SportsThoughtsA Brief History of ... Arsenal (LINK)
Welcome to the first in a new series of articles chronicling the histories of some of the proudest old clubs in England. If I'm giving your team a hard time in this series, please don't take it personally. Or do. I don't really care.
A Brief History of Arsenal
Arsenal Football Club was founded in 1886 by a group of workers at Woolwich gunnery in South London, and was originally known as 'Dial Square'.
Incredibly, this name never caught on, and was quickly changed to Royal Arsenal to reflect the club's renowned patriotic ties. But this didn't make much sense either, as the French Royal Family were already all dead and so weren't around to acknowledge the gesture. So they changed again to Woolwich Wanderers, I mean Woolwich Arsenal, before eventually settling on plain old 'Arsenal'.
It is a popular misconception that the name derives from the Woolwich Gunnery, but this is not so. Arsenal fans quickly became widely known for the unusual practise of sticking their heads up their own arses on the way to the game, and leaving it there for the rest of the day. A fan's arse was thus an "Arse – n – all" ... because for the duration of match-day they had to eat up their arse, speak out of their arse, read books up their arse, and of course take a crap out of it when the need arose.
Arsenal, or whatever they were called, were elected to the football league in 1893, and spend close to a decade of Spurs-like languishing in the second tier before making it to the big time in 1904. They endured a further decade of Spurs-like languishing here, doing nothing in particular, before being chased out of Sarf London by Admiral Nelson's forces in 1913. They regrouped and found refuge at Highbury, a humble plot in Islington, North London.
Cheating Arsenal ?
Arsenal were promoted in unusual circumstances in 1919. Tottenham had finished bottom of the first division, but were expected to retain their place because the division was being expanded by two teams, and the top two from the second tier were scheduled to go up. Arsenal weren't one of the top two teams from the second division, but colourful chairman Sir Henry Norris somehow managed to wrangle them a promotion, and this in turn led to Tottenham being relegated.
It was a pivotal moment: Arsenal have never been relegated since, while Tottenham hit the bottle, dropped out of school, got hooked on heroin, and was finally murdered by a treacherous centre-half in a lay-by off the A49 in 1998.
Herbert Chapman
Meanwhile Arsenal were going from strength to strength. In 1925 Herbert Chapman took over first-team affairs, and introduced the famous white sleeves/red torso shirt combination. It took Chapman a while to settle in, but once he had learned the language and was used to the smell of garlic, things really started happening for Arsenal.
Chapman delivered no fewer than five titles between 1931 and 1938, propelling the club from useful also-rans to one of the top teams in the world.
Boring, Boring Arsenal
After the war new manager Tom Whittaker added another two titles and an FA cup to the club's impressive trophy room, but the years from 1950 and 1969 were marked by yet another Tottenham-like era of mediocrity for the club. In 1969 Bertie Mee led the team to winning the Fairs Cup, their first European trophy. A couple of years later Arsenal won the mythical Double, and closed out the league in the best possible fashion: winning the title at White Hart Lane.
And then, wouldn't you know it, a Tottenham-like era of mediocrity. The club won a solitary trophy, the FA Cup in 1979, between the Double triumph of 1971 and the mid-eighties.
Until 'Gorgeous' George Graham took the helm in 1986, and won two leagues (including the famous 1989 title, won by Michael Thomas with the last kick of the season against champions Liverpool). Graham also won the European Cup Winners Cup with the Gunners, before being turfed out in a 'bungs' scandal.
After the ignominous reign of Bruce Rioch, characterised by a period of mediocrity which could only be termed 'Tottenham-like', Frenchman Arsene Wenger was drafted by Chief Executive David Dein to bring back the glory days.
This Wenger undoubtedly did, so far winning three leagues and four FA Cups, while consistently using his spooky voodoo/Jedi magic to unearth unknown talent like Patrick Viera, Manu Petit, Cesc Fabregas and more, and buy them for a song.
