George Armstrong (soccer player)

George Armstrong
George Armstrong in 1967
Personnel
Surname	George Armstrong
birthday	November 9, 1944
place of birth	Hebburn , County Durham ,  England
date of death	November 1, 2000
Place of death	Hemel Hempstead , Hertfordshire ,  England
position	Winger (left)
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1961-1977	Arsenal FC	500 (68)
1977-1988	Leicester City	15 ( 00)
1978-1979	Stockport County	34 ( 00)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
	Enderby Town
	FK Mjølner
1988-1989	Kuwait
1 Only league games are given.

George "Geordie" Armstrong (born November 9, 1944 in Hebburn , County Durham , † November 1, 2000 in Hemel Hempstead , Hertfordshire ) was an English football player and coach . During his playing career, the winger was a long-time constant on the Arsenal team in the 1960s and 1970s.

Athletic career

Armstrong, who was born in County Durham, was just learning to be an electrician while he also devoted himself to football. In August 1961 he joined Arsenal FC and started there initially from the center-forward position . He quickly switched to the wing and made his debut for the club's professional team at the age of only 17, defeating Blackpool 1-0 on February 24, 1962 . Although he was initially only intended as a substitute for Johnny MacLeod and Alan Skirton , he played his way into the starting line-up no later than the 1964/65 season when he only missed two games during the entire season.

During his long career with the Gunners, Armstrong was one of the most consistent football players at Arsenal, and his precision with crosses and corners was particularly valued. He was also very well known during his time for his tireless flank runs on the left side - where he was mostly used. On the right side it was also used sporadically and usually showed a similar quality there. Together with only Jon Sammels and Peter Storey , Armstrong was the only player from the coaching era of Billy Wright from 1962 to 1966, who was also a decisive factor in the subsequent aegis under Bertie Mee , which was to end a long untitled period.

Armstrong lost two league cup finals in a row with his club in 1968 and 1969 , but then led Arsenal to victory in the trade fair cup in 1970 and was elected best player of the year by the team. The high point of his playing career followed in 1971 when he won the " double " with the English championship and the FA Cup . He prepared the decisive header from Ray Kennedy in the win against Tottenham Hotspur , which secured the English league title .

Although there were no further titles at Arsenal in the further course of his career, he was still a regular player in the 1970s and never made less than 30 appearances in each season. But when he fell out with Mees' successor Terry Neill in 1977 , he moved to Leicester City for 15,000 British pounds in the summer . But he only played one season for the "Foxes" and ended his career with Stockport County in 1979.

Due to his fifteen-year playing career in the first team of Arsenal - mostly as a regular player - Armstrong has some records at the club. With his 621 appearances - including exactly 500 league games - he was the player with the most appearances in the history of the club during his playing days. This high was only later exceeded by David O'Leary and Tony Adams , so that he is the Arsenal player with the third most appearances today. In total, he scored 68 goals for Arsenal. Somewhat surprising for a player of such consistently high quality over a long period of time, he was never considered in the English national team . Although he had previously been in England's youth selections and U-21s, Armstrong was primarily a victim of national coach Alf Ramsey's philosophy of playing without letting wingers act.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Armstrong moved into the coaching business and usually worked as a kotrainer for a number of clubs - including Fulham FC , Aston Villa , Middlesbrough FC and the Queens Park Rangers . Even-actuated Armstrong trips to the foreign football when he was in Norway the FK Mjølner supervised and later in Kuwait worked. After the end of his engagement in the Middle East returned in 1990 on the initiative of his former teammate - and now coach of the team - George Graham back to Arsenal and was there coach of the reserve team. Despite the numerous coaching changes that the club went through at that time, Armstrong worked at this club until the end of his life. On October 31, 2000, he collapsed while exercising after a stroke and died in the hospital early the next day.

successes

• Fair cup winner: 1970
• English champion: 1971
• FA Cup Winner: 1971

literature

Jeff Harris, Tony Hogg (ed.): Arsenal Who's Who . Independent UK Sports, 1995, ISBN 1-899429-03-4 .

Web links

• Obituary for George Armstrong The Guardian (Engl.)