8 August 1923: The wonderful Jimmy Brain was signed.

Having had an unsuccessful trial with Cardiff, he became a miner playing part time for Ton Pentre.  The signing suggests that the manager’s network of scouts  had not been forcibly wound up by Sir Henry Norris as Knighton later suggested.  Brain was kept on by Chapman, playing 204 league games for the club and ending up with 125 goals.

On Saturday 4 August the directors gave a dinner at the Hotel Cecil in central London, for the players.  The occasion, “was the (supposed) retirement from playing of Jock Rutherford…  Yhe directors of the club were present; on their behalf, Henry Norris presented Rutherford with a silver tea and coffee set.”

On 6 August the club 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 we must remember football inflation is way above general inflation.

£5000 in 1923 was about the world record for a transfer and this profit for a football club was exceptional.  It meant that the long running debt to Humphreys Limited (who had built Archibald Leitch’s grandstand at Highbury) after the club moved in 1913, had finally been paid off.

But the club was still not debt free, for the accounts show loans of £8510 from Sir Henry Norris and William Hall still on the books, and a further list of other creditors with claims totalling £4344, presumably including the bank.  But one huge debt was out of the way at last and the gamble of moving to Highbury was working financially.

Then on 8 August, Arsenal’s manager Leslie Knighton showed that he could find and sign talented players.  If he had a problem it was that he simply couldn’t do it often enough.   This player was Jimmy Brain from Ton Pentre, a team that still plays in the Welsh League.

Jimmy was born in Bristol, had an unsuccessful trial with Cardiff, before becoming a miner in the Rhonda Valley at which time he joined Ton Pentre as a part time player.  The signing suggests that the network of scouts that Knighton made so much of in his autobiography had not been wound up by Sir Henry Norris as Knighton alleged, as this really does look like a signing based on what a player might do, rather than what he had done. 

In 1931 Jimmy was sold to Tottenham where he was not a success and after 45 games moved on to Swansea, then Britsol City and finally Cheltenham Town.

As a PS perhaps I might also add that on 8 August 2009 at the AISA AGM held at Highbury House, the Arsenal History Society was established as a body in its own right within AISA.  It quickly launched a series of books which transformed our understanding of Arsenal’s history correcting numerous errors that had previously been taken as fact.  This page is an example of our work!

7 August 2002: Gilberto Silva joined Arsenal from Atlético Mineiro

Gilberto joined for £4.5m despite Atlético Mineiro being placed on a transfer embargo because of unpaid wages and difficulties for him getting a work permit.  Prior to coming he had twice given up football to work in a sweet factory due to financial difficulties at home.

But he became The Invisible Wall both for Arsenal and Brazil.

And on 1 June 2007, Gilberto captained Brazil against England at the first senior international match at the new Wembley Stadium. I remember sitting in a hotel bar watching the game just thinking over and over, “an Arsenal man is captain of Brazil”.

At the time he was not everyone’s favourite at Arsenal but he was so missed during the long absence with a back injury that after that fans seemed to love him more and more – I still remember the cheer of when he came back from the long lay off.  And quite right too.
He started as a footballer in 1997 with a tiny team, and by 2002 he was playing all of Brazil’s games in the World Cup finals.  It was quite a rise to success in five years.

And then he came to Arsenal for just £4.5 million.  What a coup by Wenger.

And after that he was an Invincible winning the 2003/4 League.  On 19 August 2006 he scored the first league goal at the Emirates.  He also won the cup twice and played 170 games in all before moving to Panathinaikos in 2008.

Gilberto played his first game for Arsenal on 11 August 2002 as a sub in the Community Shield, and he scored the winner.  Not a bad start.

But we also had Edu and at first it was unsure who would be the top man in midfield.   Eventually Gilberto won, Edu moved on.

He played 32 of the 38 unbeaten games as an Invincible but it was at the start of the next season that things started to go wrong… the things ultimately diagnosed as a fractured back.   It looked like he would never play again.

But by September 2005 Gilberto, having fully recovered from his injury which affected him for 18 months said he wanted to stay at Arsenal for the rest of his career and despite problems earlier in the season he then played in the Champions League final.   But the problems intensified after Henry left and Gallas, seemingly disruptive where ever he went, moved in, and up to captain (rather than Gilberto who was vice captain).

