100 years since Chapman joined Arsenal: 10, Why Knighton had to go

22.11.2024 16:33

Part 10: Why Knighton had to go and why Chapman was the man to replace him

The story so far…

In these articles, I am currently working my way around the question, what on earth made Herbert Chapman leave Huddersfield Town wherein he had just won, in the previous three years, the FA Cup, and the 1st division (twice), and instead go to Arsenal (of all places) to oversee a team that in the second half of the 1924/25 season Arsenal had won four league games, and just escaped relegation.

It is interesting, at least for me, that in the the books and articles I have found on Chapman, the writers don’t seem to cover this issue in much depth, sometimes not even picking up on the obvious contradiction between Arsenal’s advert (written by Sir Henry Norris) stating that managers whose prime interest is in spending money on transfers should not apply (I paraphrase of course), and then appointing Chapman, who had built his title and cup winning team at Huddersfield through his tactical knowledge and use of the transfer market to create his complete team.

There is also another point which is hardly (if ever!) mentioned – the fact that at both Huddersfield Town and at Arsenal, Chapman took over clubs in which Leslie Knighton was involved – as assistant manager at Huddersfield and as manager at Arsenal. In both cases, those clubs which had (for reasons that can’t readily be divined today,) put Knighton in charge, were involved in struggles, although Knighton in his autobiographies has endless excuses for this (where he actually acknowledges it.

At Huddersfield the excuse is in part reasonable – he was only assistant manager. But at Arsenal, he was the manager and the boss. Famously Knighton blames Sir Henry Norris in his (Knighton’s) autobiography, for not allowing him to spend enough money on transfers, but in reality, his transfer business was generally pretty dire.

These coincidences of the involvement with both Huddersfield and Arsenal of course come on top of the fact that Chapman had created, seemingly out of very little, a Cup and League-winning team at Huddersfield, while Arsenal had created a new ground (none of Knighton’s doing of course) but in league terms were now sinking fast, and only just missed relegation to the second division in the final season under Knighton. Even the incredibly loyal Henry Norris knew it was time for Knighton to go.

Indeed if we look at Arsenal’s record in 1925 in League Division One, we find the writing was on the wall, as Arsenal opened the year with six successive defeats. There was a slight upturn in March (two wins and one defeat), although followed by two wins, one draw and another seven defeats, and it was only that very brief upturn that made sure Arsenal were not fighting against the drop right up to the last.

So it was not a nail-biting end to the season, but neither was it an easy time to be an Arsenal supporter.

The table at the end of the season read…

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Huddersfield Town	42	21	16	5	69	28	58

20	Arsenal	42	14	5	23	46	58	33
21	Preston North End	42	10	6	26	37	74	26
22	Nottingham Forest	42	6	12	24	29	65	24

… with Preston North End and Nottingham Forest going down to League Division II.

And in looking at that table we might remember a line from Knighton’s autobiography published in 1948 – 23 years and one world war after his dismissal from Arsenal. In that book (page 94) Knighton writes, when dealing with the end of his time at Arsenal that “none of the boys I brought to Highbury failed to do themselves justice,” and because of this he complains that, “Financially I always feel I did not get a fair return,”.continuing his complaints by claiming he had been promised a benefit match when he left, which he did not get.

No evidence is provided to strengthen his case, and the fact that Knighton took no action to secure the funds that he feels he lost, suggests that his claim was not a sound as he makes it sound in his autobiography (which of course was published long after the death of Sir Henry Norris, and so as he well knew, would not be contestable in court).

Indeed to go one stage further let us consider the one transfer Knighton made in his final season when it was clear from the season before, that Arsenal needed improvement. This was the centre forward Donald Cock, a centre forward from Notts County brought in to try and bring more punch to the forward line.

He was one of the first players Chapman sold upon taking over the reins at Arsenal, recovering under half the transfer fee Arsenal had paid for the player just half a season before.

