He won 86 international caps, 77 of them coming while he was at Arsenal, making him the club’s most capped player. His England career included playing at two World Cups and a European Championships.

"Kenny was the best left-back in England for a decade," said one of his Arsenal managers, George Graham.

"He had a great left foot and a great attitude. I have no hesitation in going for Kenny Sansom as Arsenal’s greatest ever left-back."

Sansom was a stylish, dapper south Londoner who was one of the Highbury faithful’s all time favourites. This was much to do with his consistency over the years, being named as left-back in the First Division’s Team of the Year six times in a row between 1981 and 1987.

Born in Camberwell on September 26 1958, Sansom made his professional debut for Crystal Palace in 1974, where he made 172 appearances, scoring 3 goals. He became much sought-after and made his England debut in 1979.

The following year he was involved in a big-money swap deal which took Clive Allen from Arsenal to Palace and Sansom the other way.

Despite being part of Terry Neill’s Arsenal side for the best part of six years, Sansom only had a Second Division championship he’d earned with Palace to show for it, whilst his England team-mates were carrying off the game’s top honours.

This was all to change when George Graham arrived at Highbury 1986, and took Arsenal to their first cup final for seven years in his first season.

Sansom starred in Arsenal’s 2-1 win over league champions Liverpool in the Littlewoods Cup Final, and could hardly conceal his delight as he lifted the trophy.

Sansom was to experience defeat in the same cup final the following year at the hands of Luton but, despite travelling to the 1988 European Championships in West Germany, he found himself out of both the national team and the Arsenal team by the time the new season started at the expense of young hope Nigel Winterburn.

He joined Newcastle for £30,000 as a result, but only spent one season there before he was back in the top flight with QPR, scoring a rare goal against Arsenal in the 1989-1990 season.

Although making 51 top flight appearances for Coventry between 1990 and 1992, Sansom spent the remainder of his career travelling from club to club, finishing playing at Watford in 1994. He now has a career as a TV football pundit.

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