The Men Who Made Modern Football #4 - Herbert Chapman

At the end of a week when not only Arsene Wenger’s 20 year reign at Arsenal is being celebrated, but also many of his English peers are in the dock for their shortcomings on and off the pitch, it’s a relief to reflect on the life of an Englishman who as well as turning Arsenal into a leading English club, was also an iconoclast who was involved in many innovations which soon became common practice and tradition.

As every fan should know he created not one but two teams at two different clubs which won three English titles in consecutive years. Great enough to compare to Liverpool and Manchester United’s similar feats in modern times, but greater still when you consider Huddersfield Town and Arsenal had won nothing when he arrived at Leeds Road and Highbury respectively.

Tactical innovation was at the heart of this success, which as well as the radical W-M formation, extended to fitness, kit design, marketing and the colour of the ball. All this from a man who despite a modest playing career, created the concept of the manager as we know it today.

The son of a Yorkshire coal miner, Chapman’s intellect gained him a place at Sheffield Technical College studying mining engineering. Aptly for a sporting family, he was one of eleven children, with his younger brother Harry winning the League and Cup for The Wednesday. An inside right, Herbert had a long route to the top, starting out in the Kiveton Park Colliery youth team before moving into the Lancashire League. A brief spell with elder brother Tommy at Grimsby Town was followed by a return to non league football. The precarious balance between developing his career off the pitch and maintaining his progress on it meant he switched between amateur and professional status with Sheffield United and Notts County, and at the age of 29 eventually decided to finish his playing career to pursue his career in engineering, after ending the 1906/07 season with Southern League Tottenham Hotspur.

However before the summer was out he was tempted back into the game as player-manager of Northampton who had finished the previous season bottom of the Southern League. Reflecting that "No attempt was made to organise victory.", and  "a team can attack for too long", Chapman set out about to create a radical counter attacking system, withdrawing half backs (midfielders) to create space for his forwards. Signing players to suit the system, Northampton were Southern League champions in 1909 but could not move up to the two division Football League. Naturally Chapman proposed the Football League expand by two divisions but this did not happen until 1920. In the meantime Chapman returned to his native Yorkshire to manage Leeds City.

Arriving at Elland Road in 1912 with the club facing re-election to Football League Division Two, Chapman took Leeds to fourth place in the final season before World War One. For the duration of hostilities Chapman worked in a munitions factory and following the armistice decided to formally resign from the club and take a job in the mining industry. Unfortunately when the league resumed in 1919, an accusation of financial irregularities by a former player was met with a blunt refusal from Leeds to comply with the resulting investigation and they were expelled from the league, Chapman receiving a life ban along with other club officials.

The ban was eventually overturned, given Chapman was not at the club when the charges were made, and following redundancy, returned to football as assistant manager at Huddersfield Town in 1921. Within a month Chapman took over as manager, introducing his tactics of strong defence and fast counter attack, signing players to fit the system including wingers who were instructed to make passes which split the defensive line, rather than heading for the byline and cutting the ball back. Little more than a year later Huddersfield had won their first major trophy by beating Preston North End at Stamford Bridge to win the 1922 FA Cup.

Using a complex scouting network to further improve his squad, the Terriers won their first league title in 1924 which they successfully defended in 1925 but before they made it three in a row, Chapman had moved to North London.

Arsenal chairman Henry Norris was an ambitious man, having already moved the Gunners from Woolwich to Highbury, and inveigled them into Division One. He doubled Chapman’s salary and allowed him to sign Charlie Buchan, one of the leading strikers of the era. With the offside law changing to the current one in the summer of 1925, Chapman fined tuned his tactics to create the WM formation, a 3-4-3 structure, the centre half now withdrawn into defence along the two full backs, two inside forwards joining the two remaining half backs in midfield. This was in stark contrast to the conventional 2-3-5.

