Arsenal elected to the Football League: 31 May 1893

By Tony Attwood On 31 May 1893 Woolwich Arsenal FC were elected to Division II of the Football League. It was an amazing moment for the club, because at the time it was under a ceaseless assault from a rival organisation – Royal Ordnance Factories FC, which had been formed by ex-members of the Royal …

The men that Terry Neill signed: Pat Jennings

By Tony Attwood Before Pat Jennings we had John Rimmer who was signed by Bertie Mee, and before him Bob Wilson, backed by Geoff Barnett. Pat’s story starts amazingly – apparently he played for the under 18 team of Sharock Rovers while aged 11, and then moved across to Gaelic football. But of course he …

Terry Anderson or Arsenal and Norwich: a tragic story

By Tony Attwood I have recently kindly been supplied with this picture of Terry, to supplement the story below.   Terry Anderson is not a name that springs to mind when we speak of Arsenal.  But he it there in the annals of the club – signing professional forms for Arsenal in 1961. He was …

28 May: George Allison becomes manager of Arsenal 1934

By Tony Attwood 28 May: George Allison becomes manager of Arsenal 1934 George Allison was one of our great, great managers winning two league titles, an FA cup victory and a third place.  Among other things he won the League title for us in that extraordinary trio of seasons in which three different managers won …

The 23rd anniversary: 26 May 1989. Liverpool 0 Arsenal 2

What can one say about this evening 23 years ago? Liverpool were on a sensational run of league victories: 1972–73, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90 11 championships in two decades – and having won the league in 1988 they undoubtedly expected to win it again in 1989. Compare this with …

Terry Neill’s signings – Malcolm MacDonald

This is part of the continuing series of articles looking back at Arsenal from the perspective of the managers.  There is an index to the series at “The Managers” – from which you will notice we still have a long way to go – but quite a bit has been written thus far.  If you …

24 May. Arsenal in Nigeria, and the return of something that never happened

By Tony Attwood 4 May 2010. Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote denies moving to buy a 15.9% stake in Arsenal. It was a story that was all over the blogs and some of the newspapers – the shares in Arsenal that were up for sale (the Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith shares, or the Lady Penelope shares as …

Steve Bould, Arsenal’s new number 2

by Tony Attwood Steve Bould played as a professional football for 20 years, starting with his local club of Stoke City. After turning pro he went on loan to Torquay United (a club with which I have a special affinity, and so like to mention whenever I can) during which time the manager was Bruce …

The anniversary files: how Rangers owned part of Arsenal – and then sold it

By Tony Attwood 16 May 1910 Following the collapse of Woolwich Arsenal’s attempts to launch a new share issue, and the widespread knowledge that the club was in such deep financial trouble that the League had demanded a meeting with them about next season, rumours began to circulate. Was the club about to fold? Was …

Today’s Anniversary: we won the cup against Man U

The 12 May 1979 FA Cup Final is regarded, not just by Arsenal fans, as one of the great games and certainly one of the most exciting FA Cup Finals. For 85 minutes we played them off the park.  It wasn’t sensational football – it was effective football with moments of fun and the enjoyment of …

Pat Rice: a tribute from the Arsenal History Society

by Tony Attwood Pat Rice (who was born on 17 March 1949 and who has just left Arsenal, after a lifetime’s service), made his first-team début in the League Cup match against Burnley on December 5 1967.   I believe that the game against Norwich last week is counted as his last match.   An astonishing man, …

10 May – Happy Birthday Dennis Bergkamp

By Tony Attwood It is late in the afternoon and I’ve only just had it pointed out to me (by a colleague on the committee of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association) that 10 May is Dennis Bergkamp’s birthday. He was born… 10 May 1969 Happy Birthday Dennis.  I’ll add the date to the anniversary list, …

May 8 – a double anniversary – we win the League and the FA Cup

by Tony Attwood I am grateful to Uncle Mike for writing in and pointing out two anniversaries for May 8.  Pressure of work and the like meant that I was not able to prepare a note at the start of the day about this, but better late than never. May 8 was the day on …

Arsenal possibly played its first match on the Isle of Dogs. Revised 2012 version

Mark Andrews At the front of the blog is a caveat “This site represents very much a forum for knocking around ideas and seeking out issues that can be debated.  As such we openly acknowledge that some of the notions expressed here might be wrong, and will need correcting.  Indeed if you can help us …

7 May 2003. The most wonderful moment in the history of Arsenal

7 May 2003 The start of Arsenal’s 49 games without defeat. We had, as I recall, just lost the chance of winning the league through draw away to Bolton and an unexpected home defeat to Leeds a couple of days before. On the walk up to Highbury for the Leeds game tickets from the touts …

The end of Bertie Mee and the start of Terry Neill’s era

By Tony Attwood Continuing the occasional series about life under Terry Neill. Bertie Mee went into his final season of 1975/76 with this team: Rimmer Rice Mancini O’Leary Nelson Kelly Brady Cropley Armstrong Hornsby Kidd After a while the team changed a bit and Ball, Stapleton and Ross became regulars.  But it was a highly …

Arsenal Anniversaries: 4 May 1994, we win the Cup winners Cup

By Tony Attwood 4 May 1994 – Arsenal won the EUFA Cup Winners Cup by beating Parma 1-0. Parma were the defending champions having beaten Antwerp the previous season, and were trying to be the first team to retain the trophy. The game was held at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, which had opened in …

The search for Arsenal’s most successful manager

By Tony Attwood Returning to the theme of last weekend,  here is the analysis of the number of top 4 finishes achieved by managers against the number of games the managers were in charge for. As mentioned before the “top four” notion is arbitrary, as are all other measurements – but it gives a reasonable …