Arsenal have 3 ex Saints in their squad at present, Charlie George also has the distinction of playing for both clubs, can one of our ex players emulate Charlie.

Charlie George was the hero of the 1971 FA Cup Final for Arsenal, looking like he had just walked off the North Bank terraces with long straggly hair he was born in nearby Islington and was truly the local lad made good.

In 1970/71 he had missed a fair chunk of the season with a broken ankle although he returned in the last part of the season to score 5 goals and propel Arsenal towards a league title, but it was in the FA Cup Final at Wembley that Charlie would make his biggest impact and in doing so become not only Arsenal's first cult hero, but put himself into a list of early 1970's mavericks that included Rodney Marsh, Peter Osgood etc.

He was still only 20 when Arsenal went to Wembley to play Liverpooland the game was in extra time at 1-1 when Charlie wrote himself into the names of the Arsenal immortals by hitting a spectacular 20 yard winner and iconically laying on the turf arms outstretched in celebration.

However that would be his peak at Highbury and although he would spent four more seasons he never really hit the same heights, falling out with the club on several occasions, one time being for headbutting Kevin Keegan, who would ironically become a team mate at Saints in 1980.

He left Arsenal in 1975 to spent 3 years at Derby County where he would win a solitary England cap, then in December 1978 he joined Saints.

The problem was though he was injured and he would not play a single game at the Dell that season, in fact it would be March before he played at all making his debut at of all places Highbury in an FA Cup replay and following that up with games at Bolton and Spurs.

So it was 1979/80 season and over 8 months since signing before the majority of Saints fans saw Charlie in action, in fact some had badges that said "Ive Seen Charlie George Play"

He made a reasonable start scoring twice in his first four games but he would soon be injured again and he also spent time on loan at Nottingham Forest, finishing the season back with Saints although his season would be ended when he lost part of a finger in a lawnmower accident.

Season 1980/81 saw him reunited with his old adversary Kevin Keegan and he showed he was on more than nodding terms by having his best spell at the Dell and by mid March he had scored 8 goals in 22 games, injury struck again and he would make his last appearance for Saints in March 1981.

His total for Saints was 44 league appearances with 11 goals plus another 8 in the cup scoring 3 goals.

So can either Theo Walcott or Alex Oxlade Chamberlain emulate Charlie George on Saturday and score the winning goal for Arsenal at Wembley, it would be great if they could and in doing so create a link with the past.

These days Charlie does some work for Arsenal as an ambassador and a match day host etc so he will be undoubtedly in the Wembley stands watching, he was always held in high regard by Saints fans, im sure that he will be pleased for us if Arsenal win and we get into Europe.

Photo: Action Images

ThereIn76 added 12:16 - May 29 Unfortunately I missed what may have been one of Charlie's finest moments in a Saints shirt - on the opening day of the 79-80 season, v Man Utd, he did an outrageous dummy to set up a chance for Phil Boyer (?) who was then tripped for a penalty. It was on Match of the Day but I've never even seen that. Anyone remember? A couple of weeks on and Charlie hit a screamer through Ray Clemence's hands to put us 3-1 up v Liverpool. The Reds got one back but SFC held on for a famous win :)

0

Southampton Polls