16 April 1977

It’s Freddie’s birthday

Freddie Ljungberg was born on 16 April 1977 in Sweden and was spotted as a remarkable footballing talent from very early on,  as well as being noted for his ability in other sports.  Unlike many footballers he was also academically gifted, and started taking a degree, but then football took over.

Ljungberg made his debut for Halmstads on 23 October 1994 and was signed by Arsenal in 1998 for £3m.  It is said that Arsène Wenger had never seen him play when he signed him – but just saw him on TV.   The story however does not ring true in terms of the full picture, given the intense detail that Mr Wenger normally goes in.   Mr Wenger may not have seen Freddie, but he will have watched hours of video footage of Freddie and had numerous scouting reports.   Ljungberg repaid the faith by scoring within seconds of coming on against Manchester United in his debt on 20 September 1998.

Freddie was everything that Mr Wenger goes for – a man who loved football and who was always full of enthusiasm and hard work.  He was one of the midfielders who always seemed to drop back a little too much, but would then run in from that position.  With Pires playing in front of him out wide or drifiting into the middle or Bergkamp always finding positions to exploit, it was the perfect combination.  Indeed when Pires got his awful injury, Ljungberg simply slotted into his role.

And of course he had red hair, and his own perfect song to match.

There are so many things to say about Freddie’s time at Arsenal, not least that he was the first man to score a Cup Final goal outside England (at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff), and a penalty in the shootout 2005 final and  beyond everything he was an Invincible in the 49 run .But he got injured a lot, and also apparently suffered from severe migraines.  Mind you he didn’t always help himself – he got blood poisoning from his tattoos at one stage and it was thought he might have cancer.  He didn’t.

On 23 July 2007 he was sold to West Ham – a side that he captained.  But after a set of injuries he left just one year into his contract and then we had all the “spotted in” games the papers love.  He was spotted in LA, so he was going to play there (no he was going to get a tottoo).  He was going to Lazio, Monaco, everywhere, but he signed for no one and the transfer window closed, but he still kept on “being seen” and “being seen with.”

On 28 October 2008 Seattle Sounders signed him and he made an impact before going in for surgery on a hip injury.

From there he moved to Chicago and on 27 December 2010, Ljungberg joined Celtic and signed a short term contract, and in 2011 played briefly in Japan.  On 24 August 2012, Ljungberg announced his retirement from football.

On 12 June 2018 Freddie returned to Arsenal as under 23 coach and a year later joined the first team coaching squad. He became interim head coach after the sacking of Unai Emery. After Mikel Arteta was appointed Freddie was retained as assistant first team coach, but resigned soon after, but has said he intends to return to football coaching.

15 April 1921

To the away game by coach

1921 was a time of great industrial unrest in Britain, and on 3 April coal rationing was introduced, as a result of the miners’ strike.  The board of directors at Arsenal were undoubtedly already trying to work out how they would complete their away trips to Bradford, Liverpool and Newcastle in the coming days if, as expected the railway timetables were disrupted.

In the years before the war the major unions involving transport workers, railwaymen and miners came together in the Triple Alliance with a view to co-ordinating action in the event of attempts by employers to cut wages.  However during the war, the state had taken control of these key industries and had held back on any cuts in pay in order to avoid strikes during wartime and the possibility of political unrest.

The regulations prohibiting a reduction in salaries were removed on 31 March 1921, and pay cuts were almost immediately introduced.  The miners refused to accept this and were locked out.  It was expected that the Triple Alliance would now bring much of the country to a standstill by calling out everyone involved in transport, but there were delays and at first the miners alone came out on strike.

While the nation waited to see who would blink first in the growing industrial confrontation, the football continued.  Arsenal played Sheffield United away on 2 April and the result was a 1-1 draw with Rutherford scoring Arsenal’s goal in front of 35,000.

