Untold Arsenal » Making the Arsenal
Making the Arsenal
1910 was the pivotal year: the start of the great journey for Arsenal – the journey from bankruptcy at Woolwich to the start of being the most famous club in the world. But it almost didn’t happen as the owners attempted to merge Arsenal with Fulham, and then when that failed, move the club to Craven Cottage as a way of attacking the rising popularity of Chelsea.
1910 was also a wild and strange year for London as the nation worried itself stupid over spies on every corner, an invasion from Germany, anarchist unrest… Meanwhile the government suddenly decided to shut down part of the Woolwich factories and move them to the Clyde.
Making the Arsenal is the story of 1910 – covering not just Woolwich Arsenal FC, and the activities of the new owners but also what was going on around it.
The story is told through the vision of a journalist working on the Daily Chronicle who is given the job of covering Woolwich Arsenal, but who also covers the closure of part of the factory, and who is also recruited as a operative for the newly formed SO(t) government agency (which later became MI5).
You can read some of this book at www.woolwicharsenal.co.uk – and the whole volume will appear later this year.