Ian Ure was an enigma. A newsreel at the time of a Scotland –England match in the early 1960s had Kenneth Wolstenholme describing him as the best centre-half in Europe but Arsenal fans at the time remember his mistakes which often seemed to be in big matches.
As a footballer he sometimes seemed uncertain and hesitant but I remember him winning a celebrity TV quiz programme of the time, astonishing me with the extent of his general knowledge. Perhaps his mistakes on the field came from having too much time to think.
Ure came to Arsenal in 1963 from Dundee for £62,500. His debut was a terrible team performance and loss at home to Wolves and further poor team performances followed. Unusually for the time Ure was very open with the press about how the bad start had affected him mentally. He was off the pace in a poor team where errors were piling on the pressure but he wanted to play his way out of his troubles. Arsenal’s manager Billy Wright tried to stop the rot by moving Ure to wing-half, a position he had not played before, in a home game against Bolton.
This proved to be an amazing match. Bolton went 3-1 up and if that had been the final score Arsenal would have been bottom of the league. Arsenal got a goal back but the score was still 2-3 with 10 minutes to go. And then Arsenal won a free kick, George Eastham floated the ball in, a blond head appeared in a crowd of players and Ure had scored the equaliser. There was still extraordinary drama as Arsenal then conceded a penalty which was brilliantly saved and from the resulting clearance Arsenal broke away to score the winner.
Two big incidents involving Ure have always stuck in my mind. Ure gifted a goal to Swindon Town in the 1969 League Cup Final and they went on to beat Arsenal 3-1 in a big upset.
Then in 1967 Ure got involved in a running battle with Denis Law of Manchester United (a Scotland international colleague) which lead to both of them receiving a 6- match ban.
Perhaps surprisingly Ure finished his Arsenal career (after 168 appearances) by transferring to Manchester United in 1969 and joined Law on the same side. Incidentally, this proved to be the Manchester United’s Manager Wilf McGuinness’ only big signing. McGuinness had succeeded Sir Matt Busby as a 31-year-old and this proved a thankless task & fairly quickly he was regarded as out of his depth and was replaced.
Ure only played at United for two seasons. He ended up as a social worker back in Scotland.
Memory added on July 4, 2021
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