After this came the two games against Bradford who were looking to be certainties for relegation, and in the home match on 9 April  a crowd of 30,000 saw Arsenal win 2-1.  Goals from Toner and Rutherford saw Arsenal through, and the match was nominated as a benefit game for Arsenal’s long serving quartet of Bradshaw, McKinnon, Hardinge and Rutherford with each player guaranteed a minimum of £500.

Arsenal remained in 9th position but there was now hope they might creep a little further up the table as they had a game in hand over Middlesbrough who were now just one point ahead.

However by now the railways were becoming unreliable and so for the away game at Bradford Arsenal travelled by coach on the Friday instead of taking a Saturday morning scheduled train as was normal procedure.  It should be remembered that many of the roads were still little more than tracks, rather than tarmac (which was only invented in 1902).

However, while Arsenal were making their way to the game on 15 April, the executives of the non-mining parts of the Triple Alliance voted against strike action after differences between the mining unions and the transport unions emerged; in Trades Union circles it became known as Black Friday.  However there was some action as members of the Alliance were told by their unions not to handle imported coal – and this part of the deal held firm.

Despite the very long coach trip Arsenal won the game 1-0, with Toner getting the goal.  They were still one point behind Middlesbrough with a game in hand, but there was now a three point gap between Arsenal and the club immediately below them: Manchester United.

The following day policemen on motorcycles began to appear on London’s streets, and the day after that (25 April) Arsenal beat Preston 2-1 at home, Hopkins and McKinnon getting the goals.  Finally Arsenal had moved up from 9th to 8th just one point below Tottenham, although the crowd of 12,000 was disappointing even allowing for the that the match was played on a Monday afternoon.

14 April 1914

The Times gets Arsenal’s name wrong

On this day The Times, known as the ultimate newspaper of record for the country, reported that Woolwich Arsenal football club had changed its name.

Unfortunately, for the national newspaper of record that was not the case for this latest name change in the series did not happen until the club became “The Arsenal Football And Athletic Company Limited” sometime between 20 and 23 April. 

The Board publicly announced the new name on 23 April, but did not formally approve the change until 10 May 1915.

Arsenal had already been through several name changes, playing their first ever match as Dial Square FC (the name taken because only men from the Dial Square factory at the Royal Arsenal were in the side).

After that first game the newly formed club was opened to men from across the whole of the Royal Arsenal factories, and so became Royal Arsenal.

The next change of name which occurred in 1893 came about because the club had successfully applied to join the Football League, as its first club in London. 

League rules stated that all clubs had to be limited companies.   However Companies House regulations stated that no limited company could have a name that associated itself with the royal family. 

So Arsenal became Woolwich Arsenal, named after the factory complex (even though their ground was in Plumstead.  In fact, they never played in Woowlich).

When Arsenal moved from Plumstead to Highbury, Sir Henry Norris was keen to show that this was still the same club as before, and so for the first season the club proudly kept the name Woolwich Arsenal FC, but by the end of this season the board had clearly decided to amend the name.  “The Arsenal” it was.

The next change came with the dropping of the definitive article as “The” disappeared and we were Arsenal Football Club Ltd.   That was in November 1919.

The story has circulated that this change was proposed by Herbert Chapman when he joined the club in 1925 but this is completely false, as five seconds research reveals.

There was a plan in the 1930s to become London FC, but the plan was dropped on the grounds it was too arrogant.  No one claimed the name London in football, until West Ham gave that name to their borrowed stadium possibly in honour of the fact that London tax payers paid for it.

13 April 1895

Fans can turn on players – it has happened over the years.  Indeed it has happened all the way through the history of the club right back to the 19^th century.

Probably the first man to receive this treatment was Harry Storer who was born on 24 July 1870 and died aged just 37 on 25 April 1908.  He was an Arsenal keeper who has two very particular places in Arsenal’s early history, but sadly has no mention on Arsenal.com

Harry Storer (often referred to in reference books that do mention him as Harry Storer Snr) was born in Ripley, Derbyshire.

He is first noted playing for Ripley Town, followed by Derby Midland, Gainsborough Trinity and Loughborough, before moving to Woolwich Arsenal in May 1894 at the end of Woolwich Arsenal’s first league season.

