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50 years on

Echoes of the Past?

18 February, 2013 9:00 21 comments
50 years on

Billy Wright – Have we seen this all before?

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As (nearly) all of us are agreed, there's nothing left to be said about Arsenal's atrocious defending - or Wenger's refusal to address it. I think I must be getting old. But the current team is beginning to take me back 50 years.

I started watching the Arsenal with my dad in August 1961. The following summer, Billy Wright became manager. In Wright's first season, Arsenal finished seventh with 46 points (two points for a win then) and a goals tally of 86 to 77. The following season, we came eighth, with 45 points and a goals tally of 90 to 82.

Things deteriorated in the next two seasons and Wright was sacked in the summer of 1966. His departure was followed by Bertie Mee's promotion from trainer to manager. One paper (the Daily Express, I think) greeted Mee's appointment with the headline: 'Arsenal send for the medicine man.'

Why do those years of 1962-4 remind me of the here and now? Well, Arsenal had a terrific attack. George Eastham was a brilliant midfield general. Johnny MacLeod on the right wing, and the young George Armstrong on the left, terrorised opposing defences. Joe Baker scored 29 league goals in 62-3 and 26 the following season. His partner Geoff Strong netted 18, then 26.

The problems all came in defence, as the 'goals against' columns indicate. Arsenal had a string of inconsistent goalkeepers - Jack McClelland, Ian McKechnie, Tony Burns and Jim Furnell. Jimmy Magill and 'Flint' McCullough, the full backs, were good overlappers, but caught out time and time again in defence. Laurie Brown, John Snedden and/or a young Terry Neill struggled in the centre - later supplemented by Ian Ure, a big money signing from ex-Scottish champs Dundee. He arrived with a glowing reputation, which sank year by year at Highbury.

Wright's early teams provided great entertainment for the neutrals. Arsenal in full flow was a fine sight. But the defensive weaknesses drove our own fans potty. Arsenal had to be at least two up heading into stoppage time before the supporters felt that victory was secure.

Current fans can draw their own comparisons.

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21
comments

  1. maguiresbridge gooner

    Feb 18, 2013, 22:33 #32093

    A nice piece of history Old Timer and the sad thing about our defence here and now is it could be easily enough sorted if the manager would put his ego to one side and let his assistant earn his salary, even if we're three nil up now we don't feel victory is secure.We haven't exactly got a terrific attack ,we sold our best attacker/striker for profit and replaced him with a five attempts to score one player, maybe a medicine man would help us now,you don't know of any Sioux or Comanches living locally ?

  2. billthered

    Feb 18, 2013, 20:26 #32087

    Well old timer you started the same time as me.I watched my first game that season a two one win against Forest and have been going ever since,however this is probably my last as I cannot stand having the P*** taken out of me.It is the likes of you and me that loves the club not these chancers that rule the roost at Ashburton Grove.I have a heavy heart at the moment as we were sold a pup with the new ground.The way it is at the moment we will be able to pick and choose what games we want to go to.

  3. 6OONER PETE

    Feb 18, 2013, 20:14 #32085

    Ron and Tony, I think you're right about leaving Highbury being the start of losing that bond between some of us fans and the club. Fans who previously had a history with the club suddenly had it taken away. The start and probably the worst moment for me was when they pulled the North Bank terracing down a few years before we moved due to the Taylor report. Things have to change and we have to move on and Ashburton Grove is a fabulous stadium. But Highbury it ain't!

  4. Ramgun

    Feb 18, 2013, 19:49 #32081

    I lived through all four years of the totally out of his depth Billy Wright. The supporters finally got him sacked by not turning up to matches. The then Chairman, the father of the present incumbent, had the same superior and dismissive attitude towards supporters as his son and he announced that he would resign before he would ever sack Billy Wright. Hill-Wood Senior was responding to the campaign by the supporters to get rid of the manager. Once financial matters decided that Hill-Wood did have to sack Wright, the Chairman completely forgot to resign. Must have slipped his mind. In those days all FA Youth Cup home games were played at Highbury and many of the people who were boycotting the first team went along to cheer the youth team. A team containing Sammy Nelson on the left-wing and Pat Rice at right-back beat Sunderland at Highbury 4 - 1 to win 5 - 3 on aggregate to win the FA Youth Cup in 1966. Young players were developed during Wright's tenure (Rice, Nelson, Simpson, Court, Sammels, Armstrong, Storey and Radford) who went on to form the nucleus of our double-winning team in 1971. Wright didn't know how to make them into a team, but Don Howe did. I can't help feeling that a less blinkered and egotistical man than Wenger would be able to get much more from the current players. It would take thousands of season-ticket holders to refuse to renew before the american sports business franchise currently masquerading as Arsenal would take any notice. There are many strange people who are still on their knees to Wenger despite the fact that he regards the supporters the crap on his shoes. I can't see anything changing. We were successful because Wright was sacked. We were successful because Knighton was sacked. We were successful because Neill and Howe were sacked. Nobody will sack Wenger. We were better off in 1966. Back then, for all our faults, we were a football club with a strong identity. Wenger has smashed that Herbert Chapman built club to pieces. I see no room for optimism. In 1966 the manager was jettisoned. In 2013 I reckon that the manager will be given a new contract. Despair, despair, despair...

