On This Day – 29th January
Lee Dixon moved from Stoke City to Arsenal on this day in 1988 as Gunners Manager George Graham was putting together his new-looking, younger squad.
Graham had been in charge at Arsenal for a little over a year and a half and was beginning to put together a much young and exciting looking team. Out went some experienced pro’s such as Viv Anderson, Graham Rix and Charlie Nicholas and younger players such as Niall Quinn, Paul Merson and Martin Hayes were moving up from the Youth Team up to the First Team.
Dixon was brought in for £375,000 to replace Viv Anderson, who joined Manchester United, becoming Alex Ferguson’s first signing at Old Trafford.
In his time at Arsenal, Dixon became part of the famous back four at Arsenal with Nigel Winterburn, Tony Adams and Steve Bould. The defence were famous for being extremely effective at the offside trap and each of them would often be seen with an arm aloft to signal that they thought an opponent was offside.
Because of the effectiveness of the defensive back four, it has been said that several linesmen waved a player offside if they were unsure as the Arsenal defence had their arms up. They were convinced that if the back four thought the opponent was offside then he was!
Dixon won four league titles and three FA Cups (these included two League and Cup Doubles in 97/98 and 01/02), a League Cup and European Cup Winners Cup. He also won X caps for England.
Dixon was Arsenal’s penalty taker for a few years before Ian Wright came in and took over this role. He also scored some memorable own goals in his time at Highbury, one of them against Coventry City can be seen below.
When it appeared that his career was coming to an end, Arsene Wenger came in as manager in late 1996. His training methods and improvements to player’s diet helped extend the back fours career for longer than expected. Dixon played until he was X years old, finally retiring at the end of the 2001/02 season and winning his season League and FA Cup Double in the process.
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