That seemed to unsettle Gilberto, and matters were worse when in came Flamini,  and Gilberto found his place was under threat.   But Flamini jumped ship refusing to sign a new contract, preferring to move to AC Milan for a higher salary but (as it turned out) far fewer games, and by 2007–08 Gilberto was back in favour with 36 appearances, although many of these were in Cup competitions.  Thus the captain of Brazil was not always picked for Arsenal.  It was bizarre.

Privately he became a patron of The Street League, which organises football matches for homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers.   It is a patronage which, it seems to me, reflects his own humble beginnings.    And he’s a mandolin player and a guitarist – he is reported to have played in his local pub while playing for Arsenal.

And as you may have guessed from the tone of this little piece, he is perhaps the Arsenal player I would most like to meet, the Arsenal player I admire hugely, and the Arsenal player I was so sorry to see leave.  I think he should have stayed longer and I remember him at Arsenal so fondly.

6 August 1977: Pat Jennings signed for £45,000.

By this date Pat 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.

Before Pat Jennings we had John Rimmer who was signed by Bertie Mee, and before him Bob Wilson, backed by Geoff Barnett.

Pat’s story starts amazingly – apparently he played for the under 18 team of Shamrock Rovers while aged 11, and then moved across to Gaelic football.

But of course he eventually returned to football, and played with Newry Town before moving to Watford in the third division in 1963.  He played for them 48 times – including a complete league season, and also playing for Northern Ireland -(playing his first game for N Ireland aged 18).  Tottenham H bought him for £27,000 after one season at Watford.

Pat played for Tottenham for 13 years, playing 591 competitions, winning the FA Cup, two league cups and a UEFA Cup.  He famously scored in the 1967 Charity Sheild kicking the ball from his own area into the Man U area.  It bounced over Stepney.  I remember seeing it on TV, and watching how Pat simply didn’t react.  He almost looked embarrassed.

He won the Football Writers and the PFA footballer of the year awards on different occasions.  And then amazingly…

In August 1977, he came to Arsenal.   The reason was, I believe, Tottenham thought it was time for a new younger man in goal – Pat was 32  at the time, and this was the era before older keepers were the norm.   And maybe Arsenal thought at first he was going to be a backup – but true to style he came into the first team and played every league match, FA Cup and League cup match that season – 55 in total.

He played in the three successive FA Cup finals, (1978, 1979, and 1980) and so is I think the only man who has won the FA Cup with ourselves and Tottenham.

He retired in 1985 having become the first player ever in the English game to play over 1000 senior matches.   His last match was away to West Ham on December 5 1981.  He was replaced by George Wood.

Pat then returned to Tottenham H playing for their reserves in preparation for  Northern Ireland’s 1986 World Cup campaign and played his last international aged 41 – apparently the World Cup’s oldest ever participant.

He then became a goalkeeping coach at Tottenham and continued his Tottenham, rather than Arsenal connection, as a corporate host in the Pat Jennings Lounge at White Hart Lane.  He may well however have at least seen Arsenal win the League while there.

5 August 2012: Nigeria v Arsenal – “postponed”

In 2011 Arsenal looked to have fallen from grace, the Wenger magic finally deserting the club.  Pre-season was horrific and by early October we had sunk to 15th.  After that start fourth would have been a miracle or at least a trophy.  Amazingly we came third. Faith was restored.

Those of us who habitually followed the pre-season games with interest and hope were therefore not particularly amused with the news that the game on 5 August 2012 (Nigeria v Arsenal) was “postponed.” Surely after all these years the club could put together a pre-season properly,

That 2011 pre-season had brought a draw with Hangzhou Greentown (China), a 2-1 victory over Cologne, draws with Boca Juniors and New York Red Bulls and a defeat to Benfica.

And we had learned that bad pre-seasons meant bad openings of the season.  Two defeats and a draw in the first three games of 2011/12 including the 8-2 defeat to Man U on 28 August, and a 0-2 home defeat to Liverpool suggested this was going to be tough.  

