Joseph Arpino 1931-2015
Joe Arpino: The Arsenal 1946-1952
A junior player who was spotted in the nursery team but left for Walsall after a number of A team games.
493: Ian Hector McKechnie 1941-2015
Ian McKechnie: the Arsenal 1958-1964
The 493rd player to appear for the Gunners, Ian McKechnie was a converted winger who kept goal in a period of plentiful keepers at Highbury. He found his feet at Hull where a bizarre but amusing orange throwing fad followed him around wherever he played.
516: James Morrison McGill 1946-2015
Jimmy McGill: The Arsenal 1965-1967
James Morrison McGill was the 516th player to appear for the Gunners. Unable to oust fellow Scot and Arsenal legend Frank McLintock he went on to find his niche as a player at first Huddersfield and then Hull.
463: Victor George Groves 1932-2015
Vic Groves: the Arsenal 1955-1964, the Arsenal captain 1959-1962
Vic Groves was the 463rd player to appear for Arsenal. He captained the club for three seasons, but his Arsenal career coincided with a fallow period for the club; their best position being 3rd in the League and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Tributes from thearsenalhistory.com for 2015
At the start of the year the Arsenal captain of 1959-1962 passed away. The apparently muted initial response to an ex-Arsenal captain dumbfounded a number of supporters as it didn’t seem to expound the respect deserved of a man who had played for Arsenal for nine seasons, and skippered the side for a third of that period.
Shortly afterwards the Arsenal did Vic proud with an excellent article on him in the programme for the Leicester game.
At the start of this month Ernie Crouch died aged 91, hit by a bus on the way to the Sunderland game on 5 December. He had followed Arsenal since the mid-1930s and, quite rightly, his demise was noted and respected by many who knew him and others within the Arsenal crowd. Piebury Corner even made a special seasonal pie in his honour with proceeds going to the local homeless in the Islington area.
Just as we had finished these tributes, the great Arsenal and England coach Don Howe passed away. Don was linked to Arsenal on and off from 1964, and was a huge part of both of our formative years as Arsenal fans. His is the final tribute to these ten Gunners who all sadly passed in 2015.
It is heartening to know that Don will be a central part of the programme for today’s match.
Image courtesy of Andy Exley
288: Harold Adrian Walden 1920-21
Recently Andy has published a full and definitive list of every Arsenal player to appear in a first team competitive match during the history of the club, and as a corollary we are currently researching each player who appeared between World War One and World War Two.
The two hundred and eighty-eighth player only played twice for the Gunners but had a life that made for an interesting and rounded story. Walden had a pre-football career in the army and then joined up for WW1, and was a-typical in that post football he was more celebrated and reported upon than his football one.
Arsenal Players Remembered 1914-1918
This is the final post on the theme of Arsenal and WW1. The past few days have seen the Gunners at War and the Gunners at home
Today we pay tribute on Armistice Day to the players who before the war represented Woolwich Arsenal FC but who weren’t necessarily with the club at the beginning of the War. These men paid the ultimate sacrifice being Killed In Action or dying as a result of the war. We have also included players who received career ending wounds.
…you’ve probably been taken for a ride.
“Compton and Smith played for England for the first time against Wales at Sunderland, Compton at thirty-eight becoming the oldest man to win his first cap for England.”
Bernard Joy – “Forward, Arsenal!”
“Two Arsenal players, Peter Connolly and Bobby Buist, played so well in that game [1891 FA Cup v Derby County] that John Goodall, the Derby captain and acting secretary-manager, offered them contracts.”
Phil Soar and Martin Tyler – “The Official Illustrated History of Arsenal”
Two statements from two esteemed tomes that have become ingrained in Arsenal’s history, written by three respected names in the game, printed in in black ink on white paper for all eternity. The only problem is that both statements have recently been proven to be wrong. Read More →
The Gunners in Whites
On the day the Ashes starts here is a brief history of Arsenal’s relationship with cricket, which adds to our previous article The Arsenal Cricketers.
Check out Charlie’s hat, and Bertie’s sunglasses!
A “not for clicks” blog
A discussion on twitter a while back about the demise of modern football journalism eventually digressed into whether or not any “facts” quoted by journalists could be trusted as they are so sloppy with their research. A classic case is that of Arsenal’s youngest captain.
Jack in a bucket hat – But NOT a Captain