Harry immediately joined the first team, and played in goal in the first game of the 1894/5 season  against Lincoln City on 1 September 1894. He missed the second game when Crozier came in for one match, but after that stayed in goal for the whole season except for the final game.

His rise to fame was rapid – Loughborough at the time of the transfer, played in the Midland League, and Arsenal were in the second division, playing just their second season.  And yet Harry Storer has the honour of becoming the first ever Arsenal player to win representative honours being selected for the Football League XI to play on 13 April 1895.  The game came one day after he played his final league match of the season – the 6-1 win over Walsall Town Swifts on 12 April 1895.

But even then he did not have the summer off for in 1895 Storer, played five cricket matches for Derbyshire.

Having achieved such all round fame and honour Storer was naturally first choice at the start of the 1894/5 season but then it all went wrong, for on 16 November 1895 Storer played his last match for Arsenal.  This last game he played was Woolwich Arsenal 0 Liverpool 2.

Obviously it was a defeat but the previous games were five wins and just one defeat.  What’s more Arsenal didn’t have an obvious backup and so could hardly afford to lose him.

After the defeat to Liverpool Storer was dropped (and he was not injured) and Arsenal had serious goalkeeping problems.  Amber played one game, then Hatfield played the next one, and then amazingly Boyle who had just played four games as a defensive midfielder, played four games in goal (in which run Arsenal incredibly won three of the four).  Next, Gilmer got three games and finally Fairclough came in and played in goal for the rest of the season (a total of nine games).

And that’s not all for Russell played in goal for Arsenal’s only FA Cup game of the season – a 6-1 away defeat to Burnley.  It was the Year of the Seven Goalkeepers.

So we know the last game he played was Woolwich Arsenal 0 Liverpool 2 and we know Storer was successful (five wins and one defeat in the last six), recognised as a fine keeper and not injured. 

But what we also know is that after the Liverpool game the club suspended him for a month.

And we know that when the suspension was over he was transferred to Liverpool – in December 1895, making his début for them against Manchester City on 1 January 1896, keeping his place from then on and helping Liverpool win promotion.

What seems to have happened is that in his final game at the Manor Ground, Storer was involved in an altercation with fans behind the goal, and he claimed that the spectators had behaved in a “disgraceful” manner.   Now this was not the only occasion in which goalkeepers of either team were given a hard time, and indeed one Arsenal keeper (who moved on to play for Tottenham) was so outraged as his treatment upon his return, he left the field of play and assaulted a spectator.

But with Harry Storer this is a case of Arsenal fans booing their own keeper – and not just their own keeper, but the club’s first representative player, and a man who was achieving considerable success in goal for the club – and had achieved more than any other Arsenal player at this time.

As Mark Andrews’ book on The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal revealed, as the crowds increased, one end of the ground (the Abbey Wood end) became the home of the barrackers.

Indeed, as Mark points out, so bad was the attitude of some of the crowd that local reporters often commentated on the fact that they were forcing decent minded supporters out of the ground.

So it seems that Storer stepped out of line in response to the booing and barracking (although we don’t know exactly what he did), and was suspended and then sold.  He continued to play for Liverpool until 1899 and stayed on the books until 1901.

Tragically he died just six years later in Derbyshire of tuberculosis.

And that is all we have on Harry senior, but we should also mention here others in his family.

Harry’s brother William played six test matches for England. But more attention should be given here to his son Harry Jr, who like his father and uncle played football and cricket, and became an England international and later a football manager.

Harry junior did not have the sadly foreshortened life of his father, and lived from 2 February 1898 to 1 September 1967.  After the first world war Harry played for Grimsby Town, Derby County and Burnley plus twice for England. Like his father he played cricket for Derbyshire.

Then in June 1931 Storer Junior became manager of Coventry City and took them to the 3rd Division (South) title in 1935/6.  Later he managed Birmingham City, and took them to the 2nd division championship in 1947/8.  He also won the 3rd Division North with Derby County in 1948 – an extraordinary set of managerial achievements.

