Mikael Silvestre’s transfer from Manchester United to Arsenal in the summer raised eyebrows not only because his age and established reputation did not fit Arsene Wenger’s blueprint for buying players - but also because deals between the Frenchman’s Gunners and Sir Alex Ferguson’s United were previously non-existent, as befitted the intense, pizza-fuelled rivalry that used to distinguish their relationship.
However, transfers between the two clubs were not always unheard of ahead of their much-anticipated clash at the Emirates today, we highlight below seven stars who played for both these famous English footballing institutions…
1. DAVID HERD - Striker
(Arsenal 1954-61; Man Utd 1961-68)
The Scottish centre-forward was Arsenal’s leading scorer for four consecutive seasons, yet to the dismay of Arsenal fans, manager George Swindin seemed determined to sell him. Herd was offered to Huddersfield in part-exchange for future United hero Denis Law, and to Newcastle for George Eastham. Blackburn were also given a chance to sign him before Herd took the hint and jumped at the chance to join his boyhood hero Matt Busby’s United in summer 1961. He had joined the Gunners from Stockport County, for whom he’d played alongside his father Alec, so in a geographical sense he was returning home.
Arsenal supporters were dumbstruck that their club was willing to sell to a rival a player who had netted 30 goals in his final season in north London - including four hat-tricks. No-one else in the 1960-61 Arsenal squad managed to net more than ten strikes. Herd had a ferocious shot, and the knack of keeping the ball down when he let fly; but he could also chip in with some classic diving-headers. He scored 107 goals in 180 games in a Gunners shirt, one of only 16 centurions in Arsenal’s history, and went on to add 114 in 202 appearances for United, playing with such luminaries as Law, George Best, Bobby Charlton, Bill Foulkes and Pat Crerand. At Old Trafford he also won two League Championship medals (1964-65 and 1966-67), plus a winner’s medal in the 1963 FA Cup final, when he scored twice in a 3-1 win over Leicester City. A broken leg effectively brought the curtain down on his United career, but he moved to Stoke City in 1968 and was briefly manager of Lincoln City
(1971-72) before running his own garage business in Manchester.
2. IAN URE - Centre-Half
(Arsenal 1963-69; Man Utd 1969-71)
Ure made his name at Dundee, where he won the Scottish League title in 1961-62, helping them reach the semi-finals of the European Champions’ Cup the following season. In the summer of 1963 Arsenal manager Billy Wright paid a then world-record fee for a centre-half of £62,500 to bring the Scotland international to Highbury. After an error-strewn start, the tall, blond-haired Ure settled down and became a commanding figure in the Arsenal defence. He had a fiery temperament, though, and was sent off four times while with the Gunners. That was quite an achievement given that in the Sixties it was considerably harder than it is today to incur a referee’s displeasure. Ure left Arsenal for Old Trafford after four games of the 1969-70 campaign, his departure eventually prompting manager Bertie Mee to convert skipper Frank McLintock from swashbuckling midfielder to outstanding centre-back.
Ure’s timing was awful: at the end of that season, Arsenal won their first trophy for 17 years (the European Fairs Cup), while United were entering a period of decline. On his first return to Highbury, Arsenal beat United 4-0 on their way to a League and FA Cup Double. Ure played 202 games for Arsenal (two goals), and 47 for United (one goal), before returning to Scotland to play for St Mirren, briefly manage East Stirling and then become a social worker.
3. GEORGE GRAHAM (Attacking Midfielder)
(Arsenal 1966-72; Man Utd 1972-74)
Graham was a key figure in those Arsenal triumphs that Ure missed out on, and it was a surprise when Bertie Mee let him go to join Manchester United’s battle against relegation under fellow Scot Tommy Docherty. Graham, converted by Mee and Don Howe from striker to midfielder, was the artist of the Arsenal team but never lost his towering ability in the air. Nicknamed Stroller for his languid style, Graham rose to prominence under Docherty at Chelsea, where he averaged a goal every other game before joining the Gunners in 1966. His Arsenal record was 77 goals in 308 games, and he was a key member of the 70-71 Double-winning side.
