Billy Meredith
William Henry Meredith was a Welsh professional footballer. He was considered one of the early superstars of football due to his performances, notably for Manchester City and Manchester United. He won each domestic trophy in the English football league and gained 48 caps for Wales, for whom he scored eleven goals and won two British Home Championship titles. His favoured position was outside right, and his key skills were dribbling, passing, crossing and shooting. A dedicated and extremely fit professional, his habit of chewing on a toothpick during games made him instantly recognisable.
In 27 seasons in the Football League from 1892 to 1924, he scored 194 goals in 740 league and cup appearances. He played for Chirk before joining Northwich Victoria in 1892. His career took off when he signed with Manchester City in 1894 and turned professional in January 1895. He captained the team to the club's first major honour, a 1–0 victory over Bolton Wanderers in the 1904 FA Cup final. He moved to Manchester United in May 1906 after being banned for bribing Aston Villa half-back Alex Leake £10 to lose a match. There, he won the league title in 1907–08 and 1910–11, the FA Cup in 1909, and two FA Charity Shields. He also helped to set up the Players' Union, which was a forerunner of the Professional Footballers' Association. He returned to Manchester City in 1921 at age 47 and played 32 games before retiring in 1924, making him the oldest-ever player for City, United and Wales. He later ran the Stretford Road Hotel and helped to coach the short-lived Manchester Central.
Early life
Meredith was born in 1874 in Chirk, a small mining town in Denbighshire, Wales, just south of Wrexham. He started work at Black Park Colliery as a pit pony driver at the age of 12. His family were Primitive Methodists, and Meredith himself remained a lifelong teetotaller. He spent eight years working in the mines and worked during a tough time for the industry, enduring a 25% pay cut which led to strike action in 1893; this experience helped to shape his political views, which would become significant later in his life. An interest in football was kindled by his elder brothers. Elias, the eldest, was a train driver for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. His work allowed him to take Meredith to watch professional teams such as Everton. Football was a keen pastime for the miners, and the standard of amateur teams from towns and villages in north east Wales was high as a result; Chirk won the Welsh Cup five times between 1887 and 1894, with miners making up a large proportion of the team. All the Meredith brothers played football, but Sam, two years older than Billy, was the first to make an impression. He left Chirk to attempt a professional career and went on to play for Stoke City as a full-back.Meredith made his debut for the Chirk first team in September 1892. The club played in The Combination, a league which contained a mixture of town clubs and reserve teams of clubs from big cities. At the end of his first season, Meredith played in the 1893 Welsh Cup final, which Chirk lost 2–1 to Wrexham. Meredith formed a solid understanding with inside-right William Owen, a former Wales international. Chirk withdrew from The Combination and entered only the Welsh league in 1893 due to low attendances caused by the coal miners' strike. In an attempt to make ends meet, Meredith not only played for Chirk but accepted an offer to play for Football League club Northwich Victoria as well, who gave him a small fee on top of his expenses. Northwich were a struggling side who withdrew from the Football League at the end of the 1893–94 season after finishing bottom of the Second Division. The club won just three league matches; Meredith featured in each win. Back at Chirk, Meredith gained his first honour as part of the team that beat Westminster Rovers to win the 1894 Welsh Cup. Meredith also played for Wrexham in 1894, sharing his talents between them, Chirk and Northwich Victoria that year.
Club career
First spell at Manchester City
Meredith's performances for Northwich gained the attention of several other clubs in the Football League. Bolton Wanderers full-back Di Jones, a former Chirk player, spoke with him about a possible move. Still, Bolton secretary J.J. Bentley felt Meredith was too inexperienced and his frame too slight. Lawrence Furniss, an official at Ardwick, had first noticed him while refereeing a Northwich match. Meredith also played in both meetings between the clubs that season. Later, in 1894, Ardwick, known as Manchester City, vigorously pursued Meredith's signature. Two club officials travelled to Wales to meet the player. One was secretary-manager Joshua Parlby, the other either Furniss or chairman John Chapman. The pair were met with suspicion. Anecdotes by contemporary figures suggest locals initially chased them away and were only allowed to speak to Meredith after they bought drinks for his mining colleagues. Meredith did not wish to abandon life in Chirk. His mother was particularly against the idea: "It is all very well for you gentlemen to leave your big cities and come to our villages to steal our boys away ... Our boys are happy and healthy, satisfied with their work and innocent amusements ... if Billy takes my advice he will stick to his work and play football for his own amusement when work is finished." Meredith eventually signed for Manchester City as an amateur. He continued to work at the pit for at least a year, commuting for matches.Meredith made his Manchester City debut in November 1894 in a 5–4 loss to Newcastle United. The following week he played his first home match for the club at Hyde Road, and scored two goals against Newton Heath – who later became Manchester United – in the first Manchester derby to take place in the league. Newton Heath won the match 5–2. He turned professional in January 1895. He ended the 1894–95 season with 12 goals in 18 appearances, just three strikes behind top-scorer Pat Finnerhan, who had played an extra 12 games.
