The future of Football as predicted in 1973
By 1988 there would only be 24 English teams playing in domed stadiums, most teams had folded or amalgamated, not sure how Arsenal and Tottenham fans would cope cheering on the Arsenal Hotspur?
A few things ring true though, massive salaries, saturation sponsorship and wall to wall TV coverage.
Luckily the rest hasn't happened "yet".
August 1956, Birmingham 4 Arsenal 2
Here's 4 of the goals, Cliff Holton and Don Roper for Arsenal and Peter Murphy and Eddy Brown for Birmingham, Murphy and Trevor Smith got the other goals.
Derek Tapscott of Arsenal scoring against Harry Leyland of Everton in 1956.
Looks like a basic error from the keeper, especially on a cold day 😁
Jimmy Bloomfield here in his Arsenal days in the late 50's
Jimmy also played for Birmingham, Brentford, Leyton Orient, Plymouth and West Ham, I think I remember him best as the Orient manager.
Here's Jimmy in Orient kit near the end of his playing career
Arsenal V Man Utd 1956
Dennis Evans and Jim Fotheringham of Arsenal, Tommy Taylor and Dennis Viollet for Man Utd.
Tommy Taylor would sadly be one of the victims of the 1958 tragedy.
A selection of great goalkeepers
Jack Kelsey of Arsenal and Wales. Appeared for Wales in the 1958 World Cup
Phil Parkes
Played over 400 times for Walsall and QPR before being signed for a world record fee for a goalie £565,000 by West Ham in 1979.
Most Hammer fans would agree he was our greatest keeper
Sheffield United and England goalkeeper Alan Hodgkinson
Great name, Gerry Cakebread of Brentford
Arsenal V Juventus 1958, Arsenal won 3-1
John Charles scored the Juventus goal
Arsenal v Newcastle from 1973
Can't get over how different Alan Kennedy looked then
John Radford of Arsenal, and Frank Clark of Newcastle.
Radford was a big hit at Arsenal playing nearly 400 games, went to West Ham but failed to score a goal.
Frank Clark went on to win the European Cup with Nottingham Forest.
Arsenal and England winger Danny Clapton.
Played over 200 games for Arsenal during the late 50's but just one cap for England.
Ronnie Rooke
Former Arsenal, Fulham and Crystal Palace player 1933-50, also played one time for England during World War 2
Old Charlie Buchan's Football Monthly's are required reading for nostalgia buffs.
Back in 1925 after a very successful career at Sunderland he was sold to Arsenal.
Arsenal wouldn't pay the £4,000 fee but offered £2,000 + £100 a goal for that season, he got 21 so cost £4,100
Back in the days when football shirts really were shirts.
Arsenal's Laurie Brown who played for both the big North London teams plus many others.
Also played for the 1960 Great Britain Olympic team.
Arsenal beat Liverpool at Wembley in the Charity Shield last week, so here's some pics from a more famous meeting of the two, the 1971 FA Cup Final.
Arsenal won 2-1 in extra time to claim the double.
Jack Allen scoring his first goal in the 1932 FA Cup Final.
Newcastle won 2-1, but this goal was controversial because the ball had gone out of play before it was crossed but the referee didn't see it.
Some things never change 🙄
Just read recently that 3 of these 4 have been sacked by Sky from Soccer Saturday?
Always thought Merson would be the first to go. Which is why I haven't made millions from gambling
Not the first time Charlie Nicholas has had a rough patch, he didn't really set the world on fire at the start of his Arsenal career.
Mel Charles of Swansea, Arsenal, Cardiff and Wales fame.
In 1958 Swansea manager says that there was no chance of him going to Arsenal. In 1959 they sold him to Arsenal.
During the late 60's and early 70's I would regularly buy Shoot magazine, also one called Goal.
Sadly as a kid you didn't think of saving them for the future for nostalgia purposes and as far as I know none of them were saved.
A few years back an old workmate gave me a copy from 1969 so here are a few pages from that issue.
First up former West Ham player Peter Eustace playing for Sheffield Wednesday.
Jimmy Robertson of Arsenal 1969
You are the ref feature
