Over the next few weeks I will be posting some interesting football quiz questions.

1. "Which player scored in all his club's league games in one season? Strange but true. I will give you a clue. It was the First Division of the Football League.

The answer is Tommy Lawton in the 1939-40 season. He scored in the first three games for Everton against Brentford, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers. On Sunday 3rd September Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany. The government immediately imposed a ban on the assembly of crowds and as a result the Football League competition was brought to an end.

Why do Arsenal play in red shirts?

Because their first kits were donated to them by Nottingham Forest.

It is an interesting story that relates to the current problems at Liverpool. David Danskin, Elijah Watkins, John Humble and Richard Pearce, were four friends who worked at Woolwich Arsenal, one of the government's main munition factories. The four men decided to form a football club in 1886. Fred Beardsley, who used to play for Nottingham Forest and who had only recently found work at the Woolwich Arsenal, agreed to join the club.

Danskin contributed three shillings to buy a football. The club could not afford to buy football kit and so Fred Beardsley decided to write to Nottingham Forest to ask them if they could help. The club generously agreed to send a complete set of red shirts. (The white sleeves were only added in 1933.)

The team continued to make progress and won the London Charity Cup in 1890 and the London Senior Cup in 1891. Woolwich Arsenal also entered the FA Cup the following season but was knocked out by First Division side Derby County. At the end of the game, John Goodall, the captain and manager of Derby, attempted to sign two of Arsenal players, Peter Connolly and Bobby Buist.

John Humble, Arsenal's secretary was upset by this attempt to poach his best players and at the 1891 Annual General Meeting suggested that the club should sign up its players on profressional contracts. The motion was carried by a large majority. However, Humble rejected the idea that Arsenal should become a limited company. Humble declared that "the club has been carried on by working men and it is my ambition to see it carried on by them."

In 1893 that Arsenal was elected to the Second Division of the Football League. It was decided that Arsenal needed to buy its own ground. The only way to raise enough money for the ground and to pay the players' wages was to form a limited liability company. In all 860 people subscribed for 1,552 shares. Most of the shareholders were manual workers who lived locally.

In the 1903-04 season Arsenal was promoted to the First Division. However, the wages paid to the Arsenal players were lower than those who were bankrolled by wealthy individuals. Therefore, Arsenal tended to lose all of their best players.

In 1910, Harry Norris, who had made his fortune based on property development in south-west London, took over the club, by buying the shares of the local working-class community. He continued to sell the club's best players in order to make a profit and as a result, in the 1912-13 season, Arsenal finished bottom of the First Division and was relegated.

Does anyone know the historical reasons why Spurs supporters hate Arsenal so much?

I presume its something lame like "you're not really from north london" directed to Arsenal

No, it involves a corrupt Tory multi-millionnaire.

Now who'd of thought such a thing was possible?

Didn't Arsenal get elected to a higher division - when Spurs also sought election.(late 1910's- early 20's was it?) - thus the hatred.

I'm going to guess then that this was a dodgy election and a Tory millionaire associated with Arsenal was up to no good a la Bushes Florida.
Ferguson might be given to believe that nothings changed and Dein had undue influence in the FA.

Also what about super socialist manager Paul Jewell's home movies exploits. The funniest thing I'd seen in ages.

As I pointed out earlier, Arsenal was originally formed by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, one of the government's main munition factories. John Humble, one of these factory workers and Arsenal's secretary rejected the idea in 1891 that Arsenal should become a limited company. Humble declared that "the club has been carried on by working men and it is my ambition to see it carried on by them." Two years later Arsenal was elected to the Second Division of the Football League. It was decided that Arsenal needed to buy its own ground. The only way to raise enough money for this venture was to form a limited liability company. Initially, most of the shareholders were manual workers who lived locally.

Henry Norris, an extremely wealthy property developer, began buying shares in Arsenal and eventually became the chairman of the club. In the 1912-13 season Arsenal finished bottom of the First Division and were relegated. Norris believed that the club had to move to an area which was highly populated and had a good transport network. Eventually he paid £20,000 for a 21 year lease on land owned by the Church of England at Highbury.

One of the great advantages of the site was its proximity to Gillespie Road underground station. Spurs, Leyton Orient and Chelsea all complained to the League Management Committee about the proposed new stadium as they feared it would reduce the number of people attending their games. However, after a meeting in March 1913, the Football League announced "that under the rules and practice of the League we have no right to interfere."

It cost Henry Norris £80,000 to build Highbury Stadium. Norris desperately needed Arsenal to get back into the First Division if he was to get a profit out of his investment. However, in the 1913-14 season Arsenal finished in 3rd place and failed to go up because of a worse goal average than Bradford Park Avenue. The outbreak of the First World War made it impossible for Arsenal to win promotion over the next four years.

