Ernie Collett

Who was Ernie Collett?

Ernest "Ernie" Collett was an English football player and coach, mostly associated with Arsenal.

Collett was born in Sheffield and played for his working men's club team in Oughtibridge, before moving to Arsenal in 1933. He would remain on the club's book for sixteen years, although he only played 20 matches in this time. He played at wing half and was mainly a reserve, having to wait four and a half years to make his first-team debut, which he did away to Stoke City at the Victoria Ground in a First Division match on 23 October 1937; he went on to make five appearances that season, as Arsenal won the League title.

Collett's best run in the Arsenal season was in 1938-39, when he made nine appearances deputising for Wilf Copping at left half. However, soon after that World War II began and league football was suspended. Collett still managed to make 187 unofficial appearances for Arsenal in wartime matches, winning two wartime league winners medals in 1939-40 and 1941-42. He also guested for Brentford, playing the London War Cup final with them in 1941-42. In June 1940, he was one of five Arsenal players who guested for Southampton in a victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage.