600: Brian Edward Sparrow 1962 – 2019
Brian Sparrow: The Arsenal 1977-1984
The 600th player in the first team, this popular reserve spent seven years at Arsenal before moving to Crystal Palace and then a number of coaching roles.
William Mark Meadows 1942-2019
Billy Meadows: The Arsenal 1958-60
A record scoring youth team player who went on to appear for Hereford in one of the most famous FA Cup giant-killing games of all time.
Ronald E Saxby 1937 – 2019
Ron Saxby: The Arsenal 1953-1959
A regular at youth and reserve team level during his six years at Highbury.
Geoffrey George Hamm 1930-2019
Geoff Hamm: The Arsenal 1948-50
A short-lived youth player at Arsenal he found his level at the top of the non-league game.
728: Jose Antonio Reyes 1983-2019
Jose Antonio Reyes: The Arsenal 2004-07
The 728th first team player, Reyes was an Arsenal Invincible who, after leaving, picked up an amazing array of winners’ medals.
414: Alan Smith 1921 – 2019
Alan Smith: The Arsenal 1946
The 414th player to appear in the first team, Alan was a short term post-war winger whose early career was blighted by the Second World War.
481: Alan Frederick Graham Skirton 1939 – 2019
Alan Skirton: The Arsenal 1959-1966
A quality winger, who was the 481st first team player, he made over 150 appearances for the Gunners, and then post-playing he was a great business manager for Yeovil.
Clickbait!!!
Having been sent a press copy of Darren’s book, I sat down to enjoy it with a cup of tea.
100 years and counting
The Arsenal versus Newcastle United history is littered with famous games, but the fixture list in 1893, 1904 and 1919 ensured that it also contains a quite remarkable coincidence as far as milestone games for the Gunners is concerned:
Arsenal 1919 – 2019: 100 years in the top flight
We were asked by the Arsenal programme editor Andy Exley to write a few extra pieces for the programme last night. This article, which is a precis of all our previous work on this matter(1), is presented almost verbatim as we have added an exclusive of a segment of Norris’ letter to Catton in 1919.
As you may be aware, this season Arsenal are celebrating an unprecedented 100 consecutive years in the top flight of English football. For much of that time, the story of how the Gunners came to be in the First Division following the end of the First World War has been told and re-told in many publications. So much so that it now bears very little resemblance to what actually happened at a Special General Meeting held by the Football League on 10 March 1919. Using contemporary sources, we can now produce a true account of the events leading up to that date and what actually happened at the meeting.