At United he was in a struggling side, making 43 appearances and scoring two goals before joining Portsmouth, then Crystal Palace. Beginning his coaching career under his great friend Terry Venables at QPR, Graham became Millwall manager and was invited back to Highbury to succeed Howe in May 1986. He led the Gunners to six major trophies in eight-and-a-half seasons, before bung allegations caught up with him and he was relieved of his post. After serving a ban he managed Leeds United, then Arsenal’s arch-rivals Tottenham, before Spurs sacked him in 2001.
4. JIMMY RIMMER - Goalkeeper
(Man Utd 1967-1974; Arsenal 1974-77)
It was Jimmy Rimmer’s misfortune to be at Old Trafford when Alex Stepney was United’s undisputed number one. Such was Stepney’s consistency that Rimmer was restricted to 46 appearances for the Red Devils, spread over six seasons; he was on the bench for the 1968 European Cup final. Rimmer suffered further bad luck in his career - most noticeably in the European Cup final of 1982 when, as an Aston Villa player, he got injured with the opening 10 minutes and had to be replaced by Nigel Spink. He thus became the first Englishman to collect European Cup winners’ medals with two different clubs, even though he was only on the pitch for nine minutes of the 180 in the two matches.
He was also unlucky to be Arsenal’s keeper during the club’s least successful period since the last war. He joined the Gunners, initially on loan, in February 1974, with the move becoming permanent two months later. After keeping a clean sheet on his debut, an Arsenal victory at Anfield at the back end of 1973-74, Rimmer went on to earn the respect and affection of Arsenal fans during three seasons in which he missed only two League games, succeeding Bob Wilson between the posts and deservedly being voted Player of the Year in 1975. Rimmer was widely recognised as the main reason Arsenal avoided relegation in 1974-75 and 1975-76. He won a solitary England cap in 1976 before leaving Highbury in summer 1977, with a great deal of goodwill, on the day manager Terry Neill signed the legendary Pat Jennings from Spurs. Rimmer joined Villa, where he won a League Championship medal in 1981, and he later played for, coached and caretaker-managed Swansea City. He also spent several years in China as goalkeeping coach for the Chinese national team and Dalian Shide, and now coaches in Canada.
5. BRIAN KIDD - Striker
(Man Utd 1963-1974; Arsenal 1974-76)
Manchester-born Kidd broke into Matt Busby’s first-team as a teenager of huge promise, and finished his first full season alongside Law, Best and Charlton by scoring against Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final, on his 19th birthday. He had been born into a family of United supporters and signed schoolboy forms at Old Trafford in 1963, becoming an apprentice the following year and a full professional in 1966. He made his debut against Everton in August 1967 and scored his first United goal that September, against West Ham. ‘Kiddo’ became a Stretford End hero, appearing 264 times in the United first-team and scoring 70 goals. But United were relegated in 1973/74 and Kidd, seeking a new challenge, left that summer for Arsenal where he was seen as a replacement for Ray Kennedy alongside John Radford.
Like Rimmer, his time at Highbury coincided with an especially threadbare period in the club’s history, the last two years of Bertie Mee’s reign. But the North Bank took him to their hearts as he scored 34 goals in 90 games for a struggling side. Ahead of the appointment as manager of Terry Neill, who would immediately sign striker Malcolm Macdonald from Newcastle, Kidd took the opportunity to return to his home town, joining City in summer 1976. Spells at Everton and Bolton followed, plus four years in the NASL with three different clubs (Atlanta Chiefs, Fort Lauderdale Strikers and Minnesota Strikers), before he went into coaching. He had spells at Barrow and Preston before Alex Ferguson took him back to United as youth team coach in 1988. From 1991 until December 1998 he was assistant manager to Ferguson, helping the club win seven major trophies. An unsuccessful spell as manager at Blackburn was followed by coaching roles at Leeds, and he was appointed assistant to England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson but had to resign just before Euro 2004 to undergo surgery for prostate cancer. After recovering, Kidd coached at Sheffield United until earlier this year.
6. FRANK STAPLETON - Striker
(Arsenal 1974-81; Man Utd 1981-87)
The most controversial transfer between the two clubs was that of Dubliner Frank Stapleton in summer 1981. At the time he was widely recognised as the best centre-forward in Britain if not Europe, but with his contract expired and the Gunners unable or unwilling to meet his wage demands, United’s new manager Ron Atkinson stepped in. The two clubs could not agree a fee so a tribunal set it at what Arsenal felt was a derisory £900,000. Gunners fans, who had seen fellow Dubliner Liam Brady leave for Juventus the previous summer, accused Stapleton of greed and never forgave him - a pity as he had been an outstanding player for Arsenal.
