Herbert Chapman
Herbert Chapman was an English football player and manager. Though he had an undistinguished playing career, he went on to become one of the most influential and successful managers in the early 20th century, before his sudden death in 1934. He is regarded as one of the game's greatest innovators.
As a player, Chapman played for a variety of clubs, at Football League and non-League levels. His record was generally unremarkable as a player; he made fewer than 40 League appearances over the course of a decade and did not win any major honours. Instead, he found success as a manager, first at Northampton Town between 1908 and 1912, which he led to a Southern League title. This attracted the attention of larger clubs and he moved to Leeds City, where he started to improve the team's fortunes before the First World War intervened. After the war ended, City were implicated in an illegal payments scandal and were eventually disbanded. Chapman was initially banned from football but successfully appealed. He took over at Huddersfield Town, winning an FA Cup and two First Division titles in the period of four years.
In 1925, Arsenal successfully tempted Chapman to join them, and he led the club to its first ever silverware by winning one FA Cup and two First Division titles. His work at Arsenal resulted in their becoming the dominant team of the 1930s – they won five League titles and two FA Cups in the decade before the suspension of football due to the outbreak of the Second World War – but he did not live to see the entirety of his team's success, dying suddenly from pneumonia in 1934, at the age of 55.
He is credited with improving Arsenal. He introduced new tactics and training techniques to the game and the use of physiotherapists. He led the team, rather than letting board members lead. He also used floodlighting and numbered shirts, entered European club competitions, and has received many posthumous honours in recognition.
Early life
Chapman was born in Kiveton Park, near Rotherham on 19 January 1878. His father, John, was a coal miner, but rather than spend his own life working down the pit, the young Herbert was bright enough to win a place at Sheffield Technical College, where he studied mining engineering.Chapman was one of eleven children and was born into a keen sporting family, with two of his brothers also playing professional football. The most successful of these was his younger brother Harry, who played for The Wednesday during the 1900s, winning two League Championships and an FA Cup. His elder brother Thomas played for Grimsby Town, while another brother, Matthew, later became a director of the same club.
Playing career
Chapman's playing career was that of a typical journeyman, owing mostly to the fact he often played as an amateur; this meant that whether he could play for a particular club was dictated by whether he could find an appropriate job nearby. He first played as a youth for his local side, Kiveton Park Colliery, winning the Hatchard Cup in 1894 alongside team-mate William Ross. He left the village that summer to join Ashton North End, before moving on to Stalybridge Rovers and then Rochdale – all three clubs being members of the Lancashire League. Chapman played at inside right, and although he lacked the skill of his brother Harry Chapman, he compensated for it with his strength and robustness.In 1898, he moved to Second Division Grimsby Town. Though now playing in the professional Football League, Chapman was still an amateur at this stage and obtained a job with a firm of local solicitors to earn his way. Grimsby started the season poorly – they were near the bottom of the division by Christmas and were beaten 7–0 by Preston North End in the FA Cup, but rallied to finish tenth at the end of the 1898–99 season. By this time Chapman had been dropped from the team, having been unsuccessfully moved to centre forward, an unfamiliar position for him. He was released by Grimsby and drifted down into non-league football with a brief spell at Swindon Town, playing three games and scoring twice, but had to leave the club as he was unable to find a job in the area. He moved on to see out the season with Sheppey United, who finished bottom of the Southern League in 1899–1900. Chapman finished as United's top scorer but was injured at the end of this season, and still unable to find a job. Disheartened, he returned to his home town and turned out for Worksop Town of the Midland League in 1900–01, while resuming his studies, this time at Old Firth College in Sheffield.
Because of his studies, he mainly played for Worksop's reserves, but in a first-team match against Northampton Town he caught the opposition's eye and they offered him a contract, leading him to turn professional for the first time in 1901. He played for Northampton for the whole 1901–02 season, finishing as top scorer with 14 goals in 22 games for the club. During that season he had impressed in an FA Cup match against Sheffield United, leading them to offer Chapman a contract at the end of the season; Chapman accepted but dropped down to amateur status, wishing to make use of his engineering qualifications in the local area. He played 22 matches and scored twice for United, but struggled to keep his place in a team full of internationals, and was sold to Notts County for £300 at the end of 1902–03. Chapman turned professional again, but only made seven appearances in two years for County, scoring once.
In 1904, Chapman moved back to his old club Northampton Town, playing a season effectively on loan from Notts County, before being transferred permanently in 1905 to Tottenham Hotspur for £70. He scored eleven goals for Spurs in their 1905–06 Southern League campaign. He spent 1906–07 in and out of the side, scoring just three goals. With the season drawing to a close, he decided that he had had "a good innings" and decided to leave Tottenham and professional football for good, in favour of pursuing his career in engineering.