The club moved to the spectacular 60,000 seat Emirates Stadium in 2006.
Arseweb's Real History Here
A Brief History of Arsenal
Arsenal Football Club was founded in 1886 by a group of workers at Woolwich gunnery in South London, and was originally known as 'Dial Square'.
Incredibly, this name never caught on, and was quickly changed to Royal Arsenal to reflect the club's renowned patriotic ties. But this didn't make much sense either, as the French Royal Family were already all dead and so weren't around to acknowledge the gesture. So they changed again to Woolwich Wanderers, I mean Woolwich Arsenal, before eventually settling on plain old 'Arsenal'.
It is a popular misconception that the name derives from the Woolwich Gunnery, but this is not so. Arsenal fans quickly became widely known for the unusual practise of sticking their heads up their own arses on the way to the game, and leaving it there for the rest of the day. A fan's arse was thus an "Arse – n – all" ... because for the duration of match-day they had to eat up their arse, speak out of their arse, read books up their arse, and of course take a crap out of it when the need arose.
Arsenal, or whatever they were called, were elected to the football league in 1893, and spend close to a decade of Spurs-like languishing in the second tier before making it to the big time in 1904. They endured a further decade of Spurs-like languishing here, doing nothing in particular, before being chased out of Sarf London by Admiral Nelson's forces in 1913. They regrouped and found refuge at Highbury, a humble plot in Islington, North London.
Cheating Arsenal ?
Arsenal were promoted in unusual circumstances in 1919. Tottenham had finished bottom of the first division, but were expected to retain their place because the division was being expanded by two teams, and the top two from the second tier were scheduled to go up. Arsenal weren't one of the top two teams from the second division, but colourful chairman Sir Henry Norris somehow managed to wrangle them a promotion, and this in turn led to Tottenham being relegated.
It was a pivotal moment: Arsenal have never been relegated since, while Tottenham hit the bottle, dropped out of school, got hooked on heroin, and was finally murdered by a treacherous centre-half in a lay-by off the A49 in 1998.
Herbert Chapman
Meanwhile Arsenal were going from strength to strength. In 1925 Herbert Chapman took over first-team affairs, and introduced the famous white sleeves/red torso shirt combination. It took Chapman a while to settle in, but once he had learned the language and was used to the smell of garlic, things really started happening for Arsenal.
Chapman delivered no fewer than five titles between 1931 and 1938, propelling the club from useful also-rans to one of the top teams in the world.
Boring, Boring Arsenal
After the war new manager Tom Whittaker added another two titles and an FA cup to the club's impressive trophy room, but the years from 1950 and 1969 were marked by yet another Tottenham-like era of mediocrity for the club. In 1969 Bertie Mee led the team to winning the Fairs Cup, their first European trophy. A couple of years later Arsenal won the mythical Double, and closed out the league in the best possible fashion: winning the title at White Hart Lane.
And then, wouldn't you know it, a Tottenham-like era of mediocrity. The club won a solitary trophy, the FA Cup in 1979, between the Double triumph of 1971 and the mid-eighties.
Until 'Gorgeous' George Graham took the helm in 1986, and won two leagues (including the famous 1989 title, won by Michael Thomas with the last kick of the season against champions Liverpool). Graham also won the European Cup Winners Cup with the Gunners, before being turfed out in a 'bungs' scandal.
After the ignominous reign of Bruce Rioch, characterised by a period of mediocrity which could only be termed 'Tottenham-like', Frenchman Arsene Wenger was drafted by Chief Executive David Dein to bring back the glory days.
This Wenger undoubtedly did, so far winning three leagues and four FA Cups, while consistently using his spooky voodoo/Jedi magic to unearth unknown talent like Patrick Viera, Manu Petit, Cesc Fabregas and more, and buy them for a song.
The club moved to the spectacular 60,000 seat Emirates Stadium in 2006.
Arseweb's Real History Here
