This piece is dedicated to Peter "Cu" Dorney, lifelong Gooner, died of cancer 29th October 2010, RIP.
In my last piece I looked at Arsenal players who died tragically while at the club. However, I missed out these two equally tragic stories.
In my last piece I looked at Arsenal players who died tragically while at the club. However, I missed out these two equally tragic stories.
Thanks to all who read my last piece and I hope you enjoy reading about these two unsung heroes.
In January 1925 the Arsenal manager, Leslie Knighton, signed centre forward Jack Lambert from Doncaster Rovers for the substantial fee of £2,000. Lambert was not exactly prolific at Doncaster, but Knighton saw something in the tall, powerful striker and intended to use him as an impact, squad player.
Jack Lambert did not have the most auspicious of starts to his Arsenal career, and failed to break in to the first team until the start of the 1926 season, eventually scoring just one goal in 16 appearances.
Over the next two seasons he played just 22 games with a return of 4 goals and suffered from a profound lack of confidence, saying at the time that
“..Even the thought of setting foot on the pitch, fills me with dread”
Regularly booed and harangued by the Highbury faithful, he decided to quit the game altogether, but thankfully Herbert Chapman talked him round, insisting he had a major role to play at the club. Booing our own players, thank God we’ve moved on from those dark days, eh?
Football is a game of millimetres, with every spectacular goal just a heartbeat away from a spectacular miss. Buoyed by Chapman’s faith, and a developing understanding with Arsenals play maker Alex James, Lambert got his ‘mojo’ back.
Although Arsenal only finished 14th in the 1929/30 season, Lambert scored 18 goals in 22 appearances, including 3 hat-tricks.
Arsenal went on to lift the FA Cup with Lambert scoring a goal, in the 2-0 victory over Huddersfield Town, in the final.
We went on to win our first ever League title the following season, losing just 4 games and amassing a record 66 points. Lambert was in unstoppable form scoring 38 goals including seven hat-tricks, two against Middlesbrough.
The ’31-‘32 season saw Arsenal miss out on back to back titles by just 2 points, Lambert scored 22 goals including a hat-trick in a 6-0 victory over Liverpool.
We regained the title the following season, but Lambert had fallen out of favour. Limited to just 12 appearances he still managed to score 14 goals, hitting 5 in a 9-2 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday.
He was sold, to Fulham, in October of the same year.
He went on to coach Margate, and in 1938 returned to Arsenal as full time coach of Arsenal reserves.
On the 17th December 1940 he was tragically killed in a car crash in Enfield, North London.
With 109 goals from 161 appearances he is Arsenals 13th highest ever goal scorer. RIP.
Niccolo Galli was the son of Italian international goalkeeper Giovanni Galli. Galli senior was a Fiorentina legend, making 259 appearances for ‘La Viola’ before going on to play for Milan, Napoli, Torino, Parma and Lucchese.
Young Niccolo began his football career at Torino aged 10, but soon his father was on the road again, this time to Parma where Niccolo once again took to the field for his father’s club.
The family eventually returned to Florence in 1995 and, for the first time in his life, Niccolo started to have a bit of stability. There, began a steady progression in his football, which saw him being capped for Italy in the qualifying rounds for the under 16 European championship. These performances caught the eye of the Arsenal scouting machine, and Liam Brady persuaded the club to sign him up.
Tall for his age, at 6’ 2”, and described by Brady as “ an intelligent and skill full defender” he established himself as a regular in the Arsenal youth team playing alongside Rohan Ricketts, Steve Sidwell, Jay Boothroyd and Jeremie Aliadiere, part of the team that went on to win the FA Youth cup in 2000 defeating Coventry City in the final. In this period he was also capped 8 times for Italy at under 17 and under 18 level, scoring 3 goals.
Niccolo had known nothing but football for all his young life, and he longed for the life of an ordinary teenager. Football had given him everything, but in return had taken everything from him. Arsenal, reluctantly, allowed him to return to Italy to finish his education, and in August 2000 he was loaned to Bologna. He was too good for the luxury of a normal life and on the 1st of October 2000 he made his Serie A debut aged 17.
On the 10th of February, 3 months from his 18th birthday, he was killed in a motorbike accident in Bologna.
Niccolo was held in such high regard in Bologna that the club retired his number 27 shirt, they also gave his name to their training ground.
“I have no doubt in my mind that had he lived, he would have been Captain of Arsenal, and of Italy”
Arsene Wenger.
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