just had their best season since winning the league for the one and only time in 1920, decided to sell winger Laurie Cunningham to Real Madrid for £995,000.  It caused uproar. The end of football was predicted.

1 June 1999: Moritz Volz joined Arsenal from Schalke.  He stayed for five years but never played a league game (but did play two league cup games) before being loaned to Wimbledon and finally transferred to Fulham.

1 June 2001: Lee Conoville transferred to Torquay on a free transfer.  He had had a short loan spell with Northampton before playing 112 league games for Torquay, scoring two goals.

1 June 2001: John Lukic retired from football.  He is one of just a tiny number of players who have played top flight football across four decades.   Others were  Peter Shilton, Steve Ogrizovic and Sir Stanley Matthews.

1 June 2002: Sol Campbell, David Seaman and Ashley Cole featured in England’s 1-1 World Cup draw with Sweden.

1 June 2003: Philippe Senderos joined Arsenal from Servette having played 26 games in one season with the club.    He went on to play 84 times for Arsenal across four seasons before moving on loan to Milan.

1 June 2007: Gilberto Silva captained Brazil against England, becoming the first and thus far the only Arsenal player ever to captain Brazil.  In the last minute of the game Gilberto Silva provided the cross that allowed Brazil to score to make it 1-1.

1 June 2010: Aaron Ramsey signed a new long term contract having signed for Arsenal in 2008 and having made 27 league appearances in his first two seasons.

1 June 2010: Silvestre and Gallas left Arsenal at the end of their contracts.  Silvestre moved on to Werder Bremen while Gallas went on to play for Tottenham Hotspur.


 

The current series: Covering all aspects of 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, our current series of articles is on Henry Norris at the Arsenal.  The articles thus far are here.

“Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” and “Making the Arsenal” are both available on Kindle.  Please  see here for more details

One Reply to “The first Arsenal player to captain Brazil”

  1. Gilberto Silva – what a truly great and much under rated player he was. Left us at least one season too soon?

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