12 April 1913, 2014, 2018

On 12 April 1913 Arsenal were relegated – although not quite.  After the results for that day came in it was clear that for Arsenal to remain in the First Division they would have to win their remaining two games (having only won three all season), Chelsea would have to lose both their games, and Arsenal would have to make up a 20 goal difference between the two clubs within the two matches.

Not impossible, but if it happened then the allegations of match fixing that had been seriously undermining football for the previous three years would now explode.

And in fact those match fixing allegations did explode, but not immediately, although as had been the case over the previous few years, they centred not on Arsenal, but on Liverpool and Manchester United.

Only 5,591 turned up to see the game between Arsenal and Derby on this day. Arsenal went 1-0 in the first half, and Derby scored a second goal early in the second half: it ended 2-1.  Arsenal were down and it looked like Notts County would go down with them.  It was the only time Arsenal have been relegated.

So, yes it is an anniversary for this day, and an important one to record, if a sad one, which is why I’m also noting two happier anniversaries for 12 April.

On 12 April 2014 Arsenal beat Wigan 4-2 on penalties in the FA Cup semi-final.  As a result  Arsenal equalled the all-time record for Cup semi-final success – and indeed the club had not finished yet for one year later they beat the record.  Mertesacker got the goal in normal time, Arteta, Kallstrom, Giroud and Cazorla scored their penalties. 

And just to make sure you are not still full of doom and gloom over that 1913 relegation, on 12 April 2018 Arsenal drew 2-2 away with CSKA Moscow to go through to the semi-final of the Europa League.

Which puts things in a slightly more positive light.

11 April 1977

On 11 April 1977 with 47,432 in the crowd the score was Arsenal 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0.   The result edged Tottenham closer to the second division and took Macdonald, who scored a little closer to the Daily Express’ prize of £10,000 to the first player to get 30 goals in the season.  It was a great relief to Arsenal who had just ended a run of eight consecutive defeats.

Yet despite that run of consecutive defeats, he had 22, and he needed 8 goals from 7 more games.

For this game Mac had tooth abscess and claimed he had not slept all night    Otherwise it was “lifeless”, the Tottenham  manager said, as well as trotting out the other chestnut of losing managers everywhere: “other results went very badly for us today.”  Tottenham were 21st out of 22 in the first division.  Arsenal were 9th, 

For the goal Osgood hesitated trying to pass back a long through ball from Brady that he had intercepted.  Macdonald slipped in between defender and keeper and scored.   Tottenham’s substitute keeper Daines kept Tottenham in the game to the end despite further efforts from Macdonald and one from Price.

Meanwhile playing against his old comrades Willie Young needed stitches in his forehead. The crowd expected nothing else.

But just because Arsenal’s awful run of defeats had ended it didn’t mean all was sweetness and light, nor victory after victory, and so it proved with the visit to Liverpool which ended on April 16 Liverpool 2 Arsenal 0, 48,174 in the ground.

The newspapers were full of Liverpool’s attempt to go one better than the Arsenal of 1971 and win the treble and buoyed by their drive to the championship, Liverpool managed to beat Arsenal at Anfield for the first time in four years.

For Arsenal Rimmer was the hero, keeping the score to a respectable level.  Throughout Arsenal looked nervy, and back passes by Rice and Brady put them into trouble.  In the end Liverpool relied on rebounds from shots, Neal and Keegan having little to do save boot the ball over the line.

After that it was back to the more mundane fair as Arsenal beat Coventry 2-0 at Highbury, to reassure fans that one defeat did not mean the start of another appalling run.   But the damage of that run had been done, as shown by the fact that just 22,790 showed up.   Rix got another outing when Ross went off, and Macdonald and Stapleton scored.

But the wins were not over and on 25 April there was another: Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 0.   But still the crowd was on the small side: 24,011

Armstrong, who had been asking for a transfer but was still at the club and back in the team got one of the goals, Nelson and Macdonald providing the others.

