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| An empty pitch |
In lieu of there being any football worth caring about being played (i.e - no Blackpool match), today the blog machine will churn out some random information. I've not achieved that much in my life, largely I think because remembering stuff is a bit boring. Football has always been the exception. From a young age, my mind has accumulated and retained seemingly random information about football in a way it has refused to do with other things.
Remembering the periodic table or a language would have been useful, but that never stuck. Knowing that the league's second highest goal scorer in a season is George Camsell who scored 59 goals for Middlesbrough is useless but it stuck just fine. I've known this since I was 7 and I read it in a book. I can't remember where I put my keys or that it's my sisters birthday but George Camsell and his goals are always there. This is how my brain works and now, for lack of anything else to write about, I'm finally going to put some of this to use in a boxing day blog because, frankly there's nothing else to say about the shite going on now.
I'm going to put together some of the best things I've learned this year (i.e. more useless knowledge) into a seamless and fluid feature that hardly anyone will read. Why?
Why not? What else is there to do?
I'm going to put together some of the best things I've learned this year (i.e. more useless knowledge) into a seamless and fluid feature that hardly anyone will read. Why?
Why not? What else is there to do?
Useless fact 1
It's Christmas and that means driving home (normally anyway) and driving home means Chris Rea. Chris Rea's hometown is Middlesbrough and his family ran a cafe near Ayresome Park where the Middlesbrough squad would go after training. It was at Rea's where their hotshot centre forward, Brian Clough would meet his wife Norma who would stay by his side for the rest of his days, the anchor to Clough's eccentric genius. Whilst double checking my useless information for accuracy, I discovered Clough's career started when he was spotted by the aforementioned George Camsell. There's another piece of information to insulate myself from knowing anything helpful in life to add to the collection.
Useless fact 2
Clough was very keen to keep his players grounded and to remain connected to the real world. His own active support for the NUM and the brilliant story of him sending Mark Crossley to play Sunday football or getting players to walk his dog are examples of how Clough stood apart from other managers.
Clough, to the best of my knowledge, never asked his players to engage in agricultural labour before a match though, which was what Aston Villa's players had to do at their second ground. The pitch was presumably a basic field, rented from a farmer and it so happened that it was where the farmer kept a haystack. For some reasons that history doesn't explain the haystack remained firmly in situ for at least a portion of the time Villa played there and had to be removed before a game and replaced afterwards.
Where it was moved to and why it couldn't stay there no one reports. In fact, the story only seems to occur in one book, but the scrupulous (in fact, sometimes it's if anything, a little too painstaking) research involved in the rest of the book suggests that it's unlikely the author would simply make up the story. (and how the hell would you dream that up anyway?)
Useless fact no 3
Villa's haystack dates back to the pre-professional era and many of the games more idiosyncratic qualities had been ironed out by 1935. That didn't mean the players earned very much though and second jobs (or even retaining amateur status and football being the second job) weren't uncommon By far the most glamorous example was workmanlike Millwall defender Len Tyler who worked as star Robert Dunat's body double during the filming of the Hitchcock classic '39 Steps'.
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| Len Tyler of Millwall and the film industry |
Useless fact no 4
The 39 Steps features a degree of railway action, the protagonist escaping the city on a steam train to hide out in the wilderness. In the early professional era, steam trains were how players got around and thus arriving at away games was subject to the whims of the transport network. In the pre floodlight era that sometimes involved shortened matches if a side arrived late, in order to squeeze the game in before sundown.
An extreme case of train chaos involved Aston Villa (by now haystack free) and saw them get hammered by Burnley in January 1889 after fielding just 8 players to he opposition's 11 after Villa changed trains in Manchester and conditions were so foggy, part of their team got lost. To add insult to injury, when some of the missing players finally turned up the referee wouldn't allow them to play. Mismatched numbers weren't uncommon early in the professional game and stories of teams borrowing players or goalkeepers changing positions to make up the numbers are relatively common. For me, it would add a certain frisson to the modern game to see one of our players have to turn out for the other team to make up the numbers or the sub goalie having a go up front.
Useless fact no5
We mentioned floodlights (or the lack thereof) above and one of the great pioneers of the English game, Herbert Chapman was a great champion of such an innovation. He had lights installed at Highbury many years before the FA allowed their use and friendlies and training took place under them.
Chapman himself was a player who remained an amateur for most of his career as he saw more financial security in becomimg a professional in another trade and saw career in mine engineering as his way forward in life. He had, however, already been swayed from this path by football management by the time WW1 came along wherein, Chapman, in possession of a diploma in his first choice profession (which presumably included knowledge of explosives) and a reputation for organisation gained through his football career was put in charge of a munitions factory a job he undertook with success for several years.
Chapman is likely the only England manager (he took charge of the national side twice) to have also managed a bomb making plant.
Chapman is likely the only England manager (he took charge of the national side twice) to have also managed a bomb making plant.
