Paul Davis, an Arsenal midfielder who played almost 450 times for the club and swept the board with domestic honours, was one of English football’s black trailblazers.
Having emerged from the club’s apprenticeship scheme at the start of the 1980s, Davis came of age during the height of English football’s racism problem, where away grounds could become bear pits for black players who were still relatively scarce.
It was a time when young black players had to endure not only racist chanting from the terraces but also the “banter” from inside the changing rooms where they were outnumbered by older, white colleagues.