Meredith finished as top scorer in his first full season at Manchester City. He was appointed club captain in his second season at the club, aged just 21. The club finished as Second Division runners-up in 1895–96, but were denied promotion after heavy defeats to West Bromwich Albion and Small Heath in the test matches. After the departure of strike partner Pat Finnerhan to Liverpool in March 1897, Meredith remained as City's star player.
His new partner for the 1897–98 season was William Smith, whilst Billie Gillespie was placed at centre-forward. Meredith provided Gillespie with many crosses into the box, picking up numerous assists as Gillespie outscored Meredith by 19 goals to 12. Meredith also mentored the slightly younger Gillespie, steering him away from drinking sessions by taking him along on fishing trips. The final match of the season saw Meredith score his first hat-trick for the club in an emphatic 9–0 win against Burton Swifts.
City dominated the Second Division in the 1898–99 season and won promotion as champions. Helping them to keep them in winning ways in the close season was late signing Jimmy Ross, a veteran forward who Meredith considered to be his "favourite hero". Meredith claimed 30 goals in 34 games, including hat-tricks against Grimsby Town, Loughborough, Darwen and Barnsley.
Meredith scored City's first goal in the First Division on the opening day of the 1899–1900 season in a 4–3 defeat to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on 2 September. Seven days later he claimed two goals in a 4–0 home victory over Derby County, and "led the field that day" by dribbling the ball almost the whole length of the pitch before launching a powerful shot that settled into the corner of Jack Fryer's net. The Athletic News reported that "for real brilliance the right-wing took the biscuit".
First Division defences managed to limit Meredith's contribution in the 1900–01 campaign by singling him out for rough treatment, though Liverpool manager Tom Watson felt compelled to write a letter to Manchester City denying that a Liverpool director had stated that "all that the opposition had to do was watch Meredith – the rest are no good". He finished the season with just seven goals in 35 appearances.
Meredith found the net eight times in 37 games in the 1901–02 campaign, as City were relegated back out of the First Division. The club's secretary, Sam Ormerod, selected 29 different players as the club slumped to defeat in 13 of the opening 20 games. Ormerod was forced to step down as new business figures took control behind the scenes and began to sign promising young Scottish players. New manager Tom Maley was more willing than his predecessor to confront Meredith over his tendency to stray out of position and attempt to dominate the City attack.
City won immediate promotion as Second Division champions in 1902–03, with Meredith scoring 23 goals in 35 appearances and claiming a hat-trick against Chesterfield Town. Maley found him a suitable inside-right partner in Jimmy Bannister, who was unselfish in his play and willing to feed the ball through to Meredith. He also played Sammy Frost at half-back, who was able to win the ball and bring Meredith into the play, and signed outside-left Frank Booth to balance the attack. Maley encouraged teamwork, meaning there was less pressure on Meredith from opposition defenders.
Meredith was partnered with George Livingstone for the 1903–04 campaign, who was able to supply him and the rest of the team with quality passes. Drawn against a strong Sunderland club in the first round of the FA Cup, Meredith was the "raider-in-chief" as City claimed a 3–2 victory at Hyde Road. City then defeated Woolwich Arsenal and Middlesbrough to reach the semi-finals. There they faced The Wednesday at Goodison Park, and Meredith scored one goal and claimed two assists as City won the game 3–1. Their opponents in the final at Crystal Palace were mid-table Second Division club Bolton Wanderers, and Meredith was cautiously optimistic before the match, stating "We ought to win ... if we play anything like our normal game the cup is ours ... but this is the cup final and, well, anything might happen." With just over 20 minutes played, Livingstone found Meredith with a long ball, who then beat goalkeeper Dai Davies to score the only goal of the game; Bolton supporters long maintained that Meredith had been offside. As captain, Meredith was handed the trophy by Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.
He scored ten goals in 35 games in the 1904–05 season, as City came within two points and two places of champions Newcastle United. The season ended in controversial circumstances at Villa Park. With a 3–2 defeat to Aston Villa ending any hopes of winning the league, Sandy Turnbull and Villa captain Alex Leake exchanged blows. The Football Association launched an investigation into the violence, and the findings shocked the sporting world as Meredith was suspended for the entirety of the 1905–06 season for attempting to bribe Alex Leake. No evidence was taken from Meredith, who denied the charge, and the evidence was not made public. The club, fearful of FA sanctions, refused to pay Meredith during the campaign. He was transfer listed in May 1906 after he claimed that he had only attempted to bribe Leake on the orders of manager Tom Maley and that illegal payments were common practice at Hyde Road. The FA acted on his information, and fined Manchester City £900 for illegal payments and suspended numerous players, boardroom members and staff members.