So 2012 pre-season needed to be better.  It needed to be organised.  It needed to give us a sense of direction.  Lukas Podolksi joined, and Olivier Giroud was added to the rosta in June which looked good.

But the release notices followed with Almunia, Carlos Vela, Gavin Hoyte, and Klye Bartley going, later followed by Van Persie and Alex Song – which gave rise to fears that another summer of disaster was on hand.  Almunia heard not long after he moved clubs that he was suffering from a rare illness that meant his playing days were now over.

On the non-playing front Pat Rice retired, Steve Bould became assistant manager and Neil Banfield joined Boro Primorac as joint first team coaches and Terry Burton as reserve team manager.

While not everyone yet realised just how brilliant a find Laurent Koscielny was, Wenger certainly knew, and he signed a new contract.  Wenger later said he was the best value transfer he’d completed.

And then the magic: Santi Cazorla came from Málaga whose venture into oil wealth had gone seriously wrong. Thomas Vermaelen became captain and Mikel Arteta was given the vice-captaincy.  Nic Bendtner and Park Chu Young went off on year-long loans.

So yes, it felt like the chaos was being set aside (especially for those who knew a little something about Santi Cazorla) but still we couldn’t settle as the pre-season was disrupted by The London Olympic Committee, who bent the knee to the insatiable demands of the Olympic organisers who in turn insisted that Arsenal did not hold the now traditional Emirates Cup.  Threatened with legal injunctions Arsenal had no choice but to give in, as London’s roads shut down and the equivalent to Zil Lanes were installed to whisk to organisers from one venue to another. It felt (to me at least) like Moscow.

Therefore Arsenal found themselves a game that was could be played in Abuja Nigeria but then that game suddenly vanished from the list.  That chaos was following us. 

In the end we started with…

14 July 2012: M Liebherr Cup (two 45 minute matches, played at Southampton)

• Arsenal 1 Anderlecht 0 (Lansbury)
• Southampton 1 Arsenal 1 (Gervinho) (Southampton won 5-4 on penalties)

And then the more traditional…

• 21 July 2o12: Boreham Wood 1 Arsenal 3 (Watt, Okpom, Olsson) (Wrongly reported on Wikipedia at the time as 1-9!!!)
• 24 July 2012: Malaysian XI 1 Arsenal 2 (Eisfeld, Aneke)
• 27 July 2012: Manchester C 2 Arsenal 0
• 28 July 2012: Stevenage 0 Arsenal 0
• 29 July 2012: Kitchee 2 Arsenal 2 (Hong Kong) (Walcott, Eisfeld)
• 1 August 2012: Dartford 2 Arsenal XI 1 (Watt)
• 4 August 2012: Chesham Utd 2 Arsenal 6 (Roberts 2, Neita, Jebb, Akpom, Lipman)
• 5 August 2012: Nigeria v Arsenal – “postponed” (in effect cancelled)
• 12 August 2012: Köln 0 Arsenal 4 (Vermaelen, Podolski 2, Gervinho)

One little detail to mention here – the game against Chesham.  In the starting XI was also Hector Bellerin.  From Chesham to the Cup Final in under three years.

There has never been a full explanation for what happened to the Nigeria game but the Arsenal web site said, “Bringing a top-level club to an international market is always complicated and logistically challenging. With the proposed match in Nigeria planned for early August, we could not get comfortable on everything needed to satisfy our requirements, so we have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the team’s visit.

“We have a huge and loyal following in Africa, and we are sorry that the team will not be visiting this summer. However, we have a long-term commitment to Nigeria and we are already making plans for a visit next summer.”

In fact the visit didn’t happen in 2013 either and indeed never happened..  Instead Arsenal went to Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and Helsinki.

4 August 1948: Death of David Danskin.

Although oft reported as a founding father of Arsenal he was at the club only a very short while, and although he stood for election to the Committee that ran the club, in 1892, he was not elected because his views on the future of the club did not coincide with the majority.  Danskin wanted an amateur club, while the majority of the committee favoured paying the men who gave up their time to play for the club. 

And it is interesting that the story of Danskin as part of the heart of Arsenal lives on, for in fact, after he was voted off the committee Danskin went so far as to work with others to create a rival club whose main aim was to bring about the demise of Woolwich Arsenal FC..