As ever Chapman found himself with the job of transforming a team used to the wrong end of the table and as always he had an instant impact, Arsenal finishing a best ever second to triple title winners Huddersfield. Twelve months later the Gunners reached Wembley only to lose the FA Cup Final to Cardiff. This coincided with the club becoming embroiled in a financial scandal which led to Norris being banned and subsequently allowed Chapman more control at the club. The next two seasons saw Chapman carefully build his team with judicious signings, including David Jack from Bolton at a reduced price after Chapman slowly inebriated the Trotters’ directors whilst he drank alcohol free gin and tonic.

Arsenal reached Wembley again in 1930, and as Huddersfield were the opponents Chapman suggested that both teams walk out together, another first which we will see again today. Arsenal won the Cup and in 1931 added to their first ever trophy with a league title. They won three in a row from 1932-5, another Cup in 1936 and the league again in 1938, so that by the end of the decade they were firmly established with the status they hold today as one of the leading English clubs.

Sadly Chapman did not live to see all of this success, dying of pneumonia in January 1934, having cast the die for the club’s future. As well as creating a strict training regime focused on fitness, using professional physiotherapists and masseurs, he advocated white footballs, numbers on shirts, and changed Arsenal’s kit to a brighter red with white sleeves and blue hooped socks, all to sharpen focus on teammates and the ball. Off the pitch he installed floodlights, the Arsenal clock and scoreboard, designed new turnstiles, and renamed Gillespie Road underground station, all to attract more support.

Whilst at Northampton he had signed black player Walter Tull, and would have signed European players for Arsenal had he not been blocked by the FA. He organised friendlies against teams from the continent and made contact with some of his foremost foreign peers.

Insisting on having sole control of team affairs, unlike the selection committees at other clubs, Chapman introduced a weekly team meeting to facilitate discussion of tactics amongst his players, and team building activities such as golf days. Although his team were knocked as “Lucky” or “Boring” for their economical but ruthless use of possession, they could fairly be described as free scoring with as many as 127 goals in the first title season of 1931, perhaps in the style of Leicester City’s 2015 league winners.

He left the club top of the league despite having already started to rebuild his successful squad to ensure their dominance would remain until it was interrupted by World War Two. The biggest tribute though came in November 1934 when a record breaking seven of his Arsenal team were selected to play for England against world champions Italy at Highbury. Needless to say England won 3-2.

Hennessey Gold

Wayne Hennessey gave what must have been one of the best goalkeeping performances of 2011 to earn Wolverhampton Wanderers a point that hardly seemed likely when Gervinho gave the Gunners a lead in the eighth minute. A subsequent lack of ruthlessness in the passage of play following the goal meant a Wolves equaliser put them very much back in the game and en route for a point. All of which did little to salve my Christmas cold.

Having struggled up the Piccadilly line through heavily laden tourists and shoppers I filled myself up with one of Fat Harry's delectable hot dogs, and after pausing to picture the fine statue of Herbert Chapman headed into the ground. I guessed it was going to be one of those days when I had to turf someone out of my seat (since when does 12 mean 14) and discovered I was sitting next to Master Angry who had clearly not had a good Christmas such was his eagerness to jump up and vent his fury at every opportunity.  As kick off approached the big screen replayed Arsenal's 1998 semi-final which only served to question why Wolves wouldn't be wearing their fine Old Gold colours this afternoon. Although The Wonder of You was played again pre match in favour of Good old Arsenal, at least the call and response reading of the Arsenal line up seems to have gone for good.

As my sinuses started to throb I began to contemplate an early exit which looked a possibility when Arsenal scored. The goal started with a piercing run by Matt Jarvis down the left wing but as the move broke down Arsenal counterattacked swiftly through Rosicky and Benayoun, the latters perfect pass allowing Gervinho to show off a delightful trick before to the surprise of everyone in the stadium rounding the keeper to score. Surely this would be the start of a goal avalanche that would allow me to depart early with the result safe? Far from it. Apart from one passage of play where Arsenal strung over twenty passes together they seemed to lack the diligence to patiently tear Wolves apart, tending to snatch at goalscoring opportunities.

