In 1892 the professional football club Royal Arsenal FC came under attack. The enemy was a coalition of the owner of the club s ground, and a small group of men who had recently lost their places on the committee that ran Royal Arsenal. The battle between the two camps raged into 1893 and saw the most outrageous acts of bribery and corruption, combined with a vicious campaign of lies and innuendo conducted in the local newspapers. Eventually those who had lost their places on the Royal Arsenal committee set up their own club to play at the landlord s ground, forcing Royal Arsenal to move elsewhere. Only the dedication, determination and sacrifice of a small group of Royal Arsenal men saw their club through, as they created Woolwich Arsenal FC, and took the club into the Football League. At first the new club was something of a success, gaining promotion to the first division and playing in two FA Cup semi-finals. It was also an innovator, being the first League club in the south of England and the initiator of large scale away support. But then a financial hit the club, and once again it was threatened with extinction, only to be rescued at the last moment by the most unlikely of patrons: Henry Norris, a director of Fulham FC. Norris then took the club on a most incredible journey across the Thames to a new ground that he built. In just a few months he created a new ground for Woolwich Arsenal the ground that came to be known as Highbury. Without Woolwich Arsenal FC and the men who built it, cared for it and nurtured it, there would be no Arsenal FC today. And yet until now there has never been a single history of the club produced. Now that omission is rectified with the publication of this book. It contains a huge level of detail never before revealed, corrects large numbers of errors that have appeared in previous general histories of Arsenal, and includes detailed analyses of the club s crowd (and the crowd problems that arose at the ground) profiles of the club s 100 most important players, and details of the club s progress in both League and Cup.
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When we set out to create the first ever book on Woolwich Arsenal FC, I hoped we would do something a little bit different. I have to admit that I had no idea this book would ultimately turn the whole of Arsenal's history upside down. It is not just that we showed that many of the old stories were simply untrue (for example that people couldn't get to the ground because transport was so bad) it is that we found so many new items to report. And among all this information that was sitting there in the ancient archives of the Woolwich daily papers, we found one stunning fact: that Woolwich Arsenal was not some small time Football League team, but was in fact just about the most famous football club in the world. Quite how they managed that achievement without ever winning a trophy stumped all of us at first - but gradually we uncovered the evidence that showed us how this happened. And with that fact everything else began to become clear. Why did the club split in half in 1893? Why was it so vital to have control of this particular club? Why was it that this club broke the embargo on League Football south of Birmingham? Why did Henry Norris invest a considerable amount of his fortune first in rescuing the club in 1910, and then in building the club a new stadium in 1913? Why was it that Woolwich Arsenal, of all clubs, invented the concept of away travel? And why were their travelling supporters always in the news? And why were the reports of people in the crowd at Cup Finals chanting The Arsenal.... The Arsenal..... when a) Woolwich Arsenal were not in the Final, and b) ...The Arsenal... wasn't the name of the club at that time? These and 100 other questions were gradually answered as we did our research and as we realised that we had stumbled upon the most amazing story in football. Of course our research does show that all the other histories of Arsenal are wrong, both in their broad spread and in their detail. I am not sure what they are going to do about our research - but fortunately that is a problem for them. Woolwich Arsenal FC was indeed the club that changed football. In the late 19th and early 20th century the club, its shareholders, its members, its managers and its players knew this to be a fact. But then slowly over time the story was lost. I have to say it is a great honour and privilege to be one of the people upon whom has fallen the chance to set the record straight. Tony Attwood. Co-author --Tony Attwood's review.
