Kevin Richardson (1987/88-1989/90)
Kevin Richardson left Arsenal for the Spanish side, Real Sociedad during
the summer of 1990 in a £750,000 deal. He returned to England in the
1991/92 pre-season to join Aston Villa (143 league appearances) for a cut-
price fee of £450,000. Kevin helped Villa towards a second place finish in
the Premiership during 1992/93 and Coca-Cola Cup success a year later when
the club beat Manchester United 3-1 in the final. He won his one and only
England cap during his time at Aston Villa in a 5-0 friendly win over
Greece in May 1995. Kevin later moved on to Coventry City (78 league
appearances) in February 1995 for £300,000 where he was reunited with his
former Aston Villa boss, Ron Atkinson. He helped 'The Sky Blues' survive
relegation in 1994/95 by five points, a season in which four teams were
relegated from the Premiership. Coventry survived relegation on the final
day of the following two seasons (1995/96 and 1996/97) with Gordon Strachan
taking over as manager in November 1996. Kevin started the 1997/98 season
with Coventry but signed for Southampton (28 league appearances) in a
£150,000 deal during September 1997. The 1997/98 campaign was a somewhat
unusual affair as neither Coventry nor Southampton faced any relegation
worries; the clubs finished in eleventh and twelfth positions respectively.
Kevin signed for newly-relegated First Division side Barnsley in the summer
of 1998 for £300,000 and made 26 league appearances throughout the 1998/99
season for 'The Tykes'. He only made a further 4 league appearances
following the arrival of Dave Bassett as manager in the summer of 1999 and
joined Second Division Blackpool (20 appearances) on loan during January
2000, a move that was made permanent in March 2000 as he signed on a free
transfer. Kevin announced his retirement from the game in the summer of
2000 after failing to save Blackpool from relegation to Division Three. His
last ever appearance in English football was made in the game that
condemned Blackpool to relegation, a 1-1 draw away to Oldham Athletic on
Saturday, April 29, 2000. Kevin was appointed manager of the Sunderland
Under-17s team in August 2000, resuming acquaintances on Wearside with
Peter Reid and Adrian Heath, who played with him at Everton.
Graham Rix (1976/77-1987/88)
After spending 14 seasons at Arsenal, signing professional forms during
1974/75, Graham Rix joined the French club, Caen in the summer of 1988 on a
free transfer. He spent two years with the French outfit before completing
a move to fellow French side Le Havre in the summer of 1990. His next port
of call was with the Scottish Premier League, Dundee, where he played
during 1992/93, making just one league appearance before announcing his
retirement from the game. He was also involved in a coaching capacity at
the Scottish club, which held him in good stead for his appointment as
youth-team coach at Chelsea in the summer of 1993. In May 1994, Graham came
out of retirement and signed a professional contract with Chelsea as a
player. He amazingly made a league appearance during 1994/95 as a
substitute on the final day of the season (Sunday, May 14, 1995) against
Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, a game which Chelsea won 2-1 to secure eleventh
place ahead of Arsenal. Graham was still registered as a player up to and
including the 1997/98 season, but did not go on to make any further league
appearances. In the summer of 1996, new manager Ruud Gullit promoted him to
the role of assistant manager and he stayed there when Gianluca Vialli was
appointed manager in February 1998. In March 1999, Graham was handed a 12-
month jail sentence for having unlawful sex with a 15 year-old girl and
Chelsea appointed Ray Wilkins as assistant manager on a temporary basis
whilst he was serving his prison sentence. Having served 6 months of his
sentence, Graham was released from prison in September 1999 and was free to
carry on with his post as assistant manager of Chelsea. Ray Wilkins stayed
on at Chelsea, working alongside Graham as first team coach, and the pair
were even placed in temporary charge for two games following the sacking of
Vialli in September 2000. After refusing to accept redefined roles offered
by the club under the new management team, Graham and Ray were surplus to
requirements and ended up being dismissed in November 2000. The trophies
that Graham won during his stay at Chelsea include the 1996/97 FA Cup, the
1997/98 Coca Cola Cup, the 1997/98 European Cup Winners Cup, the 1998/99
European Super Cup, the 1999/00 FA Cup and the 2000/01 Charity Shield.
Graham was appointed manager of First Division Portsmouth in February 2001
to replace player/manager Steve Claridge, who had been managing the club on
a temporary basis. Portsmouth survived relegation on the final day of
2000/01 courtesy a 3-0 home victory over Barnsley, with the club missing
out on the drop by a single point.
Stewart Robson (1981/82-1986/87)
Stewart Robson completed a £650,000 transfer to West Ham United in January
1987 having made only 5 league appearances during George Graham's first
season as Arsenal manager. Stewart made 69 league appearances for West Ham,
61 of those coming in his first three seasons with the club, in which West
Ham were a First Division team. Having been relegated with 'The Hammers'
during Arsenal's Championship winning season of 1988/89, Stewart only made
a combined total of 8 league appearances in the following two seasons of
Second Division football. He was a member West Ham's squad of 1990/91 that
was promoted by finishing second but was unable to see out the remainder of
the campaign with West Ham and signed for Coventry City in March 1991 on a
free transfer. Stewart made 57 league appearances for Coventry but was
forced to retire in the summer of 1995 having missed the entire 1994/95
campaign through injury. Stewart's career had been littered with groin,
hernia, hamstring and eye injuries and they had finally got the better of
him. During the 1998/99 pre-season, he became coach of the Wimbledon Under-
17s team and was later promoted to the role of reserve-team manager in the
1999/00 pre-season after Mick Harford became first-team coach, replacing
the departed David Kemp. In the summer of 2000, Stewart became part of a
new first-team coaching set-up involving newly-appointed manager Terry
Burton, a former youth-team coach at Arsenal, and Mick Harford. Wimbledon
finished in eighth position, five points behind the play-offs zone, during
2000/01 and Harford left the club at the end of the campaign by mutual
consent.
