TONY ARINS 

Date and Place of Birth 26th October 1958 - Chesterfield   Transfers to and from Burnley youth from summer 1975 released - May 1980   First and Last Burnley Games Fulham (h) - 18th November 1978   Birmingham City (h) - 26th April 1980   Other Clubs ---------------------------------------- Leeds United, Scunthorpe United

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

Tony Arins had a short career in professional football that came to an end at the age of 23 when he was released by his third and last club Scunthorpe United.

The Chesterfield born Arins joined Burnley at 16 as an apprentice and did enough to earn himself a professional deal in the summer of 1976 although he still had a couple of years to wait before he made his first team debut.

He came through the B team and then the reserves and in November 1978, just past his 20th birthday, he made his first team debut in a home game against Fulham as replacement for Derek Scott  who was injured.

He kept his place for seven games before Scott returned to the side and in those seven games managed to win himself a cup winners medal. Five of the games were in the Second Division but he was also in the side for both legs of the Anglo Scottish Cup Final against Oldham Athletic.

Two more games followed that season and in the following season he played almost half of the league games as Burnley suffered relegation to the Third Division. He also netted a couple of goals during that season although neither counted for anything as they were both in 2-1 defeats.

The first of the goals came in November 1979 at home against Orient. It was Brian Miller's first home game as manager and the day that both Phil Cavener and Vince Overson made their debuts. The second goal was at Oldham in March 1980.

By the end of the season he'd established himself as first choice right-back, although teenager Brian Laws replaced him for the last game of the season at Watford, so it was something of a surprise that he was released by Miller who then brought in Oldham's Ian Wood.

If him being released was a surprise then his next move was an even bigger surprise when former Burnley manager Jimmy Adamson signed him along with Marshall Burke who had also been released.

It was a strange move by Adamson who perhaps was hoping he could get one over on Bob Lord by making good a player Burnley had discarded. It certainly didn't work with either player. Burke never made a first team appearance for Leeds whilst Arins did only slightly better with one substitute appearance.

That substitute appearance came in his second season at Elland Road and long after Adamson had left, but soon after, in November 1981, he went to Scunthorpe United on a free transfer. He made 20 appearances in that season for Scunthorpe but was released in May 1982 and left the game to join the police force.

He did, for a time, manage the Notts Police team but that was his last involvement in the game and turned his sporting attentions to golf.