This rival club was Royal Ordnance Factories FC, the club whose own committee included men who had sought to bankrupt Royal Arsenal’s members by bribing the owner of the Manor Ground (which Royal Arsenal were moving into) to up the rent of the ground dramatically, after the directors of Arsenal had personally guaranteed the loans that were necessary to pay for converting the field into a football ground.

Fortunately for Arsenal, the landlord of the Manor Ground was made of more honourable stuff and he refused to be part of such an underhand trick, and so Arsenal moved grounds while Danskin helped form a new amateur team: Royal Ordnance Factories FC which played on the opposite side of the road.

This club took a number of Royal Arsenal players with it, including: Peter Connolly, William George, Jack McBean, Jimmy Meggs and Mr McKenzie (whose first name is now lost).  Bobby Buist and William Stewart of Woolwich Arsenal joined a little later – probably around 1895.

However Royal Ordinance Factories FC never really thrived and there were financial problems throughout.   Peter Connolly, one of the leading lights in the club, died in 1895, and the club left the Southern League after playing just the first seven games of the 1896/97 season.  All the games were lost and apparently the side let in 46 goals.

ROF’s final game was a friendly against an actors’ XI.

Quite how Danskin’s reputation was retrieved after such a shameful association with the group that tried to destroy not only Woolwich Arsenal FC but also the lives of the men who guaranteed its loans, I can’t say.

3 August 2012 Benik Afobe loaned to Bolton

There are players who for a while catch the eye as one for the future, but who then fade from our awareness as they move on to loans, pastures new, and sadly injury. Such is the story for Benik Afobe

On 3 August 2012 Benik Afobe was loaned to Bolton all season scoring two goals in 20 games and suddenly found himself in the headlines as an Arsenal player – and yet curiously in his six years at Arsenal (2010-15)  he did not play a single game for the club’s first team. 

He did however have six loan spells including a year with Huddersfield where he played 28 times, and a season with Bolton (five games).  His final loan spell of the era was with MK Don (22 games), before he made a permanent transfer to Wolverhampton Wanderers with 46 games and 22 goals across one season.

That grabbed the headlines and he moved to Bournemouth but only managed 10 goals in 63 games and so was loaned back to Wolverhampton where he got six in 16.

But his career was blighted by injury and he has since then continued his roaming taking in Stoke City, Bristol City, Trabzonspor and finally Millwall for whom he is signed this season.  

He also played for England at under 16, 17, 19, and 21 level and for the Democratic Republic of Congo at senior level.

2 August 1999: Davor Šuker arrived from Real Madrid while Nic Anelka was sold to Real Madrid

Davor Šuker scored two in his first game, but it took eight games for another summer arrival (a certain Thierry Henry) to score.  

In all the summer incoming transfers were Oleg Luzhny for £1.8m, Silvinho for £4m, Suker £3m, and a certain Mr Henry £11m.

Out: Stephen Hughes (loan), Jason Crowe (£600,000), Diawara (£2.5m), Bould (£500,000), Anelka (£25m).

Injured at the start of season were Seaman, Adams, and Overmars although the latter was on the bench for the opening game against Leicester which opened with

Manninger

Dixon Keown Gremandi Winterburn

Parlour Vieira Petit Ljunbert

Kanu Bergkamp

We won 2-1 and Henry came on as a sub. Luzhny and Suker did not appear; Bergkamp scored and the other was an own goal.  Henry however was joint top in the appearance chart by the end of the season with 31 (along with Overmars, Kanu, Silvinho and Vieira) and he was top scored with 17.  No one else made it into double figures.

Overall it looked promising – we had new players enough to be able to bring people in slowly, rather than rushing them in, and although Henry looked bemused many of us by always playing on the wing.  (I actually wrote in a report at the time that he looked “as if he might play in row Z of the East and West stands given the chance, rather than down the middle”, but there was hope with two wins and a draw from the first three games.

Unfortunately, Manchester United beat us at home (ending nearly 2 years unbeaten at Highbury)  and further defeats to Liverpool and West Ham meant that although the start was better than the year before, we had suffered three defeats in the first ten league games.