It is also interesting to note that Knighton totally misquotes completely the advert that Sir Henry placed in the Athletic which then led to Chapman’s move to Arsenal as manager. This misquote again does suggest Knighton wrote the whole of his autobiography not just more than two decades later, but without any notes or actually records of events to help him along. And yet it was this autobiography that was used to demean the memory of Sir Henry Norris after 23 years later, and long after Sir Henry had passed away.

So let us now return to Chapman, the man who replaced Knighton as Arsenal manager, and here we might start by noting (if for no other reason than the fact that no one else has noted this) the history between these two men.

Knighton was an assistant manager at Huddersfield Town (1912–19) – the period when Herbert Chapman went to Leeds City. Chapman then followed Knighton to Leeds and then the same pattern was repeated at Arsenal – Kngihton was there, and then Chapman followed him.

Knighton’s era at Huddersfield was that of the pre-first World War era wherein the club spent five years in Divison Two (there being only two divisions at this time). During this five year period the club came 13th, 17th, 5th, 13th and 8th in the league. In the FA Cup they twice got to the second round, but that was the best it got. Across the years the top scorer got between ten and 16 goals.

In 1919 Knighton moved to Arsenal and here his record was three seasons coming 9th, 10th and 11th, and three seasons of 17th, 19th and 20th. With the 19th and 20th place finishes coming at the end of his tenure we can see why he was moved on.

Now it must be said, to be fair to the memory of Knighton, that he is full of praise for Chapman and writing some 14 years after Chapman’s passing, Knighton does not have a bad word to say of Chapman – the man who replaced Knighton both at Leeds and at Arsenal. But he also doesn’t really explore the fact that Huddersfield went into liquidation in 1912, after which a new limited company was formed to take over the club’s assets and it was this new company that eventually got Chapman as manager.

Nor does he have anything to say about the fact that Huddersfield Town were reportedly £25,000 in debt in 1919, and attendances fell to around 3,000.

Thus Knighton’s career cannot be said to have been one of sparkling success as after Arsenal it was downhill all the way. His autobiography “Behind the Scenes in Big Football” is available for sale on Amazon, currently with a starting price of £114. I am not sure it is really worth it. – but then I’ve read it.

So Knighton’s pre-Arsenal career was not spectacular. Chapman’s however was the opposite. After playing for Northampton Town, being embroiled in the scandals of Leeds City (which the League then set aside when he appealed after the war), to the triumphs of Huddersfield Town and Arsenal, he was an utterly different character from Knighton.

But while Norris obviously brought Chapman to Arsenal to win things, as he had done at Huddersfield, Knighton was brought in simply to hold the ship stable, while the cost of building Highbury and moving the club from south of the Thames to North London, was managed.

So now moving on, with it being clear to everyone in the League that Knighton was a failure at Arsenal, and the general feeling, it seems, of amazement that Sir Henry had kept Knighton for as long as he did, the narrow escapes from relegation in both 1924 (when the club came 19th) and 1925 (20th) clearly meant it was time to change.

But more than that, it appears that Arsenal’s finances were now stabilised. I’ve not been able to discover exact details but from what I can glean Highbury was built with borrowed money – just as Norris had built the housing estates of Fulham which had made his fortune, by borrowing money. Indeed the records for that period of his life before the First World War, show that his company would borrow money buy land to build eight houses in a row, and then sell seven of them, keeping the last one for the company, and renting it out from there on. After around eight such rows of houses were built in this way the company had enough money available to use its own finances to continue the process.

Assuming the same sort of acumen was used to build Highbury, it is quite possible that by 1925, Sir Henry had repaid all the debts accrued with the building of Highbury and had enough cash to allow Arsenal’s manager to buy in new players. The problem was that the last person in football that any club would want to have to spend its money on transfers was Knighton, whose transfer record was very poor. Hence this was the moment to remove Knighton and bring in Chapman, whose record in transforming Huddersfield into repeated trophy winners, meant that his judgement was considered sound.

The series continues…