Joe Wade

Joe Wade
Personnel
Surname	Joseph Samuel Wade
birthday	July 7, 1921
place of birth	Shoreditch ,  England
date of death	November 12, 2005
Place of death	Hereford ,  England
position	Defense (outside)
Juniors
Years	station
	Hoxton BC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1944-1956	Arsenal FC	86 (0)
1956-1952	Hereford United
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1956-1952	Hereford United
1971	Hereford United (interim)
1 Only league games are given.

Joseph Samuel "Joe" Wade (born July 7, 1921 in Shoreditch , † November 12, 2005 in Hereford ) was an English football player and coach . Mostly used in the left defender position, he won the English championship as a player for Arsenal in the 1952/53 season.

Athletic career

Born in the Hackney borough of London, Wade was a young Arsenal supporter , which he joined as an amateur player in 1944. During the Second World War he had served in the Royal Air Force and since he was stationed at the base in Credenhill (located in the county of Herefordshire ), he made occasional guest appearances in the Hereford United team , which normally played in the Southern League . After the end of the fighting Wade made his debut in the first team of the "Gunners" in a game of the FA Cup . The game against West Ham United on January 5, 1946 ended in a 6-0 defeat. After the league game operations were resumed in the 1946/47 season, he also made his debut in the top English division and was much more successful in a 4-2 win against Leeds United on November 16, 1946. At that time, however, Wade was primarily a candidate for the reserve team and by the end of the 1951/52 season, the trained left defender made only 16 competitive games in the first team. He was mostly in the shadow of teammates like Walley Barnes and Laurie Scott and to win the English championship in the 1947/48 season he only contributed three of his own inserts.

After Barnes sustained a serious knee injury in the FA Cup final in 1952 , Wade slipped into his role and, with 40 games, was largely responsible for the Gunners winning the English championship again in the 1952/53 season. In the following season 1953/54 he had a bitter experience when he had an unfortunate collision with his teammate Joe Mercer in April 1954 on the occasion of the game against Liverpool FC and he had to end his active career in the later episode. The sporting career for Wade himself soon suffered a decisive setback. He was seriously injured in a friendly against the Queens Park Rangers and after recovering could no longer prevail against his substitute Len Wills . After a 1955/56 season without first division appearances, he left the club for Hereford United to work in the Southern League for the club as a player- coach.

His coaching days at Hereford United between 1956 and 1962 saw a number of surprising results in the FA Cup . As a "cup scare" Wade defeated with his amateur team, among others, the professional teams of FC Aldershot (1956/57) and the Queens Park Rangers (6-1 (!) In the 1957/58 season). In addition, in 1959 he won the double from championship of the Southern League North-West Division and Southern League Cup . Due to these respectable successes, among others, the Arsenal rival Tottenham Hotspur made him a coach offer, which Wade declined. The reason for this was that he wanted to take care of his sports business Joe Wade Sports (his former Arsenal teammate Ray Daniel took over the coaching job in Hereford). In September 1971 Wade returned to the coaching chair on an interim basis - shortly after John Charles left and before Colin Addison took over . He died in mid-November 2005 at the age of 84.

Title / Awards

• English champion (1): 1953

Web links

• Hereford Times obituary
• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League AZ Player's Database
• Profile on barryhugmansfootballers.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joe Wader (11v11.com)
2. ↑ Joe Wade (Arsenal.com)
3. ↑ Joe Wade; joined Arsenal 25 May (The History of Arsenal)
4. ↑ Joe Wade - United manager who started cup tradition (Hereford Times)