Happy birthday Frank Stapleton, 68 today.

  Today’s anniversaries 10 July 1916:  The Princess Royal, colonel-in-chief of the 7th Dragoon Guards (the Princess Royal’s Own), opened a new building in the grounds of Fulham’s board of guardians’ infirmary.  The building was to be used by the military for the duration of the war, and Captain Henry Norris, Arsenal chairman, was part …

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Today’s anniversaries

10 July 1916:  The Princess Royal, colonel-in-chief of the 7th Dragoon Guards (the Princess Royal’s Own), opened a new building in the grounds of Fulham’s board of guardians’ infirmary.  The building was to be used by the military for the duration of the war, and Captain Henry Norris, Arsenal chairman, was part of the welcoming party.

10 July 1920: Cyril Grant born.  Seen as a possible post war replacement of Ted Drake, he played just two games for Arsenal in the difficult 1946/7 season.  He then played one season with Fulham before finishing his league career with Southend United.

10 July 1921: The truce in the Irish war of Independence came into effect.

10 July 1956: Frank Stapleton born, Dublin.  He joined Arsenal in 1972 as an apprentice (having tried his hand first with Man U) and played his first game in 1975 against Leicester in a 1-1 home draw.

10 July 1962: Telstar, the first communications satellite which paved the way for football eventually to be seen live around the world, was launched.

10 July 1975: Bob McNab completed a free transfer to Wolverhampton.   He played 13 league games for them before moving to the US league, and then finished at Barnet. He managed Vancouver and Tacoma, was caretaker manager of Portsmouth in 1999 and then worked as a property developer in Los Angeles.  See also here.

10 July 1985: Park Chu-Young born. In 2004 he won the Golden Ball for the most valuable youth player, and was Asian Young Footballer of the Year in 2010.

10 July 1988: A key moment in the history of the League as ITV proposed different payments to different clubs, opening the way to separate negotiations along the lines of the Spanish League’s arrangements.

10 July 1989: Rangers signed Mo Johnson, their first Catholic player, three months after Celtic had announced that they had re-signed him from Nantes.  After a dispute Celtic pulled out of the deal, and Johnson moved to Rangers.  It had taken 117 years for the club to sign a member of the Catholic faith.

10 July 1995: David Platt transferred to Arsenal from Sampdoria for £4.75m.  Platt said that Bruce Rioch had been on holiday in Portugal and flew to Italy to make the signing, and they “hit it off straight away”.  He has since had a number of unsuccessful coaching and managerial jobs and in on 3 December 2018, he was appointed as a club consultant for U.S. Città di Palermo of Italy’s Serie B although the club was then removed from the professional league for irregularities.

10 July 1998: Arsenal, the double winners of 1997/8 beat Boreham Wood 5-2 amid rumours that Ian Wright was about to leave. Shortly after he went to West Ham but never found his form again.

10 Years Ago Today

10 July 2014: Arsenal signed Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for around £30m.  He became an immediate success being the club’s top scorer in his first season and showing an unending drive and passion while on the pitch. However in 2018 he left for Man U but only scored 5 goals in 45 appearances in his first 18 months after which he went on loan to Inter Milan.

10 July 2018: Arsenal signed defensive midfielder Lucas Torreira from Sampdoria for a reported fee of £26.4 million.  He  played 34 games in his first season with the club, but later went on loan to Atletico Madrid.

Henry Norris at the Arsenal:  There is a full index to the series here correcting 100 years of rumour and false allegations.

Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever

Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.