Stapleton arrived at Highbury as an apprentice in 1972, ironically after turning down United. He made his debut in 1975 against Stoke and went on to form highly productive strike partnerships with first Malcolm Macdonald and then Alan Sunderland. An unselfish leader of the line with a great touch who was outstanding in the air, Stapleton helped the Gunners reach four major finals in three seasons, scoring one of the goals in Arsenal’s 3-2 FA Cup final triumph over United in 1979. He netted 108 goals in 300 appearances in total for Arsenal. At United he won two more FA Cup finals (1983 and 1985), scoring against Brighton in the first of them, and netted 78 goals for the club in 365 matches. A mainstay of the Republic of Ireland team, he scored a then record 20 goals for his country while winning 71 caps. Quiet, reserved and teetotal, Stapleton was a consummate team player whose contribution was much admired at Old Trafford. He went on to play for He went on to play for Ajax, Anderlecht, Derby County, Blackburn Rovers, Aldershot, Huddersfield Town, Le Havre, Bradford City and Brighton, and spent three years as Bradford’s player-manager before being sacked in 1994.
7. VIV ANDERSON - Right-Back
(Arsenal 1984-87; Man Utd 1987-91)
Anderson’s place in football history is secure as the first black footballer to represent England in a full international. He won the first of his 30 caps in 1978 while at Nottingham Forest, his home-town club, where he won a host of honours under Brian Clough including promotion to the old First Division, two League Cups, the Football League Championship and two European Cups. He moved to Arsenal in the summer of 1984 for £250,000 to revive his career as Clough’s ageing side began to break up. He enjoyed a new lease of life in north London. An ebullient character but a fierce competitor, the long-legged Anderson was an outstanding tackler who was also fast and flamboyant, and he became a popular figure at Highbury - especially during George Graham’s first season as manager (1986-87). That proved to be Anderson’s last as a Gunner, but he left with a League Cup winner’s medal. He became Sir Alex Ferguson’s first signing for United, though like Stapleton’s six years previously, his departure dismayed Arsenal fans, especially when, again like the Irishman’s, his fee was set by a tribunal at the same £250,000 he’d cost the club.
Anderson had the misfortune to be in the England squad for three major tournament finals (two World Cups and a European Championship) without getting so much as a minute’s playing time in any of them. He spent three years at Old Trafford, but his time there was hampered by injuries and he was allowed to leave on a free transfer to Sheffield Wednesday in January 1991, helping them to promotion from the Second Division. However, he missed the Owls’ League Cup final triumph over United as he had played for his former club earlier in the competition. He was a key member of the Wednesday side that finished third in the 1991–92 First Division and seventh in the inaugural Premier League season, and also helped them reach the FA Cup and League Cup finals in 1993 - when they lost both times to the Gunners. In June he left Hillsborough to become player-manager at Barnsley, then became assistant manager of Middlesbrough under former United team-mate Bryan Robson. Awarded an MBE in 2000 and inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2004, Anderson was named Nottingham Forest’s best-ever right-back by fans voting for the club’s all-time greatest XI. He received 96% of the vote.
Others, apart from Silvestre, who played for both clubs include Andrew Cole, who began his career at Arsenal and eventually joined United from Newcastle in 1995, going on to play 275 games and scoring 121 goals for the Red Devils. Tommy Baldwin, who also began his career at Arsenal in the mid-1960s, played a couple of games for United on loan from Chelsea in 1974-75.
Tommy Docherty was an Arsenal wing-half from 1958 to 1961 who later managed United, guiding them to the 1975-75 Second Division title and winning the FA Cup in 1977. Dave Sexton was assistant manager at Highbury before taking charge at Chelsea and eventually becoming United manager from 1977 to 1981. And Stewart Houston made 250 appearances for United at left-back between 1973 and 1980 before becoming assistant manager to George Graham at Arsenal from 1990. He was twice the Gunners’ caretaker-manager, first for three months in 1995 after Graham’s sacking in February 1995, then again in August 1996 after Bruce Rioch’s departure.
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