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The history of Arsenal Football Club between 1886 and 1966 covers the time from the club's foundation, through the first two major periods of success (the 1930s, and the late 1940s and early 1950s, respectively) and the club's subsequent decline to mid-table status in the 1960s. Arsenal Football Club was founded in 1886 as a munition workers' team from Woolwich, then in Kent, now southeast London. They turned professional in 1891 and joined The Football League two years later. They were promoted to the First Division in 1904 but financial problems meant they were close to bankruptcy by 1910. They were bought out by Sir Henry Norris that year and to improve the club's financial standing, he moved the team to Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, north London in 1913. After the First World War he arranged for the club's promotion back to the First Division, in controversial circumstances. It was not until the appointment of Herbert Chapman in 1925 that Arsenal had their first period of major success; Chapman modernised and reformed the club's practices and tactics, and under him and his successor George Allison (who took over after Chapman's death in January 1934), Arsenal won five First Division titles and two FA Cups in the 1930s. After the Second World War, Tom Whittaker continued the success, leading the club to two First Division titles and an FA Cup. After Whittaker's death Arsenal's fortunes gradually declined; by 1966, they were in mid-table obscurity and had not won a trophy in thirteen years. This led to the dismissal of Billy Wright as manager in 1966, and with it the appointment of Bertie Mee, who would go on to turn around the club's fortunes. ==Early years (1886–1910)== Arsenal were founded as Dial Square in 1886 by a group of workers employed by the Dial Square workshop at the Royal Arsenal, an armaments factory in Woolwich, Kent (formally part of the new County of London from 1889).〔Another football team based at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Union, had been founded in 1884, and some Dial Square players, including Fred Beardsley, had previously played for that side. However, club historians generally regard Dial Square as Arsenal's direct forerunners. Reference: 〕 They were led by a Scotsman, David Danskin, who purchased the club's first football, and Jack Humble. Among their number was the former Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Fred Beardsley, who would later along with Morris Bates obtain a set of red kits from his old club, thus giving Arsenal the colours they still wear today.〔 Dial Square played their first match on 11 December 1886 against Eastern Wanderers on an open field on the Isle of Dogs, which they won 6–0.〔The number of goals Dial Square scored is disputed, though six is the officially recorded figure. Reference: 〕 The club were renamed ''Royal Arsenal'' soon after, reportedly on Christmas Day. Initially the club played on Plumstead Common, but soon sought alternative homes, firstly the Sportsman Ground in Plumstead before moving to the adjacent Manor Ground in 1888. Unhappy with the Manor Ground's poor facilities, the club moved to the nearby Invicta Ground in 1890, before returning to the Manor Ground three years later as the Invicta Ground's rent proved too expensive.〔 During this period, Royal Arsenal started to win local trophies, winning both the Kent Senior Cup and London Charity Cup in 1889–90 and the London Senior Cup in 1890–91; they also entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1889–90. However, the gulf between Arsenal and the professional sides from the North soon became apparent, and Arsenal faced the threat of their amateur players being lured away by the money professional sides could offer; after Derby County had played Arsenal in an FA Cup tie in 1891, they attempted to sign two of Arsenal's amateur players on professional contracts. Royal Arsenal's move to professionalism in 1891 was frowned upon by many of the amateur southern clubs, and they were banned from participating in local competitions by the London Football Association. With friendlies and the FA Cup the only matches available for Royal Arsenal, they attempted to set up a southern equivalent of The Football League, but the move failed.〔 The club changed its name to Woolwich Arsenal in 1893 when it formed a limited liability company to raise capital to purchase the Manor Ground.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Royal Arsenal becomes Woolwich Arsenal )〕 Woolwich Arsenal's future looked bleak until the Football League came to their rescue by inviting them to join in 1893. Arsenal were the first Southern club to enter the League, initially joining the Second Division; in response, some of the club's amateur players who rejected professionalism and wanted a workers' team to represent just the Royal Arsenal, broke away to form a short-lived alternative side, Royal Ordnance Factories. Woolwich Arsenal played in the Second Division for eleven seasons, and generally occupied mid-table before the appointment of Harry Bradshaw as manager in 1899; Bradshaw and his star signings, including goalkeeper Jimmy Ashcroft (Arsenal's first England international) and captain Jimmy Jackson, won promotion to the First Division in 1903–04. However, Bradshaw moved on to Fulham in May 1904, before the Gunners had kicked a ball in the top flight. Despite some strong performances in the FA Cup – the club reached the semi-finals in 1905–06 and 1906–07〔 – Arsenal were never able to challenge for the League title, only twice finishing above tenth place in the First Division between 1904 and 1913. The cause of this decline was the club's ongoing financial problems; despite the boom in football during the early 20th century, the club's geographic isolation, in the relatively underpopulated area of Plumstead (then on the outskirts of urban London), meant attendances and thus income were low. To stay afloat, Woolwich Arsenal were forced to sell their star players (including Ashcroft, as well as Tim Coleman and Bert Freeman), and slowly started to slip down the table, which compounded their financial situation as crowds fell. By the end of the decade the average attendance at Manor Ground was 11,000, a little over half of what it had been in 1904. The club were close to bankruptcy, and in 1910 went into voluntary liquidation before being bought out by a consortium of businessmen; the largest shareholder amongst the new owners was the property magnate Sir Henry Norris, who was also the chairman of Fulham. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Arsenal F.C. (1886–1966)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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