And in case the fans were thinking that all this talk of revival was all right, but it was all just a case of winning home games, on 30 April Arsenal won away, with the result Newcastle United 0 Arsenal 2, 44,763 in attendance, and the issue of Macdonald still on everyone’s lips.

The result made it six wins out of seven matches with  Macdonald (of course) and Matthews scoring,  Pat Howard, very much a stop gap player for the season, making his final appearance.

This was Macdonald’s first return to Newcastle after his £333,333  transfer and with Newcastle protecting an unbeaten home record and having just gone 11 without defeat, it was anticipated in the press that Arsenal’s recovery period would come to an end.

The Newcastle fans directed chants of the utmost obscenity Macdonald’s way, which was expected of course, and only seemed to spur him on further.  They were  only silenced when Macdonald scored on 42 minutes.  Stapleton took the corner, and Supermac headed home from five yards.  Silence reigned.  The second came on 55 minutes as Matthews scored with a shot that hit the keeper and bounced in.  From then on Macdonald spent the game shooting every time he got the ball.

The table at the end of April had a slightly healthier ring at the top end, and an amusing scenario at the foot of the table.  Arsenal had come out of their appalling run of defeats and were seventh.  Tottenham were sinking fast.

As the football season drew to a close, on 28 May 1977 Wimbledon, champions of the Southern League, were elected to the Fourth Division at the expense of Workington.

Then on 31 May England lost to Wales at Wembley, followed by a defeat to Scotland at the same venue on 4 June 1977.   The press made much of the invasion of the pitch by Scottish fans.  

Finally, on 4 July 1977, six weeks after winning the FA Cup with Man U., Tommy Docherty admitted his affair with Mary Brown, the wife of the club’s physiotherapist.  The club’s directors decided that he had broken their moral code of the club and he was sacked.

Liverpool won the league, Arsenal finished the season in 8th, and Tottenham came bottom and were relegated so it wasn’t all bad.

10 April 1948

Arsenal win the League

Arsenal won the First Division Championship by drawing with Huddersfield 1-1 with four games to go.  Arsenal then lost one and drew two of the remaining games before winning the final match 8-0.

After the game (and remember this was the era of two points for a win, not three) Arsenal had a lead over Manchester United of seven points, with United only having three games to play.  It was all over.

Indeed for many fans it would have looked all over on March 29 when Arsenal beat Middlesbrough 7-0, but this was the day when it all finally happened.

So here was the league table after the games on 10 April 1948

The results, after becoming champions in the second post-war league, quite amazingly were…

• Lost to Derby at home 1-2.   52,000 turned up for this match to celebrate the title, and probably not that many really minded the defeat.
• Drew with Portsmouth away 0-0
• Drew with Manchester City away 0-0
• Beat Grimsby Town home 8-0.  35,000 saw the last game of the season.

This was an absolute triumph for Tom Whittaker in his first season in charge.  That great and faithful servant to the club George Allison, had taken charge for the first post-war season (1946-7) but it had not been a success for him.  We opened with a 6-1 defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers, and although we recovered after that, finishing 13th in the league was not exactly what was expected from the club that had dominated the 1930s.

Even the FA Cup gave Allison no respite, as we went out in the 3rd round to Chelsea after two replays.

In fact 1947/8 was no better for Arsenal in the cup as we went out to Bradford 1-0 at home, and we put out pretty much the first team.

But the league triumph was what Arsenal wanted, to show that they could still do it in the post-war era as they did it in the 1930s.

Our top scorer was Ronnie Rooke  with 33 league goals from 42 games, including four in the final match against Grimsby. 

9 April 1943

James (Jimmy) Ashcroft is a player of enormous importance in the history of Arsenal as a club – a player who would adorn the outside of the Emirates Stadium if they took into account players from the Woolwich era.

