100 years of Chapman, part 12: what made him such an amazing manager

11.12.2024 14:28

The article below, by Tony Attwood, is part 12 of our series, “100 Years Since Herbert Chapman Joined the Arsenal”.

In relation to this series, you might also find interesting the article Henry Norris, the founder of the modern Arsenal.

The story so far in this series

To summarise Chapman’s progress through his early working life, as we noted in the last episode, during Chapman’s time as a player what we have is a man who went from club to club, moving around the country year by year.

Quite what made him move on each year, or perhaps what made clubs release him at the end of each year, is not clear, although it seems to be quite normal at this time in football’s history. But whatever the exact reason, the fact remains that Chapman the player found himself a new club each year. And indeed sometimes he did more than that, for between 1896 and 1903, Chapman is recorded as having played for no less than ten different teams: Kiveton Park, Aston North End, Stalybridge Rovers, Rochdale, Grimsby Town, Swindon Town, Sheppey United, Workshop Town, Northampton Town, and Sheffield United.

But then finally he signed for Notts County. And here we may note two issues of importance. First, he stayed registered as a player with Notts County for two seasons (1903-1905), and second, during the latter part of those two seasons he fell out of favour at Notts County and was loaned to Tottenham Hotspur of the Southern League.

And at this point I am going to take a guess as to what was going on – and this guess is of course done with all the benefit of hindsight. The first point is simple: I suspect that in his playing days Chapman, as when he was a manager, had a clear view of what was happening on the pitch, and how it could be improved. And he would express this. The second point is that I doubt that Chapman was that subtle in telling his managers what they ought to do. They didn’t like this upstart playing telling them what to do, and so he moved on.

Now of course in this period around the turn of the 19th/20th century such “debates” if I might call them that, would not have been much known outside the club – especially when they were between Chapman and his manager. Everyone tended to demand “respect” whether it was due or not.

So when at the end of each season it was made known that offers would be considered for Chapman, all the buying club would know was that here was a player of some quality, and he was available. Thus he moved on.

The first time we have any hint of proof of all this was in 1905 when now in his second year as a player with Notts County he did indeed fall out of favour and he was loaned to Tottenham Hotspur, then of the Southern League. It was an attractive move for Chapman since Tottenham then of the Southern League, were League winners in 1900 and the FA Cup winners of 1901, Tottenham defeating Sheffield United 3–1 following a 2–2 draw in the first game.

But the winning ways at Tottenham did not continue and after winning the Southern League they came 5th, 2nd, 4th and 2nd in successive seasons. That second runners’ up spot in 1903/4 was naturally taken to be the prelude to a return to trophies, but in subsequent seasons the club finished fifth, fourth, sixth and seventh and the fans appear to have turned on at least some of the players – including Chapman. When the Tottenham manager resigned in the spring of 1907 it was fairly certain that Chapman would follow. Besides, Chapman was now 30, and seemingly ready to retire from football totally, but on hearing of a manager’s position at Northampton Town, for whom he had of course played he would apply for that.

Northampton had been doing poorly in the Southern League and had only stayed in the league because there was no automatic relegation but rather the old system of “re-election”. So they remained in the league, and Chapman having played for so many different clubs and kept in touch with many of his contacts as he moved along, had a good idea of what players could help Northampton out of their lowly position. Thus he applied, got the job and set about bringing in players on free transfers.

He also managed to persuade the club’s directors and owners that he should be in charge of team selection – something that was far from automatic at the time. In fact it is possible to argue that Chapman at Northampton was the first (or at very least one of the first) managers who actually had full control over the team.

Part of his success at convincing the board at Northampton that he should have total control came from the fact that the club had been doing very badly of late and had finished 18th out of 20 in 1905/6 and bottom of the league in 1906/07, (which was the point at which they were re-elected as was the habit of the day).

But under Chapman, in 1907/08, the club that had finished 20th in the league the season before rose to 8th, and the following season they won the Southern League. At Tottenham, Chapman’s ability as a manager was established, along with his notion that the manager should choose the team, which of course today seems to us to be so natural and obvious, was established.

Today, what Chapman did to take Tottenham from the bottom to the top of the league in a couple of seasons, would seem obvious. He established the notion of the defenders passing the ball out of defence, rather than booting it up the field. He also played a system in which a space between the Northampton midfield and defence was left to encourage the opposition to push forward, leaving the Northampton defence with the opportunity to create a counter-attack leaving a number of opposition players marooned upfield. And as the transformations happened so the club rose up the league and money was made available.

At the same time, Chapman took over more and more of the running of the club and effectively became the first man to look like the sort of manager who dominated much of the early 20th century: the man who ran the team and told the directors what he needed and wanted. He became, if not the first club manager in the modern sense, then most certainly one of the first.

On the pitch, Chapman introduced two concepts that were not that familiar to football at the time: one was the counter-attacking side, something that Chapman continued to refine across the rest of his career, and the other was playing the midfield deeper to be able to counter the rushing forward of the opposition attack, but then have the midfield moving forward to catch the opposition off side.

It was also at this time that Chapman realised that by bringing in players who were particularly adept at his approach, he could develop exactly the team he wanted, rather than having to change tactics to fit with what his players could do. As a result, the transfer system started to change as he and his assistant went looking for players to play a particular role, rather than taking on players who were doing what Chapman had done in his career – moving on season by season.

This new approach meant that Chapman could have a say in how the dressing room could be developed, how the players’ medical support be improved, how the ground could be modernised, how the accommodation of the fans could be developed and perhaps most importantly in terms of his ultimate move to Arsenal, how the club could get more positive comment out of the newspapers, and thus more fans in the ground.

In fact, Chapman at Tottenham did what he became known for subsequently, he took an interest in every part of the club, from the supporters to the evolution of a youth team, from the training arrangements to the players’ well-being.

And this all-round approach is what virtually all commentators have missed as and when they look back to Chapman and why Sir Henry Norris was so attracted to him as a potential manager. The advertisement Sir Henry posted upon Knighton leaving Arsenal as manager, spoke of the fact that he, Sir Henry, would not appoint a manager whose sole method of improving the team was to spend money on transfers.

What Sir Henry indicated by this, and what was clearly understood at the time, (but which was then utterly ignored by both Knighton in his (naturally) self-serving autobiography and by journalists subsequently), was that the advertisement for a replacement manager at Arsenal in 1925 spoke of the club not wanting a manager whose sole method of improving the team was to pay exorbitant transfer fees.

The very clear implication of this at the time was that he wanted a manager who had acted like Chapman at Tottenham and at Huddersfield. A manager who paid attention to every detail in terms of the way the club operated, not just to win things, but to get the crowds in. Yes, Chapman did encourage his chairmen to spend money on players. Northampton’s first-ever transfer fees were paid out during Chapman’s time at the club and it brought in the players who transformed the club and resulted finally in their winning the Southern League in 1909.

But that was not his sole approach. Chapman, at each club he managed, transformed the whole essence of the club, and it was an approach that brought sensational results.

The series continues…