When the league decided there could be football in the north and midlands but not the south

Today’s headline comes from 1915.

19 July 1915:  The FA and Football League held their AGMs. The League voted in favour of paying footballers during wartime, the FA against it, resulting in chaos.  Eventually, the League conceded. The FA then met the League and the Southern League and agreed there would be no FA Cup, but there could be regional leagues in the north west and midlands.  This left the south and the north east without any football.   Scotland had already voted to continue with professional football.

19 July 1919: Peace celebrations break out at the end of the 1st world war.

19 July 1954: Joe Haverty signed from St Patrick’s Athletic, and although only 18 immediately made his debut for Arsenal.  He stayed until 1961 when he moved to Blackburn.

19 July 1966: North Korea beat Italy 1-0 in the World Cup finals, and so knocked them out of the tournament, at a time when Italy were odds-on favourites.

19 July 1995: Alan Smith announced his retirement.  Between 1987 and 1995 he played 264 league games for Arsenal, scoring 86 goals.  He went on to have a career as a commentator and reporter.often being extremely critical of Arsenal.

19 July 1996: A 0-6 away win to St Albans City on this day, with a team including much of the first team regulars like Dixon, Merson, Stephen Hughes etc, did not prepare supporters for four subsequent defeats and a draw in the rest of the pre-season.  Fortunately a new manager was ready to step in.

19 July 2003: Arsenal drew with Barnet 0-0 after losing to Peterborough.  Yaya Toure played as a trialist but Arsène Wenger saw him as “completely average” and did not follow up the option of signing the player.

19 July 2004: Manuel Almunia signed from Celta Vigo

19 July 2007: Gençlerbirliği 0 Arsenal 3 (Van Persie 2, Walcott).  The seven match pre-season run saw the introduction of Bacary Sagna and Eduardo into the squad.

19 July 2008: Barnet 1 Arsenal 2 (Simpson, Barazite) The start of a 9 match preseason run in which Arsenal were unbeaten, including a 1-0 win over Real Madrid

19 July 2014: Arsenal began their pre-season games with a 0-2 away victory over Borehamwood, Olson and Afobe getting the goals.  Arsenal’s team included many younger players hoping to make an impact including Coquelin and Bellerin.

19 July 2021:  Arsenal signed Albert Sambi Lokonga from Anderlecht for £17m

19 July 2023: Arsenal beat Major League Soccer’s All-Stars in Washington with goals from Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, Jorginho  Martinelli and Havertz.