fullname youthclubs years youthyears clubs caps birth_place goals position birth_date article_title name
peter frederick simpson arsenal 1960 -- ? -- 1964 1967 1968 1978 -- 1979 1979 1960 -- 1964 arsenal loan -rrb- new england tea men hendon toronto falcons -lrb- loan -rrb- boston beacons -lrb- 370 13 2 50 gorleston , norfolk , england 10 0 0 0 centre half , left half 13 january 1945 peter simpson -lrb- footballer , born 1945 -rrb-
 peter simpson
peter simpson -lrb- footballer , born 1945 -rrb-

peter frederick simpson -lrb- born 13 january 1945 -rrb- is an english former football player .
born in gorleston , suffolk , -lrb- joined gt yarmouth in norfolk from 1974 following boundary changes -rrb- simpson initially joined arsenal as a member of the club 's groundstaff in 1960 , before signing as an apprentice a year later in october 1961 .
he turned professional seven months later , in may 1962 .
he played for arsenal 's youth and reserve teams at first , before making his first team debut against chelsea , in a first division match on 14 march 1964 ; arsenal lost 4-2 .
he was not immediately a regular in the arsenal side , making just 22 appearances over the course of three seasons .
however , with the appointment of bertie mee before the start of the 1966-67 season , simpson was promoted to a first-team place , and became a mainstay of the arsenal side for the best part of a decade .
he started out as a utility man playing in every outfield position , but by the time he was a regular he had settled into the centre half position , usually alongside frank mclintock .
simpson was a leading figure in arsenal 's brief period of success in the early 1970s .
after losing both the 1968 and 1969 league cup finals , simpson was a key part of the side that won the inter-cities fairs cup in 1969-70 , and he made a total of 57 appearances in all competitions that season .
simpson went on to be part of the side that won the league championship and fa cup double in 1970-71 ; though he missed the first three months of that season with a cartilage problem , he returned in time for the fa cup run , and appeared in the final , a 2-1 victory over liverpool after extra time .
despite his long career at the top , he was never capped for england , although he was called into a few squads by sir alf ramsey during 1969-70 .
he continued to play for the club in the trophyless years following the double , playing more than 35 games a season for four seasons .
however by 1975 age was starting to get the better of him , and he only played nine times in 1975-76 .
despite a recall in 1976-77 , earning 25 appearances , he was dropped again the following season .
he left arsenal in 1978 , having played 468 times for the club , with 15 goals to his name ; as of 2006 he is tenth in the arsenal all-time appearances list .
he had brief stints with the new england tea men of the nasl in the united states , and then returned to england to play for non-league hendon , before retiring .
