“Keep it simple, keep it quick, keep it accurate” is a phrase
most associated with double winning Tottenham Hotspur manager Bill Nicholson,
but it was originally uttered by Arthur Rowe the man who had created the
environment for Nicholson’s triumph, ten years previously at White Hart Lane.
In doing so he not only laid a template for Spurs forever ephemeral footballing
aesthetic but also planted the seed for England’s world cup triumph.
A Tottenham man by birth, Rowe grew up with the club spending
time with their nursery clubs Cheshunt and Northfleet United in the 1920s. The
Spurs coach at the time was Peter McWilliam, a Scot who brought with him the
passing tradition of making the ball do the work, for which his native country
had been renowned since Victorian times.
In Rowe he had a willing student, although McWilliam’s
departure meant by the time Rowe’s cultured centre half act was on show in the
first team in the 1930s he was suffocated by the dominant English philosophy of
kick and rush which he translated in these terms: “I never scored a goal for the first team.
They didn't like the centre-half to go too far over the halfway line in those
days.”
England recognition followed in 1933 but a cartilage injury
restricted his progress and he retired in 1939. Fate then intervened to create
a serendipitous invitation to advise the Hungarian FA on developing their
national game. The outward looking Rowe accepted and went onto consult with the
likes of Gustav Sebes and Ferenc Puskas in a meeting of
minds which promised much only to be cut short by World War two. However in
being able to discuss and develop his progressive tactics, Rowe was given the
confidence to implement his radical philosophy when peace returned.
This began at Chelmsford City whom he led to the Southern
League title in 1946, the Clarets almost following this up with election to the
Football League. His success was noted by his alma mater and he was appointed
manager at second division Spurs in 1949. What followed was in the words of his
Spurs captain Ronnie Burgess, nothing short of a “revolution”.
Rowe saw his ideas as the embodiment of the notion that
football was a simple game. Peppering his team talks with aphorisms such as “a
good player runs to the ball, a bad player runs after it”, Rowe emphasised the
importance of the short pass accompanied by swift movement off the ball as the
key to success. The style, to Rowe’s distaste, became known as push and run, featuring
a high frequency of wall passes, a term Rowe did approve of given how as a
child he had honed his technique by kicking a ball against an actual wall.
By its nature this required players to free themselves of the
strictures of their notional position, either to fall back from the forward
line to collect the ball, or attack from defence to pursue it.
For what would now be an overlapping full back, Rowe signed
Alf Ramsey, with the seeds of the latter’s World Cup winning wingless wonders
being planted as Spurs raced to the Division Two title in 1950, leading
throughout the season to win by a margin of nine points as the leading scorers
and best defence.
Twelve months later, Spurs were champions of all England,
winning plaudits for their breath taking football which reached its apogee in a
seven goal demolition of Newcastle United. They almost defended their title,
finishing runners up in 1952 but from this point on, faded quickly, a demise
which led to Rowe suffering greatly from anxiety and depression, resigning his
post in 1955 in the wake of an FA Cup defeat to York.
His success in developing instantly, with the addition of
Ramsey, an existing Spurs squad into an irresistible force for three seasons
created sky high expectations which he couldn’t maintain. However having imbued
his philosophy in his players Bill Nicholson and Eddie Baily he had created the
management team that would take the club to new heights in the early sixties,
winning not only the double and back to back FA Cups, but also England’s first
European title. In 1954 he had also signed Nicholson’s captain Danny
Blanchflower.
The fifties also saw the flowering of the managerial talent
Vic Buckingham (MWMMF 17) at West Bromwich Albion. He had been a team mate of
Rowe’s at Tottenham in the 1930s and considered him his mentor.
Rowe returned to football as assistant manager at fourth
division Crystal Palace in the late fifties, becoming manager in 1960 and
taking the Eagles to promotion in 1961. He again resigned due to the pressure of the job in 1962 but
soon reverted back to his assistant role, helping the club to another promotion
in 1964 as Palace continued a decade long climb to a first ever season in the
top flight.
Granted
a Selhurst Park testimonial, an honour not received at White Hart Lane, Rowe
drifted around the game into the seventies with spells at Orient, Brentford,
West Brom and Millwall. He had become something of a forgotten man, remembered
only by those privileged to see his team play in a pre-television era. This
proved to be a fleeting glimpse of what English football might have become, as
with the exception of the tantalising triumphs of Nicholson’s Spurs and
Ramsey’s England, clubs reverted to type.
Rowe summed up this
devotion to character rather than intellect saying: “All you need to remember is that 50 per cent of
the people in the game are bluffers. So a decent manager's halfway there when
he starts out.”
