Henry Norris fixes Fulham’s promotion and gets ready to bid for Arsenal

By the end of January 1910 Henry Norris – owner of Fulham FC – was firmly established as a man who was talking an awful lot about Woolwich Arsenal FC and its impending demise. And as always happens in such circumstances journalists went a-digging. For those that were interested there were plenty of strange things …

100 years have gone by and we are still beating Bolton by two goals to nil

And so, just as we did twice this year, 100 years ago we beat Bolton 2-0.  Not the exact self-same scores of course, because this was the score at the Manor Ground, and we lost the game in Bolton (when Bolton actually did play in Bolton – unlike today) 0-3 back in September.  But it …

The gulf between the top 2 divisions 100 years ago was as big as today

Woolwich Arsenal v Bolton W, 29 January 1910 After the success last weekend with a victory against low-flying Middlesbrough Arsenal played bottom of the table Bolton for the next home match. Bolton were one of the original members of the League, having been formed 1874, 12 years before Arsenal.  While Arsenal started out as Dial …

100 years ago to the day, Norris expresses his first interest in Arsenal

On 22 January 1910 Arsenal won a league match (a rarity in itself in a rotten season), but events elsewhere overshadowed the win. However I have a real feeling that very few people actually realised just how desperate things were that weekend – and indeed if one didn’t go to either of the meetings on …

Will Arsenal be relegated? Arsenal v Boro, 100 years ago

There’s no indication that the Woolwich Arsenal players had anything to do with the two momentous meetings held in Woolwich Town Hall on 22 January 1910 – the meetings which set in train the events that ended up with the formation of the modern Arsenal.  After all they had a game to play, and they …

Without the events of 100 years ago today, there would be no Arsenal

22 January 1910 is a date that should be remembered by every Arsenal supporter, and yet somehow it is just another day.  I doubt that many other web sites will remember this day – and indeed even Arsenal FC seem to have forgotten it. But this was the day, 100 years ago, when when Woolwich …

Football 1.0 – what did it look like?

Football 1.0 is a shorthand way of defining the organisation of clubs at the start of the professional era. The defining moment was January 1884 when Preston NE played Upton Park in the FA Cup, and following a complaint from Upton Park that Preston paid their players, Preston were ejected. Other clubs were also informally …

Arsenal in the FA Cup – 100 years ago.

I have a special feeling about 16th January 1910, as it is the day on which Making the Arsenal (the novel) starts its story.  Jacko Jones has been sent off to wildest Plumstead (then part of Kent, not a part of London) to watch the FA Cup first round match, Woolwich Arsenal v Watford). Lacking …

Arsenal plan to drop white sleeves from their shirts – again

There is a story going around that Arsenal are going to come out with another special home shirt, in the same way that they did for the last season at Highbury. This time it is to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the start of the club in December 1886 as Dial Square. The story goes …

Arsenal take on Watford in the Cup 100 years ago

Next up for Arsenal – Watford in the First Round of the FA Cup, January 15th 1910. In 1910 there was only a First and Second Division of the Football League, and so the clubs in minor leagues (most prominently the Southern League which had two divisions) played out ties in the preliminary rounds, and …

Arsenal’s financial problems: we’re not the only ones in trouble.

The main news today (12 January 2010) concerns the further revelations about Manchester United and the way in which their owners have not only led them into unprecedented debt, but how simultaneously they have personally taken £20 million out of the club. If you have followed my ramblings on the subject of Arsenal 100 years …

Stories circulate about Arsenal’s financial problems.

10 January 1910 and the death of Woolwich Arsenal gets closer and closer The desperate hope at the end of 1909 had been that Woolwich Arsenal could return to the winning streak (well, at least, a non-losing streak) that they had had in late November and early December. A few good wins, the crowds would …

Preparing for Sheffield United. Woolwich Arsenal in 1910

100 years ago no matches were being postponed so probably the weather was not so troublesome as it was 100 years later.  Mind you 100 years ago it would have taken a volcano or fog to postpone a game.  Health and safety had not yet been invented. So next up was Sheffield United away – …

If we could go back to Arsenal 100 years ago, what would the club look like?

January 1910, and Arsenal played in Woolwich. We were in the First Division, but had never won any of the major trophies, such as the League or the Cup.   The nearest we had come to was being in the semi final of the FA Cup two years running. The ground could hold around 33,000, but …

2010: the year of three major Arsenal Anniversaries

Anniversaries come in all shapes and sizes. Just a month ago, at the end of 2009, we had the 100th anniversary of the first ever league match against Tottenham Hotspur.  In 2010 we have three big ones. First in 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the forming of the modern club.   In January 1910 Woolwich …

A miserable start to the new year for Arsenal

1st January 1910, the start of what was to be the most momentous year in the history of  Woolwich Arsenal FC.  The year that changed everything.  The year that saw the birth of the modern Arsenal FC. It was a traumatic year, and it started badly. Already near the foot of the table, Arsenal went …