  5. smee

    Feb 18, 2013, 19:20 #32078

    Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. A mention of my favorite Arsenal player. George Armstrong. What a player that mean was!

  6. jjetplane

    Feb 18, 2013, 19:05 #32076

    Ron and Gooner Pete. Remember watching Armstrong from the schoolboys as he raced to the North Bank and he looked miles away! Ian Ure i am haunted by too but the most abiding image of those days was watching Furnell fall in the net with the ball against Birmingham in the cup. They took the North Bank! Was also fortunate to fall in the net myslf when we won ye olde Fairs Cup in the mud & end up with a touch view cause my brother fainted when we took the league at SHL. fast forward to Viera sticking away against the Mancs and that summer i started falling out with da wenga boyz because i said the game was up - you watch. Got rid of my 2 sts and have never been to Emirates but do I not know holloway. some of those people I fell out with - well I know they have now dropped away. There are so many coming on here talking up Arsenal, but believe me - when it was all mud and blokes earning a reasonable wage for kicking a ball about - that was football. Still - best ever moment was Bouldie and Adams one 2ing it into the north bank. May he come back soon and bring God with him. Its Blue Sq for me now, though have watched all divisions since the rot began. Listen to Wenger today with reporters and see if he is not dragging our club through a different kind of mud.

  7. Arsenal = Mediocre

    Feb 18, 2013, 16:33 #32058

    Financial budgeting by the French Economist - except that he pays himself £7.5mpa ! Gadadzis gets £2.5mpa. thats £10mpa or £200k/week that could have been used to keep RVP or Cesc, IF, repeat IF, there really was any desire to really keep them.......

  8. Tony Evans

    Feb 18, 2013, 15:31 #32052

    6OONER PETE AND RON - I am with you both all the way. Leaving Highbury was the start and then our crazy manager and powder puff team have done the rest. Add to that the greed and financial madness that is football in general these days and it is no wonder that us older Gooners are all so disenchanted at the moment. It just makes me realise how lucky we were, even in the bad times of the mid seventies and eighties - it was still a miles better match day experience as far as atmosphere was concerned and affordable too.

  9. smithy

    Feb 18, 2013, 13:58 #32040

    The real worry is the club is failing from the pitch to the boardroom.the lunatics are running the asylum.the only future for the club is the two yanks and the french plank out,and dean and usminov in.unless this happens there is no hope for arsenal football club in the near future.wenger is making profits for the two yanks,they don't care about what happens on the pitch,as kronkes us franchises only demonstrate mediorcratity.

  10. Tony the realist

    Feb 18, 2013, 13:56 #32039

    Back in the sixties through to the eighties football was more give and take and crowds would generally fluctuate between 20-60,000 depending on opposition and how the team was doing so fans had more control of how Arsenal stood and on an average they were normally around 3rd best supported after Man u and L'pool.Nowadays with all home games sold out and nearly 50,000 on the waiting list Arsenal find themselves the best supported team in the country.Even Man United although successful are unable to sell all their season tickets and Man City and Chelsea also with poor sales because of their dull styles of play and with Spurs and Liverpool flattering to decieve and not improving it is Arsenal who can point to the fact that it is they who have it right and it's the fans who have the option to shape up or ship out.

  11. Ron

    Feb 18, 2013, 13:52 #32038

    Gooner Pete - Youre exactly where i am with it all, except in my view the 'bond' went for me the day they left Highbury.The Club lost something then, something that was tangible but isnt now. Football overall (for me) is just a poor sanitized imitation of what it was, ran for those with silly money, both off the pitch and on it and it doesnt give a hoot for the ordinary supporter anymore. Its like the Emirates, utterly soulless and i venture to say that winning a trophy or two now wouldnt much change anything. Its sad, but until the game 'crashes', the TV falls out of love with it and looks for its real foundations again, im more or less done with it as a match goer, save for the odd visit here and there and the odd away game(which are far more enjoyable).

  12. allybear

    Feb 18, 2013, 13:39 #32037

    Well the news today of Wenger being offered another 2 years just proves to me that he will be around for a long time. All the shocking and embarrasing defeats forgotten,he can do no wrong. If the team string a few good results together then his stock will rise once again.

  13. WeAreBuildingATeamToDominate

    Feb 18, 2013, 12:47 #32031

    I wasn't around at the time but by all accounts Wright was a bit of a pushover and this was used to full advantage by the senior pros, his best work being with the young players. Joe Mercer should have got the gig but wasn't it something to do with the England team got in the way. There is a famous photo of Wright at his desk typing something but the paper is in the wrong way round. Hey here's a thought……the penultimate game of the 65/66 season v Leeds was boycotted…..only 4500 turned up……….not many more went to the last game v Leicester either. Wright sacked not long after. Hmmmm.

