5 June 1922: concern about dramatic rise in transfer fees
On 5 June 1922 an interview with Arsenal chairman, Sir Henry Norris, appeared in the prestigious football journal, Athletic News. A key theme in the interview was the question of transfer fees which were once more on the rise. It was an appropriate time to hold such a debate since the summer of 1922 was a summer dominated by questions of money, both inside and outside of football.
In the pre-war era transfer fees had been rising inexorably until the record for the era was achieved in February 1914. That was a fee of £2500 for the transfer of Percy Dawson from Hearts to Blackburn Rovers.
In the first major post-war transfer David Mercer went from Hull to Sheffield United for £4500, an increase in the record of 80%. By March 1922 the record had risen to £5500 as Warney Cresswell went from South Shields to Sunderland.
This was a time when the government saw football as a source of revenue, particularly as Entertainment Tax had been introduced in 1916. It was set at either 25% or 50% of the cost of entering a football match.
However transfer fees were not taxed as such being considered to be allowable expenditure. In other words, in a very simple model, a club might have an income of £10,000, and spend £9000 on salaries and transfer fees. It had thus clearly made £1000 profit, and would pay tax on that £1000.
This was an encouragement to pay higher transfer fees to reduce the profit of successful clubs and reduce the losses of the less successful clubs. However Sir Henry appeared to feel the government was likely to change this rule and was also likely to argue that transfer fees could not be counted as expenditure and thus would be taxable.
Sir Henry also wanted to end the maximum wage that players could receive. He expressed in the interview his determination to try and push his point of view once more at the League’s AGM next time around. He also voted in the House of Commons on 20 June to keep Entertainment Tax, but only in certain circumstances – circumstances which effectively would remove it from being payable on entrance to a football match!
Unfortunately his desire to give footballers a fair wage, recognising the shortness of their career came to nothing as other clubs opposed this, and the maximum wage lasted until 18 January 1961 when it was finally deemed illegal.
4 June 1925: Herbert Chapman returned to England to talk about the vacancy at Arsenal
On 11 May 1925 Arsenal advertised for a manager. Herbert Chapman, who had just won the league with Huddersfield, and whose team had smashed Arsenal 5-0 at Highbury on February 14, applied. We don’t know for sure why he applied – maybe he had talked with Sir Henry on February 14, or maybe he fancied London, or maybe he wanted to prove himself again, or…
Knighton worked out his notice and left on 16 May 1925. Chapman’s Huddersfield were on a tour of Scandinavia, and returned on 4 June, and there was clearly then some talk between Chapman and Arsenal even if there had not been earlier.
Meanwhile Sir Henry Norris opened discussions about the transfer of Charlie Buchan. This was thus before Chapman signed for Arsenal – but Buchan claimed later that he was told about the transfer possibility by Chapman, which suggests the discussions between Sir Henry and Chapman started before the Scandinavian tour, and included the option of buying Buchan. Maybe Chapman made signing Buchan one of his demands for taking the job.
On 10 June Huddersfield’s directors met with Chapman to discuss the move to Arsenal, and on 10th or 11th June 1925 Chapman called Sir Henry to accept a job offer. Arsenal then bought a house in Hendon for Chapman and his family..
Around June 15 Arsenal announced that they had bought Highbury and some extra land from the College that was leasing it to the club (until now the ground had simply been leased). Yet another new era was starting.
On Monday 22 June 1925, exactly 32 years to the day after Jack Humble took the chair for the first ever AGM of the newly formed Woolwich Arsenal Football and Athletic Club Ltd, Herbert Chapman took up the job of Secretary Manager of Arsenal FC. An iconic moment if ever there was one.
On 15 August 1925 a crowd of 11,406 came to Highbury for a pre-season practice match. On 22 August at the second such game 13,269 turned up.
But then on 29 August the season kicked off with…. a 1-0 home defeat to Tottenham. Using much the same team as performed so poorly last season Chapman then produced four wins and two draws, ultimately taking Arsenal to its highest ever position in the league thus far: 2nd.
3 June 2008: The only man to play in the entire unbeaten season left Arsenal.
That may was, of course, Jens Lehmann, and on this day he transferred to VfB Stuttgart.
He remains the only player in the entire history of League football in England to have played through the complete season without ever being on the losing team. He played in total 200 games for Arsenal.
Through his career he was awarded
- UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year: 1997, 2006
- UEFA Club Football Awards Best Goalkeeper: 2005–06
- FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 2006
And that was not all, for with Germany he achieved this…
- FIFA World Cup Runner-Up: 2002
- FIFA Confederations Cup Third Place: 2005
- FIFA World Cup Third Place: 2006
- UEFA European Football Championship Runner-up: 2008
In 2012, Jens gave an interview about his time at Arsenal, and in particular his relationship with Arsene Wenger. He said that Mr Wenger “is a coach who not only inspires you on the pitch but as well off the pitch, because when you talk to him you are always finding it very exciting and you are always getting some great information about some other things in life.
“I think that makes a great coach as well. And he made Arsenal – he bought and sold so many players with a fantastic financial track record, that actually the new stadium and everything he has built comes down to him and to his performance.
