Terry Neill, 1942-2022

For a generation of fans raised between the 1971 and 1989 Football League titles -- unless you count the 1987 League Cup -- the only major trophy won by Arsenal Football Club, of North London, was the 1979 FA Cup. And Terry Neill was the manager who won it.

William John Terrence Neill -- I can find no reference as to why he was "Terry" rather than a variation of William or John -- was born on May 8, 1942 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A centreback, he played for Bangor F.C. in the County Down town of the same name, and was signed by Arsenal in December 1959. He made his senior debut for the team a year later. In the 1962-63 season, just 20, he became the youngest player ever to Captain Arsenal in a game. (The record has since been broken.)

By 1964, he was a starter, and by 1968 was, unusually for his position, Arsenal's regular penalty-taker. In his memoir of soccer fandom, Fever Pitch, novelist Nick Hornby wrote of being taken to his 1st Arsenal match that season, against Stoke City, whose goalkeeper was Gordon Banks, the goalie for England's World Cup winners of 1966. Arsenal were awarded a penalty, and Banks could only deflect it, resulting in a scramble where Neill got a 2nd chance, and scored the game's only goal.

Neill made his international debut for Northern Ireland in 1961, and became his country's Captain in 1968. He helped Arsenal reach the League Cup Final in 1968 and 1969, but they lost both times. In the latter, he had been suffering from jaundice, and was one of a few Arsenal players stricken in a flu epidemic, so he did not play in the Final. His illnesses weakened him, and he did not receive a winner's medal for Arsenal's win in the 1969-70 season's Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League).

In 1970, despite being just 28 years old, Yorkshire team Hull City offered to make him player-manager. In 1971, Northern Ireland would make him player-manager as well. In 1974, he was hired by Arsenal's North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. They included his fellow Belfast native, goalkeeper Pat Jennings, who eventually broke Neill's record for most appearances for Northern Ireland. Together, they finished 9th in in 1976.

So when Arsenal fired Bertie Mee that Summer, they overlooked the fact that Neill had "defected" to "Spurs," and brought him back to Highbury. He began to rebuild the team, including bringing Jennings in, after Spurs foolishly let him go. (They ended up relegated in 1977, although they bounced back up the next year.)

Neill brought Don Howe back to Arsenal. They had been defenders together, and Howe had been an assistant to Mee on Arsenal's 1971 team that won the Football League and the FA Cup, collectively known as "The Double." This significantly improved Arsenal's defense.

Neill built what became known as "The Irish Connection." He, Jennings, right back and team Captain Pat Rice and left back Sammy Nelson were from Belfast. Rice and Nelson were the only 2 holdovers from the '71 team.

Midfielder Liam Brady and forward Frank Stapleton had grown up together in Dublin. Centreback David O'Leary was born in London but grew up in Dublin, and one of his best friends was John Devine, who also became an Arsenal centreback under Neill. O'Leary, Brady and Stapleton formed the core of the Republic of Ireland national team for a decade. In addition, though born and raised in England, centerback Steve Walford, and midfielders John Hollins and Brian McDermott, were of Irish descent.

Neill also specialized in picking up Spurs castoffs: Jennings, Walford, and centreback Willie Young, a 6-foot-6 redheaded Scotsman who led Arsenal fans to cheekily sing, "We've got the biggest Willie in the land!"

Arsenal's traditional reliance on non-English players -- previous great teams always seemed to have Scots and Welshmen, and the occasional Irishman -- have led to their treatment by English fans as a "foreign" team. Not that Neill was opposed to English players. He paid a huge transfer fee for that time to bring forward Malcolm Macdonald in from Newcastle United. Signing one of the best and most popular players in England was a sign that Arsenal were serious about winning again.

While Walford was usually a backup, 4 starters were English: Forward Alan Sunderland, identifiable by his mustache and his red Afro, very impressive for a white man; and midfielders Brian Talbot, David Price and Graham Rix.

Neill also helped develop Arsenal's earliest black players. Brendan Batson had been the 1st, in 1972, but, by this point, he was starring for West Bromwich Albion. Neill did develop midfielders David Rocastle, Paul Davis and Michael Thomas, all of them Londoners. But, as it turned out, by the time they helped Arsenal win the League title, Neill was gone.

Arsenal reached the FA Cup Final in 1978, but were upset by Ipswich Town. They reached it again in 1979, a season that included a Christmas week 5-0 win away to Spurs. In that game, Sunderland scored a hat trick, Stapleton a diving header off a cross by Brady after Brady had made a spectacular run, and a goal so amazing it made BBC announcer John Motson yell, "Look at that! Oh, look at that!"

However, Macdonald suffered a knee injury earlier in the season, and was never the same player. He would be unavailable for the 1979 FA Cup Final against Manchester United. A joke made the rounds: What goes to the FA Cup Final every year, but is never on the trophy? The correct answer is the ribbons in the colors of the losing team, as the winning team's colors are attached to its handles. But the joke answer was "Malcolm Macdonald."

Arsenal took a 2-0 lead in the 1st half, and was the clock wounded down, victory seemed certain. But then, shocking the viewing public from all over the British Isles, Gordon McQueen scored in the 86th minute, and Sammy McIlroy tied it in the 88th. Whereas the Arsenal half of the old Wembley Stadium had gone from celebratory to silent, the United have went from silent to giddy. In a 2003 interview, Neill said, "I'm still waiting for United's 3rd goal!"