David Rocastle (1985/86-1991/92)
David Rocastle left Arsenal for First Division Champions Leeds United in
the summer of 1992 for a fee of £2,000,000. After only making 25 league
appearances for the Yorkshire side, he moved on to Manchester City during
December 1993 in a £2,000,000 swap deal for David White. His spell at
Manchester City consisted of only 21 league appearances before transferring
to Chelsea the following summer for a cut-price fee of £1,250,000. It
appeared as though David's career at Chelsea was running smoothly with 28
league appearances in his first season, under the reign of Glenn Hoddle,
but he soon fell out of favour with Hoddle's predecessors and only made a
single league appearance for The Blues during 1995/96. 'Rocky' was not even
given a squad number for the following campaign and Norwich City, where he
made 11 league appearances in 1996/97 during his loan spell, provided a
return to football for the 29-year-old. It never resulted in a permanent
move so he ended up returning to Chelsea, with the benefit of having much
needed match-practice under his belt. Having had trial periods at Scottish
Premier League side Aberdeen (1997/98 pre-season) and Southampton
(September 1997), 'Rocky' had his second loan spell away from Chelsea in as
many seasons, this time with Third Division Hull City. Despite making 10
league appearances, his move was not made permanent and he retired from
English football when his contract at Chelsea expired in March 1998. His
last appearance in English football came with Hull City in a 2-1 home
defeat against Chester City on Friday, December 26, 1997. After leaving
Chelsea, he promptly signed for the Malaysian side, Sabah, a team from
Malaysia's national league, the M-League. David ended his career with Sabah
when he was forced into retirement through injury in January 2000. In
February 2001, it was announced that he had been diagnosed as suffering
from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the immune system. David
sadly lost his battle against cancer during the early hours of Saturday,
March 31, 2001 at the age of 33 and shall be sorely missed by all those who
had the pleasure of knowing him. As a fitting tribute, Ryan Rocastle,
David's son, lead the Arsenal team out at the Millennium Stadium in the 2-1
FA Cup final defeat against Liverpool.
Kenny Sansom (1980/81-1987/88)
Arsenal sold Kenny Sansom to Newcastle United for £300,000 in December 1988
having eventually lost his place at left-back to Nigel Winterburn. The
1988/89 season was a season of contrasting fortunes between the two clubs
as Arsenal won the League Championship and his new club finished rock
bottom of the First Division. Kenny transferred to Queens Park Rangers in
the summer of 1989 for £300,000 and scored against Arsenal in a 2-0 FA Cup
Fourth Round replay victory at Loftus Road. After making 64 league
appearances for QPR, he moved on to Coventry City for £100,000 in March
1991 and made 51 league appearances for 'The Sky Blues'. Kenny then had
short-lived spells at Everton (7 league appearances), who he joined on a
free transfer in February 1993, and First Division Brentford (8
appearances), who he joined on a free transfer a month later (March 1993),
but he could not prevent 'The Bees' from being relegated. Kenny spent the
1993/94 season with Diadora League Second Division outfit Chertsey Town,
the team also made famous by signing former England International Ricky
Hill around the same era. Kenny returned to league football by joining
First Division Watford, as player/assistant manager, on a free transfer in
the summer of 1994. Having only managed to make a single league appearance
throughout 1994/95 campaign for Watford, Kenny returned to non-league
football for a spell with Football Conference side Slough Town during
1995/96. Since retiring from the game, he has often appeared on Sky Sports
as a football analyst.
Stefan Schwarz (1994/95)
Stefan Schwarz left Arsenal in the summer of 1995, after a season-long
spell in which he collected a European Cup Winners Cup runners-up medal
against Real Zaragoza in Paris. He moved to the Italian outfit, Fiorentina
in a £2,500,000 deal and spent three seasons with the club. A key man in
USA '94 for the Sweden team that finished third, Stefan was not able to
play in Euro '96 or France '98 as Sweden failed to qualify for the finals.
He signed for Spanish side Valencia in the summer of 1998, joining forces
with Swedish International team-mate, Joachim Bjorklund. Stefan moved to
Sunderland during the summer of 1999 for a club record £3,500,000 deal and
the club finished seventh position to Aston Villa on goal-difference in his
first season at The Stadium Of Light, the clubs best Premiership
performance. That record was equalled during 2000/01 with the club
finishing in the same position as what they finished at the end of 1999/00.
Stefan made 20 league appearances during 2000/01 and will be hoping to at
least secure a UEFA Cup finishing position with 'The Black Cats' at the end
of 2001/02.
© Richard Tufft & ArseWeb 2001