About the Author
Tony Attwood is chair of the Arsenal History Society, an Arsenal season ticket holder, a Committee Member of Arsenal Independent Supporters Association, and the editor of the daily blog: The History of Arsenal. He is also author of the historical novel Making the Arsenal which covers the collapse and re-birth of Arsenal in 1910. Andy Kelly is secretary of the Arsenal History Society, a lifelong Arsenal fan and a member of AISA. He has contributed to a number of other books relating to Arsenal and has published a website containing all first team results and line-ups. Mark Andrews is the Vice-Chairman of the Arsenal History Society and has researched Woolwich Arsenal history since 1990, when he completed a Masters Degree in History with a thesis on the Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC 1893-1913. He supports Arsenal, is a member of AISA, and contributes to the History of Arsenal blog. He lives in Kent with his wife Theresa, and their two children Jonathan and Matthew.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By nedlo1
Format:Paperback
I am in the process of reading this book and find it so very interesting. It gives details I never knew about my favourite team, The Gunners. Not only are the details interesting they are true being backed up with evidence obviously gathered from newspapers of the times. Any true Gunner will find this book a must for their library.
By lil cru
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this as a gift for my other half, he loved it. The story behind the club was exactly what he was looking for.
By Silu
Format:Paperback
As an Arsenal supporter for many decades I knew bits and pieces of the club's early days but not many of the details, this book is a must for anyone who is interested in this fascinating and often tumultuous period. It may possibly be difficult for modern football fans to imagine a time when football in the UK was so fluid and lacking in permanence, a time when leagues as well as clubs could rise and fall with surprising brevity and the story is well told here.
Using a wide variety sources this tome tells the story of the Woolwich Arsenal years (1893 to 1915) a period in which Arsenal first entered the Football League, when financial problems risked the very survival of the club and the background to the move from Plumstead to Highbury. The first section of the book focuses on the personalities and machinations of this time when disputes with landlords, boardroom dealings and efforts to keep the club going seemed to overshadow action on the pitch. The middle chapters give a more in-depth summary of Arsenal's league and cup performances. The final chapters focus on a few significant or otherwise important players, club officials and board members. I particularly enjoyed the more sociological section about the Arsenal supporters who, we learn, were well known for bringing explosives to games and had frequent run-ins with the FA regarding their behaviour.
Overall this book tells a really fascinating story about Arsenal's place in a time when football was in a constant state of flux, and the people who were prepared to risk huge sums of money to prevent the club becoming just another long forgotten name from football's early days. It is perhaps harrowing to think who we'd now be supporting had their efforts failed. Woolwich Arsenal FC: 1893-1915 The Club That Changed Football is written by Arsenal fans for Arsenal fans and a book I would highly recommend to all Arsenal fans.
Using a wide variety sources this tome tells the story of the Woolwich Arsenal years (1893 to 1915) a period in which Arsenal first entered the Football League, when financial problems risked the very survival of the club and the background to the move from Plumstead to Highbury. The first section of the book focuses on the personalities and machinations of this time when disputes with landlords, boardroom dealings and efforts to keep the club going seemed to overshadow action on the pitch. The middle chapters give a more in-depth summary of Arsenal's league and cup performances. The final chapters focus on a few significant or otherwise important players, club officials and board members. I particularly enjoyed the more sociological section about the Arsenal supporters who, we learn, were well known for bringing explosives to games and had frequent run-ins with the FA regarding their behaviour.
Overall this book tells a really fascinating story about Arsenal's place in a time when football was in a constant state of flux, and the people who were prepared to risk huge sums of money to prevent the club becoming just another long forgotten name from football's early days. It is perhaps harrowing to think who we'd now be supporting had their efforts failed. Woolwich Arsenal FC: 1893-1915 The Club That Changed Football is written by Arsenal fans for Arsenal fans and a book I would highly recommend to all Arsenal fans.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
How come this book is not in stock
This must be the most important book on Arsenal for fifty odd years. everyone is raving over the way it has transformed our understanding of the club with its revelations. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Gunner gunner
5.0 out of 5 stars
I thought I knew it all
There you are, spending a life supporting your team, thinking you know what's what, and along comes a book that turns everything upside down. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Gooner Forever
5.0 out of 5 stars
I was told it was a revolution, but this is more than I imagined
How many books are there that tell the story of Arsenal?
1000? 10,000?
Something like that. Read more
1000? 10,000?
Something like that. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. A. L. Attwood
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