Herbert Roberts ‘The Prince of Stoppers’ was the most talked about footballer of his generation.
Signed from Oswestry Town, his home town club by the great Herbert Chapman in December 1926, Roberts became the key figure, the ‘policeman’ centre-half in the controversial third-back game that served to make Arsenal the dominant force in English football during the 1930s.
But he was not just a centre-half for the times. John Arlott once described Roberts as ‘Sufficiently gifted to have been outstanding in any period‘, while Bernard Joy said of him, ‘He deserved far more than his one England cap‘.
Furthermore Roberts was a gentleman, a courteous man who remained unaffected by the fame football thrust upon him.
‘Prince of Stoppers‘ is the first lengthy appraisal of the career of Herbert Roberts, tracing his years with Oswestry Town to the glory seasons at Highbury – while acknowledging the crucial role Roberts played in the development of English football: