History: Frank Stapleton – who fired Arsenal to 3 consecutive FA Cup Finals | OneFootball

Frank Stapleton 1979 FA Cup hero

In 1956 one of Arsenal’s 1979 FA Cup legends was born, he bears the name of Frank Stapleton.

The attacker, who branded the game of football with his own style of play, was once recorded as being one of the best attackers in the game. He was a powerful header of the ball.  He commenced his career at Arsenal as an apprentice in 1972, following a rejection from Manchester United.

He would run out of the Highbury tunnel for the first time versus Stoke City and would later create a strong attacking alliance alongside Malcolm Macdonald where the two hit gold reaching 46 goals between them, during the 1976/77 season. For the next three campaigns he was The Gunners top talisman. This saw him assist Arsenal to three consecutive FA Cup finals from 1978 to 1980. During the 1979 final versus Manchester United Stapleton and The Gunners would taste the score of victory as they won 3-2 in the dying moments of the match, during the encounter Stapleton scored one of the goals.

In 300 matches for The North Londoners Stapleton scored on 108 occasions.

Stapleton was at last wanted by The Red Devils who signed him in 1981 for £900,000, where under Ron Atkinson he guided Manchester United to the 1983 and 1985 FA Cup trophy. After scoring in the 1983 final versus Brighton he became the first footballer to score for two different outfits in the final of the competition. His first five seasons saw him and United finish every year in the top four. In fact Stapleton came close to achieving his first league title during the 1985/86 season after The Red Devils secured victory in their first ten games of the campaign before radically falling off the wagon, finishing fourth in the end.

Once Alex Ferguson stepped in at Manchester United as manager he was soon replaced by the signing of Brian McClair witnessing Stapleton move abroad in 1987 to Ajax, after previous teammate Arnold Muhren recommended the transition. However the move didn’t turn out as well as hoped, Stapleton made only six games grabbing one goal for the Dutch giants. Stapleton was then picked up in a short loan deal with Anderlecht by the end of 1987 without playing a single game.

The isolated attacker then joined Derby on loan for three months before going to the European Championships skippering Republic of Ireland. He then packed his bags for French side Le Havre for a year, before flying back to England for Blackburn Rovers in 1989. After this he endured short spells at Aldershot Town, Huddersfield Town as player-manager and Bradford City.

Following three campaigns as player-coach at Valley Parade he was dismissed after their difficulty in reaching the Division Two playoffs by the anti-climax of the 1993/94 season. He then experienced a short career at Brighton and Hove Albion during 1994/1995 campaign, making two performances before retiring as footballer.

During his career Stapleton was called up 71 times for Republic of Ireland netting on 20 occasions.  It didn’t take long for Stapleton to score, after three minutes he headed into the back of the net from a Giles free-kick at the near side of goal. A modest and shy Stapleton played an important role in helping Ireland’s ambitions of qualifying for the 1982 World Cup, where during these matches he popped up with strikes versus Cyprus, the Netherlands and France. However despite his goals Ireland didn’t reach the finals of the tournament. Stapleton would later be in charge of his country during qualifying stages of the 1986 World Cup however Ireland struggled yet again on the International stage. He retained his captaincy under new manager Jack Charlton who he clashed heads with,  leading his side out during the 1988 Euros finals. The tournament saw him play in the country’s outstanding win over England.

Stapleton was still able to keep his place without age being on his side as much as it once was, for the 1990 World Cup qualifying stages however he would only play two games. His tally of 20 goals was an all-time Republic of Ireland goalscoring record until it was later cracked by Nial Quinn fast-forwarding a decade.

Stepping forward to 1996 Stapleton had entered management, taking over the reins of Major League Soccer team New England Revolution. During the 2003/04 campaign he temporarily returned to England in the role of specialist coach at Bolton Wanderers. Their manager Sam Allardyce at the time was keen for Stapleton to help upgrade the scoring prowess of the strikers at the outfit after his standout playing career.

Within a decade Stapleton was hired as assistant coach to ex-teammate Ray Wilkins with Jordan in September 2014, he would remain helping his old foe into 2015 before stopping his managerial career.

Stapleton remains an all-time Arsenal legend after scoring in the 1979 FA Cup triumph against Manchester United, which became known as the Sunderland Final.

Liam Harding

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