When Arsenal were struggling to hold onto their best players: just 14 years ago

 

By Tony Attwood

Highlight of the day:  Henry Norris at the Arsenal is probably the most comprehensive investigation we have ever undertaken – and it is most certainly the most comprehensive review of Henry Norris’ time at Arsenal.    During his time at Arsenal he was a hero both for the club and in English football, but was then overthrown by an upper class gang who wanted the club Norris had saved from oblivion for themselves.   And they didn’t want Norris around taking any of the credit for his work.

Our story takes Arsenal from the very brink of oblivion in 1910 to the end of Norris career in football.  There index is here

As for today’s anniversaries, the story from 2010 shows how far Arsenal have come in 14 years.  Then the club was struggling to hold onto its best player as Barcelona circled.   Now Barcelona is bankrupt and Arsenal are challenging at the top.

6 August 1923: Arsenal published its annual report showing a profit for the year of £5000.  That would be over a quarter of a million pounds in today’s money just based on inflation.  But £5000 in 1923 was also the world record for a transfer which by 2018 was £198m, so in reality Arsenal was doing incredibly well.

6 August 1926: Harry Woods transferred to Luton. Although he had played regularly under Knighton, Chapman did not use him at all, and he moved on after a season in the reserves.

6 August 1926: John Clack, who had transferred to Arsenal from Bo’ness was transferred to Luton after a total of six appearances.

6 August 1930: Leslie Compton signed as an amateur.  Of the brothers he was the one who was a footballer who played cricket, as opposed to Dennis who was the reverse.

6 August 1936:  An underground explosion at the Wharncliffe Woodmoore Colliery in South Yorkshire resulted in 58 men losing their lives.

6 August 1945: First atomic bomb was dropped.

6 August 1966: Rangers 2 Arsenal 0 – continuing the tradition started under Chapman of the club that held shares in Arsenal (Rangers) playing against Arsenal.

6 August 1977 Pat Jennings signed for £45,000.  He had played 591 games for Tottenham but his club seemed to think that at 32 he was too old to continue.  Also cited as several other dates up to 11 August.

6 August 1983: Robin van Persie born.  According to Jonathan Northcroft, a Times journalist, Van Persie joined SBV Excelsior’s youth squad when he was five, but left at the age of 15, due to the relationship between the coach and his mother, and signed for Feyenoord.

6 August 1989: Arsenal beat Independiente in the Zenith Data Systems Challenge Trophy in Miami but had Gus Caesar and Gary Lewin sent off.

6 August 2007: Ryan Garry joined Bournemouth.  He had won the youth cup in 2001 and played in the first game of the “49”  but then got shin splints, and it was thought he would never play again.  He did play for Bournemouth, and became under 13 coach for Arsenal.

6 August 2008: Arsenal beat Huddersfield 1-2 for the Chapman Cup with goals from Sanchez Watt and Nacer Barazite.  Some reports suggest Chapman won triple league trophies with each club, but actually he achieved this with neither.

6 August 2010: Fàbregas announced he “will be 100% focused on playing for Arsenal” after a lot of transfer speculation.  He did survive the season, playing 36 games all told, but on 15 August 2011 signed for Barcelona.

6 August 2016: Ilias Chatzitheodoridis released by Arsenal and joined Brentford on a free transfer.  On 23 July 2018, Chatzitheodoridis returned to Greece to join Panathinaikos again on a free transfer.

6 August 2019: Laurent Koscielny left Arsenal to join Ligue 1 club Bordeaux for a reported £4.6 million transfer fee. Koscielny had spent nine years at Arsenal playing 255 times.

6 August 2023: Arsenal beat Man City in the Community Shield 4-1 on penalties New signings Havertz, Rice and Timber made their competitive debuts

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Elsewhere

The 1919 Affair:  How Arsenal were promoted to the first division – the only complete and detailed history of Arsenal’s election.

Day by Day the videos – An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order. 

Day by Day the stories– a key moment in Arsenal and footballing history for each day of the year

Henry Norris at the Arsenal:  There is a full index to the series here correcting 100 years of rumour and false allegations.

Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever

Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.