“So I quite enjoyed working for him, whereas at times it was psychologically very, very demanding, and I still had to recover from that even years after.
“I was arguing with him quite often, particularly when he took me out of goal, but then after 20 minutes of arguments we would talk for another half an hour on private things, very smooth and relaxed, so there was always a professional relationship and a private one, and the private one is still very good right now, which is quite fortunate because I’m doing my coaching licence at Arsenal, and so I’m looking over his shoulder. They let me train the reserves sometimes and the Under 18s, which is a big gesture, and I really appreciate that.
What he didn’t mention is a particular connection he has with Mr Wenger. Jens studied economics at the University of Münster. Mr Wenger got his at the University of Strasbourg. They probably debated inflation and Thatcherite M3 theory.
In football terms, Jens Lehmann started out in 1988 with Schalke 04 and despite a difficult start he stayed for ten years. He even scored for Schalke with a penalty on two occasions. He also won the Uefa Cup with them, beating Inter in the final after saving a penalty in the shootout.
Jens joined Arsenal on 25 July 2003 to replace David Seaman, and despite his defeat-free first season he was criticised from the off. The criticism reached the point in the next season that he was replaced by Almunia, but Lehmann quickly regained his place, and became man of the match in the 2005 cup final – not least for saving Scholes’ penalty.
2 June 1936: Arsenal fined for putting out a weakened team.
In the 1930s, the Football League, dominated as it was by northern and midlands clubs who saw Arsenal as nothing other than southern upstarts who needed to be put in their place, announced that Arsenal should pay a £250 fine for playing weakened teams throughout the run up to the FA Cup Final.
On February 29 1936 Arsenal had beaten Barnsley 4-1 at Highbury in the 6th round of the FA Cup. With other clubs playing League matches that day Arsenal now had a couple of games in hand, but clearly had little chance of winning the League. However being in the semi-final Arsenal had every chance of winning the cup.
From this point on, new names started to appear in the Arsenal team for league games – players who had not made a single appearance before, during the season. Players like Cartwright (left half and right half), Kirchen (outside right), Cox (centre forward), Tuckett (centre half), Westcott (centre forward) and Bernard Joy, (centre half). Additionally Dougall, who had made one earlier appearance got a a run of games at inside left.
These players notched up 30 games between them during the remainder of the season – but (not surprisingly) not one of them played either in the semi-final of the Cup on 21 March against Grimsby, nor in the final on 25 April against ~Sheffield United.
On 4 March 1936 Arsenal beat Derby County away 4-0 which given Derby’s position in the league was a fair vindication of the team selection by George Allison, especially as new men Dougall, Kirchen and Cox all scored. And despite playing some reserves in the first team, and despite winning only two games in the last 14, Arsenal still came in 6th at the end of the season. But with three games to go before the end of the season Arsenal had won the cup on 25 April beating Sheffield U 1-0
1 June 2007, Gilberto captained Brazil against England
This was the first senior international match at the new Wembley Stadium.
Gilberto was not everyone’s favourite at Arsenal but he was so missed during a long absence with the back injury that after that fans seemed to love him more and more.
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 £4.5 million. How could the fee be so low? It took a while to make a guess, as we realised the issues with his former club.
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 yet none of with Arsenal might have happened, because Atlético Mineiro had not paid their players, they were banned from transfer deals, and there were problems getting the work permit.
But he did get the work permit, and the transfer was arranged, and it was Minerio’s problems with money that probably took the fee right down.
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.
Meanwhile he was suing Atlético Mineiro for his past wages, while also getting his first medal in the Cup Final win against Southampton.
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.
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.
Privately he is 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.
31 May 1893: Woolwich Arsenal FC elected to Division II of the Football League.
It was an amazing moment for the club, because at the time it was under a ceaseless assault from a rival organisation – Royal Ordnance Factories FC, which had been formed by ex-members of the Royal Arsenal committee who were working in cahoots with Arsenal’s landlord at the Invicta Ground.
Quite what the rival group thought they could achieve and how they could achieve it remains unclear. Maybe they thought that when the landlord of the Invicta increased the rent of the ground, the club would meekly bow down and accept. Perhaps they genuinely believed (as they implied in their press statements and letters) that Woolwich Arsenal was run by a bunch of nobodies and would quickly fail without their personal support.
Eventually Arsenal left the Invicta and set themselves up on the opposite side of the road at the Manor Ground – and even there Royal Ordnance Factories tried one last trick of allowing Arsenal to upgrade the ground ready for the new season, and then attempting to buy it from the landlord – leaving Arsenal bankrupt.
But what the Royal Ordnance Factories club didn’t realise was that they were dealing with men of reliance who believed in their club. Arsenal outwitted ROF FC on every issue – buying the Manor Ground themselves, and joining the League. ROF FC were left to join the Southern League – where they survived for three seasons, before calling it a day part way through their fourth season.
Royal Arsenal had turned professional in 1891, and contrary to reports elsewhere did not almost go bust when other clubs refused to play them. Far from it – everyone wanted to play Royal Arsenal FC, as they were by far the most famous team in the south.
Thus it was that they were accepted into the second division on 31 May 1893, and played their first match the following September.
