Arsenal FC alias the Gunners is a professional football club based in London founded in 1886. It is one of the richest and most successful clubs with a huge fanbase around the world. The club was founded by a group of workers who were working at a munitions factory in Woolwich.
The club was named Royal Arsenal, a name which was derived from the moniker of the Royal Oak Pub and Arsenal munition factory for which the group was working. However, they later rebranded to Woolwich Arsenal after they went professional in 1891.
In the 1912-13 season, they relocated to their home ground Arsenal Stadium (Highbury) and rebranded again this time dropping the Woolwich name remaining with Arsenal.
Prior to their relocation, Arsenal was struggling financially and it fell into Voluntary Liquidation in 1910. Sir Henry Norris stepped in to try and save the club and bought shares in the club becoming the largest shareholder. Norris was also the chairman of Fulham, a Premier League club.
In the process of trying to bring the club to its feet, he decided to marge the club with Fulham. However, the move was blocked by the Football League. After the merger was declined, Norris managed to secure a place in Highbury, north London where he established Arsenals home stadium.
Despite going professional in 1891, it was promoted to the First Division in 1919 after World War 2. The promotion came after the Gunners finished fifth in the Second Division before World War II. At the time of their promotion, Football League was advancing from 20 teams to 22 teams and Arsenal was lucky.
Since its promotion, it has remained at the top of the 1st division and it has managed to produce one of the best players in the World. It has also claimed several trophies.
Arsenal FC Honours
The Gunners are not just the best in producing the best player are also perfect when it comes to scooping trophies, the following are the trophies they have won,
- Arsenal has 13 league titles (English Champion), winning their first in the 1930-31 season and the recent in the 2003-2004 season.
- The Gunners have also claimed FA Cup 14 times. The first was in the 1929-30 season and recently was in the 2019-20 season.
- Two League Cups (English League)
- Sixteen FA Community Shield
- One Cup Winner Cup
- One Inter-Cities Fair Cup
Arsenal FC Worth and Ownership
Currently, Stan Kroenke is the largest shareholder in the Arsenal Board. Other shareholders include Red and White Securities which owned their first shares in August 2007 from David Dein.
In 2007, Stab faced competition from the Red and White when he declared his interest in raising the bid. Four years later he had acquired more than half of the club’s shares with 62.89%. In 2018, he managed to purchase the Usmanov for £550million becoming the highest shareholder with 90% of the club’s shares.
2018, Forbes valued Arsenal at $2.238 billion, ranking at number three in English football. However, in the 2019-20 season Arsenal recorded a tax loss of £47.8m due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. 2019 Arsenal’s recorded annual revenue of £392.7m (€445.6m) ranking 11th in among football clubs in the World.
Managers
David Danskin was among the founders and the first club’s manager. After that Herbert Chapman took over as the club’s manager in 1925, the man who transformed Arsenal. He helped the club win their first national trophy, which was the FA Cup in 1930. From 1953-to 1986, the club was managed by Mediocrity, Mee, and Neill
In 1986 George Graham took over from Mee, helping the club win their first league title in 1987 in his first season. Graham led Arsenal to win numerous trophies. Despite having a good track record in 1995 he was fired after taking a bribe from a certain agent to sign a player.
After that, Bruce Rioch took over for only one season before leaving the club after a disagreement with the board of directors.
The arrival of Arsene Wenger
Wenger was appointed in 1996, his arrival was the game-changer for the Gunners. The following season he helped Arsenal win their second league title in the 1997-98 season. After that, he won the third league title in the 2001-02 season. Under Arsen, Wenger Arsenal secured 12 league titles and other important trophies.
Wenger will go down in the history as Arsenal’s longest-serving manager and the most successful one. He retired in 2018, handing the docket to Unia Emery on 23rd May 2018.
Unai Emery only stayed for one season and he was sacked due to poor performances. Freddies Ljungberg took over as an interim head coach before the arrival of Mikel Arteta on 20th December 2019. Arteta is also a former Arsenal Captain.
Arsenal FC All-time goalscorers
Arsenal is one of the teams in the World that has produced one of the best players. Below are the top ten goals scorers of all time
- Thiery Henry tops the list with, 228 goals (retired)
- Ian Wright, 153 goals (retired)
- Robin van Persie, 132 goals (retired)
- Dennis Bergkamp, 113 (retired)
- Theo Walcott, 108 goals (Southampton)
- Olivia Giroud, 105 goals (Ac Millan)
- Alan Smith, 95 goals (retired)
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 92 goals (Arsenal)
- Paul Merson, 86 goals (retired)
- Robert Pires, 85 goals (retired)