The summer of 1990: the gateway to Arsenal heaven

by Tony Attwood Arsenal had won the league in 1989 most famously in the last seconds of the season, but only managed 4th in 1989/90 with fourth round exits in both cups. I think most of us were hoping that the 1989 triumph had not just been a one-off blip and that we could come …

1991 pre season: after the record breaking, a sad reality

Tony Attwood Arsenal had finished 1990-91 season as champions, seven points clear of their nearest challengers, despite having two points ludicrously deducted by an ever eccentric League.  Within the season Arsenal lost only one match, scored 74 goals and let in only 18.  It was an amazing achievement. In the close season there were two …

1992 pre-season: a record but where was the entertainment?

This is part of a series which looks at the pre-season from each season.  This is the pre-season for 1992 – before the Cup Double.  A list of all the articles to date from 1993 to 2014 is at the end. By Tony Attwood In 1991/2 Arsenal came fourth in the league scoring an amazing …

1993 Pre-season: Osama bin Laden spotted at Highbury – we reveal the chant

By Tony Attwood Prelims In the season 1992/3 Arsenal won the Cup Double – the first ever club to do so, playing 17 FA and League Cup matches en route. It was a matter of great pride and success, and yet it came at the expense of the league.  40 goals in 42 league games …

1994: The last Arsenal pre-season for George Graham

By Tony Attwood This article continues the series on pre-season events across the years.  All the pre-seasons from 1995 to 2014 have been covered so far and there is an index on the home page. Although of course we didn’t know it at the time, Arsenal finished George Graham’s last complete season (1993/4) in fourth …

1995: Bruce Rioch’s one pre-season. Bergkamp arrives!

Background My initial thought with the series on pre-season games and transfers was to work through the Wenger era.  But there have been some nice comments made about the series, and I’ve found it fascinating so I thought I’d look to see how far back I could push this.  I’m also changing the style slightly …

2014: pre-season. Thrashing Man C and the arrival of Alexis and Bellerin.

by Tony Attwood Having had a net spend of around £32.5m in the 2013 pre-season period Arsenal went further in the summer of 2014 spending £35.6m, (before spending another £13.7m in the following January.) It all added weight to the pro-Wengerian argument that spending had been restricted during the building and paying for the Emirates. …

2013 Pre-season. The build up before winning the Cup.

by Tony Attwood This article continues the series reviewing Arsenal’s pre-season adventures over the years.  A full index of the pre-season articles so far is given at the foot of the article. Arsenal went into this season with the usual jibe – that Arsenal hadn’t won a trophy since 2005.   Big signings were demanded …

2012 Pre season. Nigeria cancelled, Akpom and Bellerin make their mark

by Tony Attwood After the chaos of the 2011 pre-season we were all looking for a spot of relief and re-assurance, and we got it with the announcement before the old season was over that Lukas Podolksi was joining.  Olivier Giroud was added to the rosta in June. The release notices came the following month …

2011: Pre season. Chaos and disaster, but still Arsenal pulled through.

By Tony Attwood As we have seen many times, teams that were up the top can fall from grace.  Think of Man U after Ferguson left, think of Liverpool and its problems even getting back into the Champions League. In 2011 Arsenal looked to have reached that moment.  Pre-season had been horrific and by early …

2010 pre season: Crazy Gang time in Warsaw

This is part of our series reviewing all the pre-seasons through Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal.  An index to the articles is at the end. In the run up to the 2010 season Marouane Chamakh joined on a free from Bordeaux, Aaron Ramsey signed a new contract, Lourent Koscielny came in from Lorient, Sébastien Squillaci came from Seville, and …

2009 pre-season: The disgraceful exhibition of the media and Uefa against Eduardo

By Tony Attwood Each pre-season seems to have its own memories and special event.  Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes outrageous.  But never more outrageous than the ravings of press and the Scottish FA against Eduardo, in the Champions League preliminary round tie against Celtic.   Technically this wasn’t pre-season at all, as the league had …

2008 Pre-season: defeating Real Madrid

By Tony Attwood The 2008 pre-season had the usual level of comings and goings with Mathieu Flamini, who had had a superb season in 2007/8 moving onto Milan at the end of his contract, Lehmann joining Stuttgart on a free, Gilberto signing for Panathinaikos, Hleb to Barcelona, and Justin Hoyte going to Middlesbrough. Coming in we …

Arsenal’s pre-season friendlies 1996-2015. Today, 2007 – a hectic build up.

By Tony Attwood Having settled into the Emirates for one year Arsenal’s 2007 pre-season was one of the most extensive – not just in the number of games but in terms of the sizes of audience that the club played to. As for the transfer window that was hectic too.  Fabrice Muamba went to Birmingham City …

Pre-season 2006 and the opening of the Emirates

By Tony Attwood The pre-season games for the 2006/7 season – the first at the Emirates Stadium, were different from the norm.  They started with a draw with Barnet, the first Emirates game for Bergkamp’s testimonial, a set of overseas friendlies, and then a Champions League qualified, all before the season started.  Here are the …

2005 pre-season – the end of Highbury and the Chelsea/Arsenal bust ups.

By Tony Attwood After years of an on-off transfer Patrick Vieira was sold to Juventus where he won a title, and then lost it because of match fixing, and was immediately sold again as Juventus changed from being champions to a relegated club. Alexander Hleb was purchased from Stuttgart. Nic Bendtner and Vito Mannone also …

Arsenal pre-season friendlies in the midst of the “49”.

by Tony Attwood In the midst of the 49 this was a transfer window with limited input.  Almunia arrived from Celta Vigo, Flamini came on a free from Marseille – his contract there having ended, and Emmanuel Eboué moved in from Beveren for £1.5m. The leavings were of a higher order.  Keown, Parlour, Kanu and Wiltord …

The pre-season of 2001. The transfers, pre-season games, and season openers

By Tony Attwood Despite Arsenal’s position as one of the top two, at the end of the 2000/1 season there were extreme mutterings, after Arsenal finished second for the third year running, and this time ten points behind Man U.  That was the season with the 6-1 defeat to Man U which Sky seem to …

2000: The big transfers and pre-season games

By Tony Attwood Robert Pirès arrival was surely the transfer to note in the 2000 pre-season period, joining on 3 July, while Sylvain Wiltord joined at the end of the transfer window.  Nigel Winterburn, Marc Overmars and Manu Petit all moved on. Arsenal opened with the usual couple of low key warm ups in the pre-season starting with …

The most curious case of the Alf Calverley transfers

Alfred  Godfrey Calverley was born 24 November 1917 He joined Huddersfield Town from school, played a couple of games for Mossley on loan and then returned to Huddersfield. He was still registered with Huddersfield when the war ended guested for several clubs during the Second World War including Leeds, Bradford, Clapton Orient.  In one match on …

1998: The Pre-season games. Back to sausages after the caviar.

By Tony Attwood The pre-season gathering of the players together was disrupted by world cup call ups so many of the preliminary games of the summer of 1998 gave the lesser known players a chance to shine.  David Grondin and Nelson Vivas were the players to join us before the pre-season games began.   (Fredrik …