He played for Woolwich Arsenal for eight seasons from 1900 – 1908 in goal, making 303 appearances of which 273 were in the league.   He was the first goalkeeper to play for us in the first division, the first Arsenal player to play for England (he won three caps), the first Woolwich Arsenal player to get over 300 games, and the first player to play eight consecutive seasons getting over 30 league games a season.  Having joined the team he played 154 consecutive matches, (something only exceeded once – see below). He was also in the two cup semi-finals that Woolwich Arsenal played.

Jimmy was born in Liverpool, on 12 September 1878 and is listed as playing for Wilbyn’s United, Garston Copperworks, Everton and Gravesend United, before reaching Woolwich Arsenal.   He is also recorded as being an amateur for Everton, and so presumably was an amateur for the clubs listed before that.  What took him to Gravesend is not clear, but Gravesend is only 18 miles from Woolwich and so he was probably talent-spotted at that club – or noticed when Arsenal played Gravesend.

Gravesend were not as obscure a club as we might think today, and they did win the Kent Senior Cup in 1898 and were in the first division of the Southern League in 1899/1900 (alongside Tottenham Hotspur).

Having transferred to Arsenal, Jimmy missed the first two games of the season, before playing against Burton Swifts on 15 September 1900 and then did not miss a single match for four years – something that has only been beaten once – by Tom Parker in the 1930s.

From this first game on he only let in 26 goals in 34 games that season, including 17 clean sheets and six consecutive games without conceding a goal (a club record, that was not equalled until 1998 – by Alex Manninger..  In 1903/4 he let in 22 goals in 34 game with 20 clean sheets.

In May 1908, Ashcroft signed for Blackburn Rovers for whom he played 114 games, before moving on to Tranmere Rovers at the end of the 1911/12 season.  He continued to play there until the outbreak of the first world war, when he retired from football.  He died on this day in 1943 aged 64 – a man whose contribution to the early Arsenal should most certainly be better remembered than it is.

8 April 1970

Arsenal 3 Ajax 0.  Fairs Cup semi final first leg.  (George 2, Sammels)

And we remember this day because it was a major step on the road to the first trophy since 1953. 

But perhaps we had realised that this might be the end of the drought right back on 18 March with the score  Arsenal 7 Dinamo Bacau 1   (Radford 2, George 2, Sammels 2, Graham) 35,342

Suddenly the season was taking on a much brighter hue.  We were winning in the league again (ok we had just won two games but we were still winning) and now we were slaughtering the opposition in Europe (and yes it was just one match, but even so…)

The positive feelings continued to the weekend as on 21 March Arsenal defeated Southampton at the Dell 0-2.   Sammels and George got the goals.

Then we had Easter weekend, and on 28 March Arsenal 2 Wolverhampton 2, to make it four without defeat after a dreadful run of ten without a win.  Graham got both goals.

Two days later Arsenal defeated Crystal Palace 2-0 at Highbury to make it four league wins in five.  It seemed like an Easter miracle in itself, the club rising from its death bed.  Of course no one in the press could say such a thing, but the relief around the club was palpable.  Radford and George got the goals.

Naturally the run didn’t last forever an a defeat at Ipswich followed on 31 March as Charlie George scored what was to be his last league goal until 1 February 1971.  During that time Arsenal missed his goal scoring prowess, but not enough to stop a trophy from being taken – at last.

For now it was back to the Fairs Cup.

• 8 April 1970: Arsenal 3 Ajax 0.  Fairs Cup semi final first leg  (George 2, Sammels)   46,271 came to Highbury
• 15 April 1970: Arsenal lost the return game to Ajax 0-1 but won overall 3-1 to reach the club’s first European final.  32,000 saw the game.

While earlier in the season there were gaps as long as a month between the two legs of a tie, now the matches seemed to appear with indecent haste as we then rushed straight into the final…

• 22 April 1970: Anderlecht 3 Arsenal 1, Fairs Cup final 1st leg.  Ray Kennedy scored with a late header to bring a glimmer of hope with the away goal.  However so unused was everyone to Arsenal winning any trophy, it was widely thought that Anderlecht would see out the second leg to take the Fairs Cup.   37000 saw the game.