This is, in fact, the day the modern Arsenal started.
30 May 2015: Arsenal win the Cup and break the records
30 May 2015:
Arsenal 4 Aston Villa 0, FA Cup Final. Walcott, Sanchez, Mertesacker and Giroud scored as Villa had five players booked to Arsenal’s nil.
Arsenal became only the second team in the 20th/21st centuries twice to win the Cup two years running. Arsenal also became the first team in those centuries to score seven in successive cup finals and the most successful FA Cup team of all time with 12 wins.
Arsene Wenger became the most successful FA Cup manager of the last 100 years with six wins but within two years would exceed even his own record to become the most successful FA Cup manager in the entire history of football.
In fact Arsenal went on to win the FA Cup four times in seven years – another record, winning it in 2014 against Hull, on this day in 2015 against Villa, in 2017 against Chelsea and then just to rub it all in, in 2020 again against Chelsea this time under Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal’s first win was back in 1930 under Herbert Chapman, and was Arsenal’s first major trophy. It was followed during that decade with the first five league titles and another FA Cup win.
29 May 1968 Sammy Nelson’s first team debut in a 4-0 victory over Japan.
He was one of Bertie Mee’s first signings – and was employed initially in the reserves on the left wing before moving to left back.
Sammy was born on April 1st 1949 in Belfast, and he joined Arsenal on his 17th birthday in 1966, right at the end of the Billy Wright era, which gives us two anniversaries in one.
Soon after he joined, Arsenal changed manager, and the new man, Bertie Mee, retained Sammy Nelson to play in the reserves, initially on the left wing, then later at left-back.
He made his first team debut on 25 October 1969 playing at left back. Bob McNab had been injured in the previous game and substituted – but he was back after missing just one match, so Sammy had to wait until December 6 for his second game – which like the first ended in a draw. In all he made four appearances in the league and he played in the drawn home game with Blackpool in the FA Cup 3rd round.
It was injuries to Bob McNab in 1971/2 that gave him more of a chance and he played 24 games and scored one goal. He also played six FA Cup games, but didn’t make the final. He was however by now playing for Northern Ireland and won 51 caps through his career.
The situation of Nelson only playing when McNab was not, continued until 1975/6 when McNab left, and Sammy became the first choice in the position, playing 36 league games that season.
He also played in three FA Cup finals (1978, 1979 and 1980) and the Cup Winners’ Cup final against Valencia.
He was finally displaced from the first team in 1980 by Kenny Sansom, and he left for Brighton, having played 339 league games, scoring 12 goals.
Amazingly though that was not the end of the highlights for him, as he played in the Manchester United v Brighton Cup final of 1983.
After retirement, he went on to be a coach at Brighton, before moving into insurance and working on the Legends Tour at the Emirates.
28 May 1934: George Allison becomes manager of Arsenal
George Allison was one of our great, great Arsenal managers winning two league titles, an FA cup victory and a third place. Among other things he won the League title for us in that extraordinary trio of seasons in which three different managers won the league in successive years.
George Allison was with the club from 1910 when he started editing the programme, until his retirement as manager after the second world war – an Arsenal man through and through.
When he started out as a journalist in London, few of the Fleet Street based journalists wanted to go to Woolwich Arsenal to watch matches because of the time it took to get back to Fleet Street after a game and file their copy.
But the press in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle etc expected some sort of report from Woolwich when the Reds were in the first division. So Mr Allison went to the matches and wrote half a dozen reports for different papers, all under different names, each with a slightly different perspective.
He later became the voice of football commentaries in the early days of BBC radio broadcasts, until Herbert Chapman banned the BBC from the ground, on the basis that the commentaries were giving away too many tactical secrets which Allison had picked up because of his closeness to the club.
Although not revered as Chapman is, his trophy haul is identical to that of Chapman, and his unpaid service to the club during the second world war when the team was forced to play at White Hart Lane, was immeasurable.
His autobiography, published upon his retirement is a fundamental source of information on Arsenal’s history, and counters the wild conspiracy accusations made by Chapman’s predecessor Leslie Knighton, which was published two weeks earlier.
27 May 2017: Arsenal win the FA Cup for a record number of times.
27 May 2017: Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 to win the FA Cup for a record 13th time.
It also made Arsene Wenger the manager with the most FA Cup victories in history. Alexis and Ramsey got the goals, while Moses was sent off for one of the most blatant and appalling dives in the history of the FA Cup.
It also made Arsenal the only team to win the FA Cup three times in four years, twice. The results also meant Arsenal won nine of their final ten games of the season.
As things stand in 2021 Arsenal have won the FA Cup 14 times, and been runners’ up seven times making a total of 21 appearances. The nearest team to them are Manchester United with 12 wins and eight defeats in the final, making 20 appearances.
Chelsea and Tottenham are next with eight wins and Liverpool come in fifth with seven, half the number of wins that Arsenal have had – although they have equalled Arsenal for being losing finalists seven times.
Mr Wenger is also the person to have won the FA Cup more than any other single person with seven victories to his name. Even the managers from the late 19th century when only a handful of teams entered the competition did not get to that total.
