QPR played a huge role with 225k transfer deal to hand Arsenal a legend: View | OneFootball

QPR played a huge role with 225k transfer deal to hand Arsenal a legend: View | OneFootball

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·11 October 2024

QPR played a huge role with 225k transfer deal to hand Arsenal a legend: View

Article image:QPR played a huge role with 225k transfer deal to hand Arsenal a legend: View

David Seaman joined Arsenal from QPR in 1990, and the rest is history, as the goalkeeper went on to become a Gunners and England legend.

Many of England's top players, both currently and throughout the past, began their careers with a solid grounding lower down the footballing pyramid. However, while legendary goalkeeper David Seaman started out in the fourth tier, it was his time with then-Premier League side Queens Park Rangers that set him on the path to stardom with Arsenal and England.


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Seaman has become a household name over the last three decades, marking himself out as his country's best keeper for a prolonged period of time, while winning team titles and personal awards aplenty along the way.

The Rotherham-born man started out as a youngster at Leeds United - the club he's always supported - in 1981. However, having failed to break into the first team picture, the teenager departed to join Division Four outfit Peterborough United a year later.

Impressing in his two years with the Posh, where he made 106 appearances, Seaman was snapped up by second-tier side Birmingham City in 1984, for a fee believed to be around £100k.

The Blues would be promoted to the top flight at the end of the young goalkeeper's first season at St Andrews. However, while he and his teammates were quickly relegated back to the Second Division, Seaman would remain at the highest level, with Londoners QPR paying a reported £225k to take the Yorkshireman to Loftus Road.

Whilst with Rangers, Seaman, who'd earned 10 Under-21 caps previously, was called up to the England senior squad for the first time in 1988, making his debut against Saudi Arabia in November of that year.

Seaman's steady rise continued when he joined fellow capital club Arsenal for around £1.3m, and after going to the 1990 World Cup in Italy as a backup keeper to first-choice Peter Shilton, the former Peterborough and Birmingham man headed to Highbury for what would be a hugely successful 13-year stay.

It's fair to say, though, that without those four years of consistent first-team football at the top level that he has with the Hoops, things may have turned out differently for Seaman and the Gunners.

Seaman won domestic and European trophies with Arsenal, while becoming England's undisputed number one

Article image:QPR played a huge role with 225k transfer deal to hand Arsenal a legend: View

Signing for Arsenal at the age of 26, Seaman became part of a well-drilled defensive structure under Scottish manager George Graham.

With the likes of Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Lee Dixon, and Nigel Winterburn in front of the now-experienced goalkeeper, it was a formidable barrier that paved the way for them to win the First Division title in 1991, as well as achieving the FA Cup and EFL Cup double in the 1992/93 campaign.

This led to Graham's side qualifying for, and ultimately winning, the UEFA Cup in 1994. Alan Smith's first-half goal sealing a 1-0 success over Italian side Parma in Copenhagen.

While Seaman was regularly involved with the national team during Graham Taylor's reign between 1990 and 1993, he firmly established himself as his country's first choice when Terry Venables took over in 1994.

Remembered fondly as part of England's Euro 96 side that reached the semi-final stage of a tournament they hosted, the goalkeeper's heroics in the penalty shootout win over Spain saw Seaman's stock rise further.

The Arsenal man would go on to make 75 appearances for England and was number one for the 1998 World Cup in France and the 2002 global showpiece in South Korea and Japan, as well as Euro 2000, held in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Frenchman Arsène Wenger became Seaman's club boss in 1996, with the former Monaco boss revolutionising the English game, somewhat, with an expansive, attacking style of play much different to what the Gunners had been accustomed to in previous years under Graham and his successor, Bruce Rioch.

Seaman was a key part of an Arsenal side that would become Manchester United's biggest challengers for a while, beating the Red Devils to the Premier League title in 1998 and 2002, as well as lifting the FA Cup on three occasions between 1998 and 2003.

It was in 2002/03 that the Gunners' custodian pulled off one of the greatest saves ever seen, denying Sheffield United's Paul Peschisolido from point-blank range in the FA Cup semi-final at Old Trafford.

40-year-old spent half a season with Manchester City before retiring in 2004

Article image:QPR played a huge role with 225k transfer deal to hand Arsenal a legend: View

Following 13 trophy-laden years in North London, seeing him make 558 appearances for Arsenal, Seaman left the club, spending part of the 2003/04 season with Kevin Keegan's Manchester City, before retiring due to injury at the age of 40.

Now 61 years old, the former England international has gone on to star in reality TV shows and charity matches.

However, if it wasn't for his four-year spell with QPR between 1986 and 1990, where he first started working with long-standing coach and mentor Bob Wilson, the goalkeeper may not have risen to prominence in the way he did, with the Hoops having a huge role in making him an Arsenal legend.

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