But Frank McLintock had other ideas and he issued a post-match rallying cry at the press conference which raised the belief, and all the positive feelings that had emerged since the end of the 10 match barren run returned.

7 April 1994

On this day the death of Albert Sigurður Guðmundsson was announced.   And what this has to do with Arsenal is that he was not only the Icelandic Minister of Finance – he also played for Arsenal.

Albert Sigurður Guðmundsson is said to have been the first ever Icelandic professional footballer, and he included in his varied footballing career a couple of league games for Arsenal, as well as playing in France and Italy.

He was born on 5 October 1923 and is first found playing for Valurootball Club of Reykjavik (known as Valur) – one of the oldest athletics clubs in Iceland (it focuses on football, handball and basketball), which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011.

In 1944, with the second world war still raging, he moved to Scotland to follow a course in business studies, and then signed up with Rangers, moving from there to Arsenal where as an amateur he played in two league games in the transformative 1946/7 season under George Allison.

His first appearance was on 2 October 1946 in a friendly against Sparta Prague, a 2-2 draw.  This was a match in which the Arsenal team had a fairly traditional look including Swindin, Joy, Male, Leslie Compton, and Logie.

His opening league match was against Stoke at home on 19 October 1946, which Arsenal won 1-0 in front of a crowd of 62,000 (an amazing crowd considering Arsenal had previously only won two games and had lost six up to that point).  The team was much the same as in the friendly, although Reg Lewis (who scored 29 goals in 28 league games that season) was now back in the side.

Albert kept his place at inside right and played on 26 October 1946 away to Chelsea which Arsenal lost 1-2.

Although these were only matches 11 and 12 in the league season he was already the fourth person to occupy the number 8 shirt, and this position was not an exception.  Aside from the regulars Arsenal used 14 players that season who each played under 10 games – Albert was one of the continuing stream, but he played as an amateur because he did not have a work permit.

Arsenal certainly wanted him and he wanted Arsenal, but the employment restrictions made it impossible and he played his last match (still as an amateur) for Arsenal on 11 November 1946 in the annual game against Racing Club de Paris.  It is not surprising that there was an immediate interest from Racing in signing Albert.

It is difficult to be exactly clear about this, as different records give different accounts but it looks as if he played for Racing, and then moved on to AC Milan in 1948.

However a break of his knee ended his career at the highest level, and when Milan were not willing to pay for Albert to have the operation to put it right he left the club and paid for the operation privately.  He then returned to France, to play again for Racing, and subsequently Nancy for whom he was top scorer, before ending his playing career in 1956 in Iceland once more with Valur, as well as setting up a clothing wholesale business, importing women’s clothes, and later other goods, from France.

In 1967 he was awarded the Silver Badge of the KSÍ (FA of Iceland) for his work in football and the following year became chair of the KSÍ where he remained until 1973, when he was awarded the Gold Badge, and retired from football.

At this stage he started to develop his political work with the Independence Party.  He had become a councillor in Reykjavik in 1970 and a member of the Iceland Parliament (The Albingi) in 1974.

In 1980 he ran for President but lost to Vigdís Finnbogadóttir but continued his political career, and in 1983 he became Minister for Finance and in 1985, Minister of Industry.  However a tax scandal in 1987 forced his resignation, and his departure from the Independence Party, who he felt had not supported his case but had forced his resignation.

Then he formed a new party – the Citizen’s Party (Borgaraflokkurinn) and it received almost 11% of the popular vote in the general election in its first year, and he was joined in Parliament by his son Ingi Björn Albertsson, who was also a footballer, and who played for Iceland.

In 1989 he became Icelandic ambassador to France and remained there until 1993.  He died on 7 April 1994.

His great-grandson Albert Gudmundsson was offered a contract by Arsenal aged 16, but he decided to join SC Heerenveen instead.  Having trained with Arsenal from 2011 onwards he acknowledged his father’s footballing achievements, but said he didn’t yet feel ready to join a club as big as Arsenal.