The Men Who Made Modern Football #6 Frank Buckley

Unlike his predecessors in this series, Frank Buckley was an innovator in some of the darker arts of the beautiful game which plague us to this day. On the pitch this was his development of “English” tactics which reached their apogee in the all-conquering Wolves team of the 1950s. Off it this was the wheeler dealing transfer market activity which saw him give priority to the bottom line rather than the needs of the team.

Know commonly as the Major due to his military service in World War One, Buckley was born to a military family in Urmston, Lancashire in 1882. He won a scholarship to St Francis Xavier's College for Boys in Liverpool which was run using the philosophy of Muscular Christanity cherished by some of his predecessors in this series.

Following his father into a career in the army, he was spotted by Aston Villa playing football for his regiment and decided to buy himself out of the army to sign a professional contract. He went onto play for Brighton, Manchester City and United, Birmingham and Derby, winning an England cap whilst at the latter, shortly before war broke out in 1914.

Buckley became the first to sign up for the Football Battalion, rising to the rank of Major by the time they reached the front in 1916. His football career was effectively ended by an injury sustained at the Battle of the Somme, but he returned to the front in 1917 and was was "mentioned in dispatches" for the bravery shown during hand-to-hand fighting.

Following the Armistice, Buckley was appointed manager of Southern League Norwich, creating a nationwide scouting network of his former army comrades who were all ex-players, to build a team of talented young players. He resigned in 1920 following a dispute with the board and then spent time out of the game as a sweet salesman.

He returned to football in 1923 as Blackpool instantly making his mark by changing their kit to the distinctive tangerine well known to this day. As well as buying young talent which he would sell for a generous fee safe in the knowledge of a replacement already lined up, Buckley put paramount importance on the physical fitness of his squad. He combined diet (including a smoking ban) with physiotherapy as well as novel fitness routines such as weight training. Having established a reputation for building an effective squad which could be milked to provide a healthy profit, Buckley was appointed manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1927.

Buckley's stay at Wolves can be taken two ways. On the face of it, he appeared to achieve only modest success with the club; they won the Division Two title in 1931–32 and finished runners-up in the Division One in 1937–38 and in both the First Division and the FA Cup the following season. An alternative view is that during his stay at Molineux, Buckley once made the club a £100,000 profit within one year, purely on transfer deals; he toyed, provocatively, with the media (instigating the empty rumour that his players were using a monkey gland treatment to aid performance), he used psychologists to instil confidence in his players and was responsible for bringing through Stan Cullis and offering Billy Wright a start in professional football.  After he had left the club, however, the full value of his vision, not least the Wolves youth programme, came to fruition and did so much to shape the Wolves side of the 1950s, when they won three Division One championships, twice won the FA Cup, and were one of few genuine challengers to the Busby Babes.

His impact can be summed up by Cullis who went onto manage Wolves through their 1950s golden era:  "I soon realised that Major Buckley was one out of the top drawer. He did not suffer fools gladly. His style of management in football was very similar to his attitude in the army. Major Buckley implanted into my mind the direct method of playing which did away with close interpassing and square-ball play. If you didn't like his style you'd very soon be on your bicycle to another club. He didn't like defenders over-elaborating in their defensive positions. Major Buckley also knew how to deal with the press." 

Buckley left Moulineux towards the end of the second world war and with his scouting network showing his age, made little impact at his final few short appointments at Notts County, Hull City, Leeds United and Walsall. He did sign Jack Charlton for the Whites though and started a process of youth development that would bear fruit in the Revie era.

This reflected his major contribution to the English game, that of talent development and profit, with a focus on physical fitness and simple, direct football. A blueprint for the mercantile nature of the modern game in this country, undoubtedly successful but forsaking the emotional tug of attractive football and glorious success measured by silverware.

Mustard finish sees off negative Norwich

A funny day at the Grove yesterday which began with a massive sigh of relief when I discovered that the Maidenhead game at Dorchester had been called off at 2.45 pm. But for an early evening engagement, I would have made the pointless trip, but at least those that did could drown their sorrows with £1.50 bottles of Carlsberg.

As for the game in front of me, despite Arsenal's strong Spring league form I was full of worry about the result. I was sat in the North Bank where I rarely see Arsenal win, indeed I can remember watching Chris Hughton's last visit in 2010 when his Newcastle team won a dour game 1-0, shortly before he was sacked. Still at least the prospect of goals were on offer, having sat nearby when almost a year ago Norwich shared six goals in a great game of football, and also earlier this season when a late penalty missed by Mikel Arteta prevented the Fulham game being settled by the odd goal in seven.

The last ten minutes aside though what transpired was an awful game of football to match the miserable weather which even seem to dampen the spirit of the foam finger wearers and split scarfers. With Norwich struggling on the brink of the relegation zone, their approach to the game was entirely understandable putting ten men behind the ball. Arsenal's starting eleven was unable to break them down, with Gervinho lacking guile, Wilshire match fitness and Cazorla stuck out of position on the wing. With Giroud seeming to play in a withdrawn role (false nine? - cue joke), Arsenal offered little promise of scoring whilst the game remained goalless.

