Charlie Preedy: one of Chapman’s many keepers

By Tony Attwood
In working on this series of articles about the players that Chapman brought to Arsenal I am increasingly reaching the opinion that he really had a serious doubt about each and every goalkeeper he ever saw.
In fact the next article really has to be a list of the goalkeepers who played for Arsenal under Chapman.
But before I get to that I come on to Charlie Preedy (full name Charles James Fane Preedy) who was born on 11 January 1900
Charlie must be just about the first player Arsenal had who was born in India (his father was with the Royal Artillery).  But he moved with the family back to England aged 7 and started playing football – although he did not become a professional player until he was 24, when he joined Charlton Athletic in the recently formed Third Division South.
After 131 league appearances over four seas...