During the war Norris worked as a military recruitment officer for the British Army. In 1917 he was knighted and given the honorary rank of colonel for services to his country during the war. In the 1918 General Election Henry Norris was elected to the House of Commons as the Conservative Party member for Fulham East.

At the end of the war it was decided to increase the First Division from 20 to 22 clubs. One solution to the problem was to allow the relegated clubs in the 1914-15 season, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, to remain in the First Division. However, Henry Norris disputed this idea. He argued that a great deal of match-fixing had gone on in the 1914-15 season and that league positions should be disregarded. The reason for this was that Arsenal had finished in 5th place in the Second Division in the 1914-15 season and therefore had no grounds for being elected to the First Division.

It was decided to give Chelsea one of the vacant places in the First Division. However, Norris persuaded the league chairman to vote on the other club to join them. Arsenal won the ballot with 18 votes. Spurs only got 8 whereas Barnsley, who finished 3rd in the Second Division in the 1914-15 season, received 5 votes. Many people were of the opinion that Norris had bribed his fellow chairmen in order to win the election.

In June 1919 Henry Norris appointed Leslie Knighton as manager of Arsenal. However, Knighton was just a figurehead and Norris took all the major decisions. For example, he told Knighton he could not spend more than £1,000 on anyone player. Nor was he allowed to sign anyone under 5 foot 8 inches or 11 stone. Knighton was also ordered to abandon the Arsenal scouting system.

In his autobiography Leslie Knighton wrote in some detail about Henry Norris: "I have never met his equal for logic, invective and ruthlessness against all who opposed him. When I disagreed with him at board meetings and had to stand up for what I knew was best for the club, he used to flay me with words until I was reduced to fuming, helpless silence."

Understandably, the club enjoyed no success under Knighton's managership. Although he did manage to buy some excellent players such as Alf Baker, Ray John and Jimmy Brain. Arsenal's best league position was 9th in 1921. In the FA Cup Arsenal only got beyond the second round once, in 1922, when they lost to Preston North End in the quarter finals after a replay.

Henry Norris sacked Leslie Knighton at the end of the 1924-25 season. Norris advertised the job in the Athletic News on 11th May 1925. It read: "Arsenal Football Club is open to receive applications for the position of Team Manager. He must be experienced and possess the highest qualifications for the post, both as to the ability and personal character. gentlemen whose sole ability to build up a good side depends on the payment of heavy and exorbitant transfer fees need not apply."

In the summer of 1925 Herbert Chapman, the highly successful manager of Huddersfield Town, was persuaded to join Arsenal. Whereas Huddersfield had won the championship, Arsenal had narrowly escaped relegation by finishing in 20th position.

The first man that Chapman signed was Charlie Buchan, who had scored 209 goals in 380 games for Sunderland. In the 1925-26 season Arsenal finished in second-place to Chapman's old club, Huddersfield Town. However, Henry Norris refused to allow Chapman to spend much money to strengthen his team and in the 1926-27 season Arsenal finished in 11th position.

In 1927 the Daily Mail reported that Henry Norris had made under-the-counter payments to Sunderland's Charlie Buchan as an incentive for him to join Arsenal in 1925. The Football Association began an investigation of Norris and discovered that he had used Arsenal's expense accounts for personal use, and had obtained the proceeds of £125 from the sale of the team bus. Norris sued the newspaper and the FA for libel, but in February 1929 he lost his case. The FA now banned Norris from football for life.

You can read about the growth of Arsenal here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Farsenal.htm



Please tell me more. I missed this story.

Dial square - that's the name I've been struggling with since the start of the Arsenal questions.

Anyway, Mr Jewell was photographed/stills from movies in NOTW with a mistress - a few weeks ago now, but I've been busy and haven't been around to post as much. He was setting up his own tripod camera for home movies. Pure crap in the grand scheme...but it was very very funny. He had his mistress leaning over his BMW car or whatever very late at night and stuff of that ilk.

I won't go on, I'm sure you get the idea. My disappointment in Paul Jewell was quickly replaced by hilarity at the poses etc.

What was the name of the player who was told by George Allison, the manager of Arsenal: "You will never make the grade as a professional footballer" and moved to another Football League side and scored six goals on his debut. He was later sold by this club for what was then a record transfer fee.

Len Shackleton

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SUNDERshackleton.htm

The photograph below shows Len Shackleton with Bobby Daniel at Highbury. Daniel joined the RAF on the outbreak of the Second World War and was killed on 23rd December 1943. Shackleton became a Bevin Boy and worked down the mines during the war.