As usual it took an opposition goal from a set piece by Michael Turner to spark the Gunners into life, with at least Wenger having the option to bring on some quality attacking players in Walcott, Podolski and Chamberlain. With the first two of the three returning to fitness it was good to see the impact they had on the game and hopefully they will be deemed ready for selection in the crucial game against Everton on Tuesday night.

However Arsenal's salvation was late coming and in the time between the Norwich opener and the equaliser, the Canaries demonstrated some cynical gamesmanship to slow the game down and waste time. I have no problem with the goalkeeper moving the ball across the six yard box or waiting for an attacker to challenge before picking it up but I really detest the antics of Grant Holt who when on several occasions a throw was clearly awarded to Arsenal did everything to obstruct a resumption of play. Norwich were helped by a weak referee who acquiesced with their tactics as the temperature grew in the stadium with the boiling blood of the Gooners.

That the equaliser came from a controversial penalty made it all the sweeter although the controversy was somewhat manufactured as it centred on how far away the linesman was when he made the award rather than the actual foul itself. The game then threatened to descend into pantomime as the Norwich players refused to conclude their heated debate with the officials in the corner, and then goalkeeper Mark Bunn stormed off in a huff to leave an empty net. The referee would have had a lot of sympathy for allowing Arteta to put the ball into the unguarded goal but he waited for Bunn to return before the midfielder delightfully placed the ball just beyond the keepers reach in the far corner.

The last few minutes then made up for the dross that had been on show before with Arsenal taking the lead with what looked like an own goal claimed by Giroud, and Fabianski making a superb save with his feet from Howson in a Norwich move direct from the restart. Podolski then completed the scoring with the goal of the game, a computer style turn and Howitzer shot which gave the goalkeeper no chance.

Job just about done as the Gunners rise to third place in timely fashion, looking good to stay there with a lot of important squad members returning from injury.

Canaries signal danger for Arsenal

Norwich are a club whose profile matches that of their geographically peripheral location. In my lifetime they've always been in the background but just when you start to forget them or take them for granted you can guarantee they'll send a reminder. So it was at Arsenal this weekend when the Canaries poor recent form suggested they would be suitably supplicant and allow the Gunners to secure third spot. Two minutes into the game Yossi Benayoun's exquisite opening goal was the ideal opening to this fait accompli, instead it was the prelude to a storming Norwich performance which was well worth a point and could even have secured all three by half time.

How times change. The last Norwich away game I attended came at the end of the 1997/98 season when they were the last team to visit Elm Park, comfortably beating Tommy Burns' woeful Reading outfit already doomed to relegation and a few days later to defeat against Maidenhead United in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup Final. After the Elm Park game I ended up in a pub in Reading town centre where I watched Arsenal secure the first leg of their double with a legendary win over Everton at Highbury, capped by an iconic goal by Tony Adams. The confident pose that Adams struck after scoring that goal left Arsenal's performance this weekend looking pale in comparison.

A goal up, the Gunners seemed to lose all defensive shape and discipline as Norwich tore into them, Wes Hoolahan scoring courtesy of a Wojciech Szczesny slip, and Grant Holt giving the City the lead when his deflected shot looped over the hapless Pole in the goal. Once again this prompted more memories, this time of a visit to Dagenham at the end of the 2009 season when Holt led the line for Shrewsbury, not exactly looking like a striker cut out for the Premier League.

The second half offered little respite for Arsenal as they struggled to stay in the game but slowly captain Robin Van Persie inspired a comeback and eventually the Gunners attacking strength provided the Dutchman with the chances to restore Arsenal's lead with ten minutes left. All this pointed to Arsenal seeing out the game, relieved at recovering the three points but yet again chaos reigned in the red ranks in the face of renewed Norwich attacking purpose, this time Steve Morison, who I last saw facing the Magpies for Bishops Stortford, applying a deft finish to equalise once more. Cue one last Arsenal push for the win but they were unable to emulate Maidenhead's 4-3 victory of the previous Saturday. Perhaps Van Persie should have been given an opportunity for a hat trick from the penalty shot, but there was an element of justice in the referee's decision to wave play on, with a missed offside in the build up to the incident, and Norwich also having a good penalty shout turned down in the first half.

So the game ended in frustration for Arsenal meaning few stayed for the end of season lap of honour. This was a shame for regardless of the team's shortcomings it presented an opportunity to salute Pat Rice, on duty in a home game for the final time before stepping down as Arsene Wenger's assistant. For an Arsenal fan of my vintage Rice represents a virtually ever present symbol at the club. He was part of the first line up I ever learnt by heart which I can still recite to this day, his surname providing a nice rhyming couplet: Jennings, Rice, Nelson, Price...

He was the only Arsenal captain to lift a trophy in a sixteen year period which seems a world away from the Graham/Wenger years which have given rise to a feeling of virtual entitlement amongst Arsenal supporters and subsequent angst about a failure to deliver in recent seasons, hence the annoying hyperbolic spectacle of the battle for third spot which goes on thanks to the refusal of any of the contenders to take the readily available points on offer.

Still a good game to close the season on, a useful reminder that the older I get the more complex the connections between the games I watch become (e.g. I last saw Paul Lambert managing Wycombe in pre season friendly at York Road a few years back, whilst Sian Massey was a more recent visitor, refereeing a game at Maidenhead in March), and therefore the deeper the impression that football is a more unified game than might appear at first glance.