It wouldn't come: Arsenal kicked off, and Brady dribbled down the left side, and found Sunderland, who stuck his leg out, and put a shot past Gary Bailey to make it 3-2 to The Arsenal. Three goals in three minutes. It became known as "The Five-Minute Final," and Pat Rice was handed the Cup by Prince Charles.

In spite of this achievement, Arsenal only finished 7th in the League. Postponement due to bad weather, qualification for the European Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup-holders, and replays due to cup ties ending in draws, made the 1979-80 season the longest in Arsenal's history. Managers complain about fixture congestion now, but Terry Neill's Gunners ended up having to play 18 games in just 54 days.

Example: Arsenal had to play Everton away on a Friday, Norwich City away the following Wednesday, Southampton at home on the following Saturday, Tottenham away the following Monday (just 2 days later, the day after Easter), Juventus at home in the Cup Winners' Cup Semifinal on Wednesday (again, just 2 days later), and finally Liverpool at neutral-site Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup Semifinal on Saturday.

That game ended in a draw, so there had to be a replay at Aston Villa on the following Wednesday, meaning more fixture pileup, and then they had to play Liverpool for a 3rd time in 8 days, away in a League match the following Saturday. Then the away leg of the Semifinal against Juventus, in Turin, Italy, the following Wednesday.

Then home to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, followed by yet another FA Cup Semifinal replay against Liverpool, back at Villa Park, on Monday. And when that ended in a draw, a 3rd replay against Liverpool was required at Coventry City on Thursday. Coventry was chosen as the site because Arsenal already had to play a League game away to Coventry City on Saturday, so they could just stay in town.

Then, back home, against European Cup holders Nottingham Forest on Monday. Then, the following Saturday, the FA Cup Final at Wembley, against West Ham. Followed on the next Wednesday by the Cup Winners' Cup Final, against Spanish club Valencia, in Brussels, Belgium -- at Heysel Stadium, site of the disastrous European Cup Final 5 years later. Then, closing out the League schedule, away to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Friday, and away to Middlesbrough on Monday, both games previously postponed due to the FA Cup ties.

Neill asked Spurs management if they would agree to have the Easter Monday fixture moved. Petulant as ever, Spurs refused. Knowing that the League title was out of reach by this point anyway -- Arsenal finished a respectable, if not desirable, 4th -- Neill fielded a weakened team, to keep his stars rested for the big test against Juventus. Paul Barron was in goal instead of Jennings, Walford at left back instead of Nelson, Devine in Sunderland's midfield place (though Sunderland did appear as a sub), Paul Vaessen at forward in place of Stapleton, Hollins at Number 10 instead of Price, and, making his Arsenal debut, Davis at 11 instead of Rix.

The moves worked: Vaessen scored, and then Brady got hurt, forcing Neill to replace him with Sunderland, who also scored, and a half-strength Arsenal beat a full-strength Spurs 2-1. This was the game in which, most likely, the worst episode of Arsenal-fan-toward-Tottenham-fan violence took place: A Gooner threw a petrol bomb -- Americans would call it a Molotov cocktail -- from the south stand, the Park Lane End, the traditional location for visiting fans, onto the east stand, a.k.a. The Shelf. It exploded, and burned some Spurs fans. As far as I can tell, the offending spectator was never identified, much less arrested and prosecuted.

Sixteen days later, Vaessen would score a late goal at Juventus to send Arsenal to the Cup Winners' Cup Final. It was the 1st time in 5 years that the mighty (some would say, "cheating") Juve had lost a European tournament match at home, and Arsenal became the 1st English club ever to beat them in Turin.

They managed to finish 4th. Defending the FA Cup meant playing 3 replays against title-winners Liverpool, before a Talbot header finally gave Arsenal a 1-0 win. In their 3rd straight Final, Arsenal were heavily favored to make it back-to-back wins, because the opponents, East London team West Ham United, were then in Division Two. But a Trevor Brooking goal gave the Hammers a 1-0 win. They remain the last team outside the top flight to win the FA Cup.

It's been alleged that the Arsenal players were looking past that game to the Cup Winners' Cup Final, 4 days later. Valencia had one of the world's best players, Mario Kempes, one of the heroes of Argentina's win on home soil in the 1978 World Cup. The game ended 0-0, and went to penalties. Jennings stunned the world by stopping Kempes. But Brady, an expert penalty-taker, was also stopped. Then everybody made their shots, so penalties went to sudden death. Valencia made their next shot, but Rix was stopped, and Arsenal had lost 2 cup finals in 4 days.

The Italian Football Federation had changed its rules to allow foreign players for the 1st time in years, 2 per team. And since Juventus were the richest team in the country (they were, and still are, owned by the Agnelli family, who also owned the country's biggest company, Fiat Motors), they could afford to outspend English clubs for their biggest stars, and they lured Brady away, breaking the hearts of Arsenal fans.

In spite of this, Arsenal finished 3rd in 1981, higher than they'd ever finished with Brady. But then Stapleton, who'd famously signed with Arsenal instead of Manchester United, reversed himself, and signed with United. Unlike Brady, who was forgiven for taking a lot more money, Stapleton was staying in the same league, and has never been forgiven by Arsenal fans. Brady, who would come back to work for Arsenal in a coaching capacity, remains beloved by the "Gooners." But, more than 40 years later, Stapleton remains persona non grata.

Without their 2 best offensive players, Arsenal tumbled down the League. The period from 1981 to 1986 became the era of "Boring, boring Arsenal": Good enough to finish in the top half, not good enough to win trophies, and not good enough to at least provide entertaining football. The fans were getting restless.