Managerial career
Northampton Town
In 1907, as he was about to leave Tottenham Hotspur, Chapman had recommended Spurs team-mate Walter Bull to his old club Northampton Town, as their new manager. However, Bull changed his mind, and in turn recommended that Chapman take the job instead. Chapman changed his mind about retiring from the game, and instead agreed to become player-manager of Northampton Town. Northampton had finished bottom of the Southern League two seasons running immediately before Chapman's appointment, but Chapman turned the club around within a short period of time.At the time, teams rarely employed tactics of any sort – Chapman would later remark: "No attempt was made to organise victory. The most that I remember was the occasional chat between, say two men playing on the same wing." As a manager, he sought to change that; after seeing Northampton lose to Norwich City despite dominating, Chapman opined that "a team can attack for too long". He thus set about creating a tactical framework for all his players; he dropped the half backs back to give his forwards more space and draw the opposition defenders out of the penalty area, while encouraging his own back line to pass their way out of trouble. Gradually, he created a style of highly organised, counter-attacking football, which was at odds with the prevailing orthodoxy but nevertheless highly effective; Swindon Town's England international Harold Fleming, after losing 4–1 at home to Northampton, remarked to Chapman: "You have something more than a team: you have a machine."
To allow his system to reach its full potential, Chapman encouraged his chairman to spend money on new players. The club's first ever transfer fee, £400, was paid for Welsh international Lloyd Davies who remains Northampton's most capped player, winger Fred McDiarmid and playmaking centre half David McCartney. With this new talent, in his first season in charge, Chapman led Northampton to eighth place; with additional new signings, such as inside forward Albert Lewis from Coventry City, he used this as a springboard to take the Southern League title in 1908–09, with Lewis finishing as top scorer.
By now, Chapman had retired as a player in first-class football, having played his last match against Watford in January 1909, but filled the gap he left, as well as showing his eye for spotting talent, by signing players such as future England international Fanny Walden. As Southern League champions, Northampton contested and lost the 1909 FA Charity Shield, 2–0 to Newcastle United, and although they did not win the Southern League title again during Chapman's time as manager, they finished in the top four in each of the following three seasons. Additionally, they proved their mettle in the FA Cup against First Division sides, knocking out The Wednesday and taking Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United to replays, losing 1–0 both times.
Chapman was keen to get Northampton Town into the Football League, but with no automatic promotion or relegation rules at the time this proved very difficult. Chapman proposed a new two-division Football Alliance underneath the two divisions of the Football League, with automatic promotion and relegation, but this was rejected at the time. In the 1912 close season, he was offered the chance to manage Second Division Leeds City, and with Northampton's blessing moved north again to join the League club.
Leeds City
Leeds City had finished 19th in the Second Division in the season preceding Chapman's arrival, and were facing re-election. Chapman played an essential part in lobbying for the side's readmission and Leeds City were duly re-elected. That done, Chapman signed new talent such as Jimmy Speirs from Bradford City and despite some erratic performances – losing 6–0 in between two 5–1 wins, for example – City finished sixth in 1912–13, Chapman's first season. Attendances rose at Elland Road from 8,500 to 13,000 in his first year, as Chapman's attacking side scored 70 goals, the second-highest total in the entire division.With a strengthening of the defence, City's form improved further the next season, in 1913–14, coming fourth, two points outside the promotion places. Despite having failed on his promise to get the team promoted within two years, City's rising attendances and resulting better profits for the club kept the directors happy, and the club were confident of promotion in 1914–15. However, the declaration of the First World War disrupted Leeds City's season, with attendances down as men signed up to fight. Chapman by now had amassed a very large squad and was unable to pick a consistent side, continually changing his first-choice lineup. Leeds City lost six of their last eight games of the season, finishing just fifteenth.
League football was suspended for the rest of the war, with Leeds City playing in regional competitions. With many players away fighting or having left the game due to a drop in wages, Leeds relied heavily on guest players during these matches. Chapman, meanwhile, had decided to help the war effort by taking up a position as manager of a munitions factory at Barnbow, near Cross Gates in 1916. For the next two years, City's assistant manager, George Cripps stood in for Chapman on the administrative side, while chairman Joe Connor and another director took charge of the team.
Chapman returned to Leeds City from Barnbow after hostilities had ended, but resigned suddenly in December 1918, eventually moving to Selby to take up a position as a superintendent at an oil and coke works. No reason was given for his resignation, but as football resumed in 1919–20, Leeds City were accused by a former player of financial irregularities, involving illegal payments to guest players during wartime matches. No documentary evidence was produced, but Leeds' refusal to allow the authorities access to their financial records was deemed a sign of guilt, and they were expelled from the Football League in October 1919 and five club officials, including Chapman, were banned from football for life. The club was dissolved, with the players auctioned off and their Elland Road ground taken over by the newly formed Leeds United.