Thus when Wolves found themselves with a free kick on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area, the Berkshire Hunt somewhat fortuitously created an equaliser. Putting his lucky heather aside his kick deflected off Vermaelen and landed at the feet of Fletcher who deftly diverted the ball into the net with any chance offside disappearing with Song's tardiness in coming out.
With many around me morbidly willing a time wasting approach from Wolves as a fait accompli, aside from a short tetchy period which saw Song subbed after a booking and Milijas sent off, Arsenal pretty much did everything but score. Referee Stuart Attwell literally blocked the Gunners advance when he witlessly stood in the way of Van Persie's run up. When the path to the goal became clear Van Persie's effort became one of several long range efforts that Hennessey was equal too. It was at closest range that the keeper was most impressive though, instinctively blocking efforts from Mertesacker and Van Persie on the line meaning it was the fans from the West Midlands who were celebrating an unexpected point at the final whistle.

Nostalgia for an age yet to come

Nostalgia fest yesterday. With a ticket to the New Order reunion concert in the obscure location of Stepney and a friend travelling down from Scotland to see it I opted for the safe bet of tickets to Arsenal's 125th birthday and an easy day in London.

The day hopefully set the seal on the Arsenalisation of the new ground which has now become a cross between a museum and a football theme park. Putting the dates of trophy wins around the stadium was the first stage in removing posterity from the current squad as the achievements of their predecessors lurked ever larger in the new environment. The dates also hang like something of an albatross round the club's neck, a constant reminder of the growing time since the last trophy. I really don't like the burgeoning trend of football statuary, and feel that people should be only commemorated in this way once they have shuffled off their mortal coil.

Certainly the fact that I was off to see arch modernists New Order concentrated the mind on  the future and led me to ponder what the Gunners great visionary Herbert Chapman would have thought. Although a listed building now the old Highbury ground was state of the art when it was built and the worry is that the futuristic nature of the new ground may be strangled by the past.

The game itself long looked like it would be overshadowed by the pre match celebrations, the nadir of which was MC Tom Watt's babbling inability to turn his stream of consciousness into a question for the legends he introduced before kick off, most of whom would have been at the game anyway in a PR/media role. At least "Good Old Arsenal" replaced "The Wonder of You" as the warm up music and the embarrassing call and response of the team line ups was dropped. Unfortunately I guess the club is contractually obliged to play the indie rock dirge of the Premier League anthem.

Still it was good that Everton with their pleasingly simplistic all blue kit and unbroken top division status (only beaten by Arsenal), were the opposition particularly as despite their lowly position manager Davie Moyes set out to win the game. Early on the unusual Arsenal defence with centre backs filling the wide roles looked as though it might be undone by the powerful wing play of the likes of Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman. This focus on attack forced the blue defence up the pitch and Arsenal had ample opportunity to exploit the high line only for Gervinho (again) and Theo Walcott to be especially profligate when through on goal.

As the game wore on Everton's confidence was symbolised by the way Marouane Fellaini played progressively further up the pitch but the game was won with a moment of quality to reflect the historic occasion. Alex Song's delightful pass found Robin Van Persie to fire home and take everyone's breath away with a strike which was executed when the Dutchman was fully airborne, a move that was ripe to end in farce perfectly carried out with a volley that rocketed into the back of the net. As usual any hope that Arsenal would quietly see out the win were in vain as Everton went for broke, but there was to be no match for Van Persie's coup de grace so Arsenal completed their comeback from their early season turmoil with a win that lifted them into the top four.

If Van Persie stays fit maybe this season will see the Emirates see silverware for the first time, the quality is evidently there to achieve it.