  14. GG89

    Feb 18, 2013, 12:43 #32030

    Billy Wright, 1961 to 1966, 5 years no trophies. AW 7 probably 8 years and no trophies. Trouble is, even if AW goes, Stevie Bould needs to work miracles and more to do what Bertie Mee did... oh dear oh dear... Sloppy stuff maybe its true, we need a bully of a manager to stop the lack of concentration, Moyes?

  15. Bob

    Feb 18, 2013, 12:40 #32028

    Very interesting perspective. I was just a bit too young to remember the Arsenal team you describe, so in my mind Arsenal have always been characterised by strong, resolute defending first and foremost. Even when we were going through lean spells (mid 70s, mid 80s) the defence remained, by and large, our strength. Wenger does not seem capable of coaching or developing strong defensive units. He was lucky indeed to inherit George's legendary unit, though he does deserve credit for extending their shelf-life through his dietery and fitness regimes. Otherwise, with a couple of notable exceptions such as Sol Campbell (who fell into his lap), many of the defenders he has recruited have been defensively limited and many have been duds. We have become the footballing equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters, an itinerant exhibition team who may turn it on at times, but whom you know are not truly the best in the world at their sport.

  16. buggleskelly

    Feb 18, 2013, 11:33 #32018

    Ah - Joe Baker - an absolute hero to me too - the Thierry Henry of his day - brave, lightning quick, two great feet, and despite being such a little fella, terrific in the air. I wept buckets when Billy Wright sold him to Nottingham Forest, and wept again when he died, much too young at only 63. The parallels with today are uncanny. The banners and chanting on the terrces calling for the removal of Billy Wright as manager started to appear more and more frequently following Arsenal's ignominious 0 - 3 defeat in the 3rd Round of The F A Cup against, yes, you've guessed it, Blackburn Rovers. Wright's reaction was to place both Eastham and Baker on the transfer list. Joe went to Forest, Eastham came off the list later in the season, but following Wright's sacking, one of Berie Mee's first acts as the new manager was to dispense with Eastham's services, as he regarded him as unreliable. And as Old Timer says, it was Wright's misfortune that Jack Kelsey retired just as he arrived at the club, and that it wasn't until Bob Wilson established himself in the side in the late 60's that Arsenal had anything like a reliable goalkeeper. Ian Ure was just crap. Made Squillacci look like Franz Beckenbauer.

  17. 6OONER PETE

    Feb 18, 2013, 11:24 #32016

    I started watching Arsenal in '68 and have seen my fair share of poor teams and awful performances.Despite this I would still turn up again for the next match because there was a bond between myself and Arsenal. The way football has changed in the last 20 years and Arsenal in particular during the last 5 has caused that bond to almost disappear. Messing up the format of three perfectly good and exciting European competitions, blanket TV coverage, ridiculous prices etc. Although Arsenal will always be in my blood I have never felt more detached from the team as I do now. Sad days.

  18. Ron

    Feb 18, 2013, 9:50 #31995

    There are comparisons and ive said the same my self from time to time about that 60s team.The big difference is that Billy Wright was never going to be a successful Coach though. He lacked the strength of character and of purpose to actually boss a Club the size of Arsenal and in later years admitted the job was a bridge too far for him. He was a showbiz appointement anyway, brought in off the back of his England pedigree and Joy Beverely as his Mrs so to appease the fans.What Wright did do though was put inplace the younger players who won the 1971 double. Radford, Sammels, Kelly, Nelson, Kennedy were brought in by him and he signed the likes of Frank Mac. He was what we would call today a 'good No 2', which in my view is part of Wengers trouble. Hes never had one and never wanted one. Bould isnt the answer. The perverse parallel (if it is one) is therefore that Arsenal needed a top boss back in the troubled early to mid 60s and instead appointed a No 2 type, so the opposite applies to nowadays, but with a similar end result on the pitch. Wright was much maligned, but in truth the greater part of the 71 team was down to him and not Bertie Mee. Mee was an organiser and Howe provided the coaching acumen. A great duo and Wenger should take heed if hes to stay abreast of the demands of modern management.

  19. James

    Feb 18, 2013, 9:49 #31993

    The difference between Billy Wright and Wenger is Billy Wright was sacked.Wenger will never ever be sacked.We are stuck with him.And the news today that he is being offered a 2 year extention just enforces that view.And we have the most apathetic fans in the country who wont do nothing about it.Only mass boycotts of buying ST's will change things

  20. GaryFootscrayAustralia

    Feb 18, 2013, 9:05 #31979

    Joe Baker, one of my dad's heroes. He still talks in glowing terms about Jack Kelsey too. Was it the case that McClelland, McKechnie etc. had the same trouble filling Jack's boots the same way every goalkeeper since Seaman & Lehmann have struggled in the present day?

  21. Tony Evans

    Feb 18, 2013, 8:51 #31973

    Old Timer - I suppose I am getting on that way too, having supported since 1970. Your comparison of Wenger's shambolic post 2006 defences to the 60s team you remember is very interesting. What is the point of playing attractive, attacking football if the defence / keeper leak goals like a sieve? I don't recognise this team anymore because I have always associated my team with a tough, tenacious defensive mentality which just is not there anymore. What makes it worse is the fact that Wenger does nothing about it and for this reason alone he has to go.