Worse in terms of players was that the FA started its long vengeful campaign against Vieira, which lead many of us to feel that the FA was going to try and get foreign players (or maybe just Arsenal foreign players) out of the league.  After a two yellows and a spitting incident Patrick was banned for six games.  Compare and contrast that with Shawcross getting three for his violent assault.

Worse in terms of defeats was to come later with a defeat to Tottenham in November and away to Coventry on Boxing Day.

But many felt at the time part of the trouble was that the team was not settled – there were injuries all the time, with Manninger, Luzhny, Grimandi, Adams, Upson, Silvinho and Kanu coming and going.

Henry did finally score in his eighth game (against Southampton – he came on as a sub) and Suker scored a couple in his first game, so there were a few bright sparks, but from the start Man U were ahead.

And there was one other thing we will remember all our lives… beating Chelsea 3-2 after being 2-0 down, with Kanu scoring all three in the last five seconds, (or so it seemed). The final goal involved the ball travelling one way, turning at 180 degrees and coming back into the goal.

I may not be completely right there in terms of the technical details, but that’s how it felt.

1 August 1980: After 235 league games Liam Brady transferred to Juventus for £514,000.

The tragedy of Liam Brady is that he came to the first team just at the wrong time.  Having won the FA Youth Cup and youth league double in 1971, while the big boys were winning the FA Cup and Football League, Liam moved up as the club went into rapid decline.

In 1973/4 he made his first appearances for the first team, generally to rave reviews, and on 30 April 1974 scored his first goal – in the game in which Bob Wilson played his last game for the club. 

By 1975 the club spent much of the season playing in the relegation zone, escaping only in the latter part of the season to come 16th.  In 1976 when Liam played 41 of the 42 league games we were even worse and came 17th, were knocked out of the FA Cup in the third reason and the League cup in the second.

Liam of course did win some trophies: the FA Cup in 1979, and Serie A with Juventus in 1980/1 and 1981/2 and played in the Cup Winners Cup Final.  He also won 72 caps for Ireland.

During the Terry Neill era things did pick up and with Macdonald and Stapleton up front matters improved a bit, and he played in the three FA cup finals of the era, but it was not to be.

However he gave us one of the great, great moments – one of those moments which if you were there, stay with you forever.  At White Hart Lane on 23 December 1978.  Somewhere way out from the goal (I remember it as the half way line but I think it was closer to the penalty area!) he sent a shot right across the Tottenham goal and in to secure a 5-0 win.

And then he lifted his arms, and turned to the Shelf and stood there.

He became the first non-British player to win the PFA Player of the Year award but in 1980 signed for Juventus for £500,000 having played 307 games, scoring 59 goals.

After Juve he went on to Sampdoria, Inter and Ascoli in Italy, and then West Ham.  He retired in 1990, scoring in his last game.

After that it was to management: Celtic (1991/3) and Brighton (1993/5) but had no success with trophies.

But then he came back to Arsenal as Head of Youth Development and Academy Director.  In this regard he won

• 1998: FA Premier Youth League
• 2000: FA Youth Cup
• 2000: FA Premier Academy League (under 17s)
• 2001: FA Youth Cup
• 2002: FA Premier Academy League (under 19s)
• 2009: FA Youth Cup
• 2009: FA Premier Academy League (under 18s)
• 2010: FA Premier Academy League (under 18s)

31 July 1995: Celtic 2 Arsenal 1.

This was not a pre-season game that one would normally remember or highlight, but it came at a time as speculation mounted that the Arsenal manager Bruce Rioch was going to be sacked after just one season.  And indeed just one season in which he had got Arsenal back into Europe.  There was talk of who might come in, but no one got anywhere near the correct prediction.

None of us knows, of course, what happened when Bruce Rioch left and Arsene Wenger arrived.  We know that Rioch finished the previous season of 1995/6 in a bit of style, but had a dreadful 1996 pre-season.  Was it the pre-season that finished him off?

But we also know that David Dein had met Arsene Wenger long before, and been impressed by him.

So was the club trying to get Mr Wenger some time before, only to find he wouldn’t break his contract in Grampus 8, or was there really the breakdown in communication between players and Rioch, which has been mentioned in some quarters?

