Those of you who are regulars on twitter will, no doubt, have seen photoshopped pictures of Arsene Wenger apparently signing Dennis Bergkamp. These usually surface on Dennis’ birthday or 20 June when he was signed, with a caption such as: “Arsene Wenger’s greatest signing.”
“The purists would still want the FA Cup final at 3pm on the last Saturday of the season,” – Greg Dyke
Is the 3 o’clock kick-off time a tradition? Was it just a recent invention or does it have deeper roots in the competition? Is it progressive to alter the time of the kick offs, or just an utter waste of energy and another example of the FA bowing before BBC, Sky and BT dictats?
On 9 May 1891 the members of Royal Arsenal Football Club caused a sensation on the London football scene when they voted to turn professional. The governing body for football in London were staunchly amateur, heavily influenced by the “old boys” network of public schools.
Royal Arsenal had been forced into this situation after losing a number of their players to the professional clubs in the Midlands and the North. Being the best club in London and the South had led to them becoming victims of their own success.
Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Alex James: these three names always crop up when discussing the best attacking player in Arsenal’s history, but the outstanding player from the 1930s is our subject here.
Arsenal’s Record Transfer Fee Progression
Ever since Aston Villa broke the three-figure barrier for Willie Groves in 1893, the game has been obsessed with the value of footballers. Arsenal took a long time to join the big boys mainly due to financial difficulties caused by the Boer War at the end of the 1890s, the scaling down of the Royal Arsenal in the first decade of the 20th Century both of which resulted in reductions of attendances, and the costs incurred in the building of Highbury. Read More →
If you’ve read any books that tell the history of Arsenal (or even Chelsea or Tottenham) it is very likely that you would have read about Henry Norris arriving like a knight in shining armour to save Arsenal from extinction in 1910. Some histories will say that he bought the club, some will say that he was the majority shareholder.
However, neither is correct. And by quite a considerable way.
Extant concrete terracing from the Invicta Ground, Plumstead
Arsenal’s home between 1890 and 1893 was the Invicta Ground. It was a monumental location as Royal Arsenal moved there as an amateur team, but within a year the club had turned professional.
Despite the ground being replaced by housing in the late 1890s some of the stadium’s concrete terracing from 1890 still survives in the back gardens of houses in Hector Street.
A couple of years ago we embarked on a trip around Plumstead and this gives more detail to one aspect of the club’s time in Plumstead.
Postcard depicting the Arsenal train steaming past Highbury (image courtesy of Just Another Gooner)
Walking around the Arsenal Museum you may inadvertently miss a small gold medal in a case that holds some of the oldest known surviving memorabilia related to Arsenal Football Club.
The medal is approximately 4cm in diameter, and has the inscription “London Football Association Challenge Cup” along with the London FA’s coat of arms on the front. On the obverse it shows that the medal was won by P. Connolly of RAFC (Royal Arsenal Football Club) in 1890-91, and has a gold hallmark. Read More →