Eddie Hapgood - Footballing Ambassador

Tuning in for the Apprentice final, I caught the inevitably over running overblown pomposity of the BBC's sports personality of the year programme.  This of course featured David Beckham's lifetime achievement award which prompted immediate connections with his forebears in terms of caps and captaincy.  How many steps could you go back?  Peter Shilton, Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton probably, Billy Wright possibly, but how about Wright's predecessor Eddie Hapgood? A pleasing benefit of the Arsenalisation programme, which is seeking to imbue the Gunners' new home with a sense of history and tradition befitting the club, was the very much nostalgic tone of the annual members pack.  Included inside was a copy of Eddie Hapgood's autobiography "Footballing Ambassador". In this era of ill fated FIFA schmoozing by the likes of modern day ambassador Beckham, it was a joy to read this account of  a real ambassador who in the role of representing his country in the 1930s came face to face with the forces which sought to shape the world in the most appalling way.  

Hailed as the first football autobiography, the book is no literary classic and in essence is actually a memoir due to the lack of any real narrative.  However as it has been reproduced without revision since it was originally published in 1945 it gives a rare window on the era without any attempt to filter it through the kaleidoscope of historical perspective.

Hapgood's football career in itself is the stuff of boy's own fantasy from an early memory of being find 2/6 at the age of ten for breaking a window playing football to setting records for the most England caps won and most as captain.  He was born in Bristol, and earned a living driving a milk cart before opting to join Kettering in preference to local club Rovers on the basis that the latter would have forced him to forego his milk cart for one carrying coal to earn money in the close season.  Quickly snapped up by Arsenal, despite losing his £10 signing on fee to a gang of card sharks on the train up to London, he quickly settled in as a full back in the Gunners 1930s side which swept all before them.  This produces many tales of life at Highbury and the likes of former Maidenhead resident George Allison, and "The Old Boss" Herbert Chapman, but the focus of the book is quite rightly his time spent in an England shirt, most of it as captain alongside pioneering administrator Stanley Rous.

International football really began to take off in the 1930s, with the institution of the World Cup which was contested three times in the decade.  England declined to take part, leaving one to wonder how they measured up against the top teams of the day, although the succession of friendlies described by Hapgood gives us a few clues, particularly the clash against Italy in the midst of their successive World Cup wins, which became known as the battle of Highbury.

The venue proved to be appropriate as the England team contained seven Arsenal players (pictured left) in a contest so vicious that one report in the press was scribed by "our war correspondent". England won 3-2 but this seemed secondary to the violent conduct on the pitch which saw Hapgood depart with a broken nose early on.  With no substitutes, he was patched up and returned to action finding it "a bit hard to play like a gentleman when somebody closely resembling an enthusiastic member of the Mafia is wiping his studs down your legs or kicking you up in the air from behind".

England though responded in kind as Hapgood recalled: "Wilf Copping enjoyed himself that afternoon. For the first time in their lives the Italians were given a sample of real honest shoulder charging and Wilf's famous double footed tackle.".

In a return game in Italy England came face to face with fascism, Hapgood doing his best to rile leader Mussolini with an ill directed clearance which hit Il Duce.  Matters took a more controversial turn when England visited Berlin and were requested to "Heil Hitler".  As captain Hapgood told the FA that the players would not co-operate but was eventually forced to do so in the name of diplomacy.Other destinations produced more mundane complaints such as the amount of garlic in the food in "Skodaland", and some old fashioned tomfoolery when Ken Willingham accepted a dare to go into a Ladieswear shop and ask to see a set of what are described as "unmentionables".  However throughout the tales of European tours the overriding impression is of a pioneering team, playing an important role in international relations.

Back on home turf, Hapgood conceded the first ever penalty awarded at Wembley.  With the opponents being Scotland, the importance of this foul led to him receiving abusive letters.  With the onset of World War Two, Hapgood joined the RAF, describing his joy at discovering he would be serving with Bill Shankly.  Active service did lead to another brush with the law though when Hapgood went AWOL in order to play in a North London derby.

The end of the war brought with it the end of Hapgood's football career and thus the end of the tale of this teetotal vegetarian who led his country with distinction for the princely sum of £8 per game.  Unlike Beckham he therefore lived a modest life following his retirement having played a much more politically important one in his career due to the exigencies of the time.