Certainly, Arsenal had shown significant resolve to move forwards during the 18 months prior to Wenger’s arrival.

In terms of win percentage Rioch was Arsenal’s 11th most successful manager with 46.81% win ratio – but that was over just 47 games.

Two big name signings were brought in to boost the team at the start of the Rioch era – Bergkamp and Platt signed in the summer of 1995.  At the end of the season the club finished 5th, but Arsenal were undone by two very poor patches.  15 games from the 30 October to 3 February resulted in just five wins.  The last five games of the season resulted in just one.

With Platt and Bergkamp in the team, the famous back five still showing that they could do their stuff, and Ian Wright able to knock in goals anywhere anyhow, it should have been third, at least.

So July 1996 was a time for some serious re-arrangement to boost the team, but we got only John Lukic on a free and Valur Gíslason who actually never played for the club.

My view is that the final nail for the manager was pre-season.  A 0-6 away win to St Albans City on 19 July, with a team including much of the first team regulars like Dixon, Merson, Stephen Hughes etc, told us little, but the defeats that followed revealed a lot:

• 27 July 1996: Birmingham 1 Arsenal 0
• 31 July 1995: Celtic 2 Arsenal 1
• 3 August 1996: Rangers 3 Arsenal 0
• 7 August 1996: Fiorentina 2 Arsenal 0; Benfica 3 Arsenal 1 (two 45 minute games)
• 10 August 1996: Ipswich Town 1 Arsenal 1

And this in a team that boasted Platt and Bergkamp (whose transfer broke the English transfer record), plus the famous back five.

There was talk over Rioch not being happy with the transfer fund available (but would you give more money to a man who had failed to make an impact with the team available?)  There was talk of a breakdown in the relationship with David Dein.  Stewart Houston was back in charge, Pat Rice was the first team coach, and the papers talked up all the possible managers:

Johan Cruyff, George Graham, Terry Venables, David O’Leary…

When Stewart Houston was told he was not being considered he left to be manager of QPR, Pat Rice taking over as interim.  Arsène Wenger was not announced until his contract in Japan was finished, but everyone knew by then, and his impact even before he arrived, was huge.

30 July 2007 Jose Antonio Reyes, one of the Invincibles, left Arsenal.

He had just had a season long loan with Real Madrid, playing 30 games for them, having played 69 for Arsenal across three seasons.

Reyes is one of the players who was part of the unbeaten season whose name is sometimes forgotten when remembering that year.  Pascal Cygan got 10 starts, only two short of Parlour, for example.  And Joes Antonio Reyes started 7 and was a sub in 6.

Reyes was born 1 September 1983, started with Sevilla aged 16, joined Arsenal aged 20 having played 86 games for Sevilla.  He managed 69 league starts for Arsenal between 2004 and 2007 before going to Real Madrid on loan, then Atlético Madrid then Benfica on loan then Sevilla to which he returned in 2012.

Overall for us he only scored 16 goals, but they came in bursts, most notably six in six at the start of the 2004/5 season.  Otherwise, he just didn’t happen for him and inconsistency was the name of his game.

There were always stories about Reyes.  He was from a Romani family (Gitanos) and the tales were from the start that no only could he not speak English, but also that could hardly be understood by his team mates in Spain, because of the thickness of his accent.   He only liked the local food that his family provided, and in essence was endlessly homesick for a totally different lifestyle – although it is said his parents and his brother moved to England to be with him.

On 21 May 2005 he was sent off in the FA Cup Final, only the second player to suffer the indignity but then signed a new six year contract soon after and in 2006 played in the Champions League final.

But after that it was all downhill, with Real Madrid taking up the role of targeting players and deliberately unsettling them. 

In the summer of 2006 Reyes left for Real in a one year exchange deal with Júlio Baptista.  On 30 July 2007 it was announced Reyes had left Arsenal for good. 

On 1 June 2019, Reyes died at the age of 35 following a car accident while travelling with his cousins, Jonathan Reyes, who also died, and Juan Manuel Calderón, who was taken to a hospital in serious condition.   Stories circulated about the speed of the car being 135mph, but these were disputed.