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| Herbert Chapman - he got things done. Including high explosives... |
Useless fact no 6
Accrington was one of the hardest hit towns in the first world war, the decimation of the Accrington Pals battalion being a poignant reminder of the scale of the slaughter which would go on to inspire a song and a play in their memory.
Accrington Stanley used to play at Peel Park which was in 2011 subject of a fascinating archeological dig and during the research into the artefacts turned up by the excavation it emerged that the UK manufactured clay pipes (the smoking kind) as late as the mid 1970s. Imagine that. Concorde in the air, computers beginning to be used in industry but you could still pop to the shop and buy a clay pipe...
Accrington Stanley used to play at Peel Park which was in 2011 subject of a fascinating archeological dig and during the research into the artefacts turned up by the excavation it emerged that the UK manufactured clay pipes (the smoking kind) as late as the mid 1970s. Imagine that. Concorde in the air, computers beginning to be used in industry but you could still pop to the shop and buy a clay pipe...
Ok, that's not strictly football related but it's certainly useless.
If you want to find out what's underneath a long demolished football ground, you can do so. This is what I call interesting. Others may disagree.
If you want to find out what's underneath a long demolished football ground, you can do so. This is what I call interesting. Others may disagree.
Useless fact 7
Unsurprisingly, one of the other artefacts unearthed in the Accy dig alongside the smokers detritus was a peg that was used to hold the goal nets in place.
Even in the early professional era, playground style arguments abounded about exactly whether a ball had passes between or beyond the posts until in the early 1890s one bright spark had the idea of a net.
And what a bright spark he was. John Alexander Brodie witnessed an argument at an Everton game in 1890, thought 'I can fix that' and then by 1891, the FA had made goal nets compulsory for everyone. Not satisfied with that, he went on to have long career in engineering, racking up plenty of achievements, the crowning glory of which was the construction of the Mersey Tunnel in 1935.
I bet he didn't have a blog or a problem with retaining useless shite instead of relevant information.
I bet he didn't have a blog or a problem with retaining useless shite instead of relevant information.
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| Imagine building this and it NOT being the most famous thing you did? |
Sticking with Merseyside, and returning to the first fact in the piece (George Camsell's 59 goals) Dixie Dean's 60 goals in a league season are the stuff of legend. Such was Dean's prowess in the air, he was reputed (falsely) to have a metal plate in his head. The useless information I gained this year pertains however, to Dean's death, which took place at the 1980 Merseyside derby. This was the first game the aged and sickly (by now, the owner of just a single leg) Dean had attended in 7 years and was to be his last act. His lunch companion that day, with whom he shared his final meal?
Bill Shankly.
Useless fact no 9:
One of the saddest things about Bill Shankly's life was that he was ostracised by Liverpool at the end of his career and instead of visiting Anfield or their training ground, he'd instead visit Goodison and spend time at Everton's Bellefield training ground. I knew that already, but what I didn't know about Shankly was that initially his brother outshone him as a football manager. Bob Shankly rose quicker than Bill, who was mired in the English lower leagues and was challenging for honours with Third Lanark and winning the League with Dundee in 1961, before taking them to the semi finals of the European Cup in 1962 - a full 3 years before Bill won the FA Cup with Liverpool for his first major honour in the game.
Useless fact no 10
Bill Shankly.
Useless fact no 9:
One of the saddest things about Bill Shankly's life was that he was ostracised by Liverpool at the end of his career and instead of visiting Anfield or their training ground, he'd instead visit Goodison and spend time at Everton's Bellefield training ground. I knew that already, but what I didn't know about Shankly was that initially his brother outshone him as a football manager. Bob Shankly rose quicker than Bill, who was mired in the English lower leagues and was challenging for honours with Third Lanark and winning the League with Dundee in 1961, before taking them to the semi finals of the European Cup in 1962 - a full 3 years before Bill won the FA Cup with Liverpool for his first major honour in the game.
Useless fact no 10
On the topic of brothers - the name Herbert Chapman has already been invoked, no trawl of English football history can overlook this most modernising and consistently successful of managers, but hands up, who knew his brother was also a footballer and a rather more successful one than Herbert ever was? Harry Chapman was man of the match in the 1907 FA Cup final and had a long career in the top flight, unlike Herbert who flickered only briefly at the highest level, mostly playing out his peripatetic career at a host of lower league and non league clubs.
Useless fact 11:
Finally, on the topic of the FA Cup final and finally, introducing the mighty tangerine Wizards, this year was the year I learned that as well as being the winners of the most famous game in football history, the suppliers of the first Ballon D'or winner from the UK, providing 2 players to the 1966 World Cup winning squad and having the best record in play-offs of any team plus many other wonderful things, the Mighty also have the distinction of fielding the last ever amateur to play in an FA Cup Final. Bill Slater played for for Pool in their 1951 Wembley defeat but also worked at a university and steadfastly refused to become pro so as to not be beholden to football in a way that could jeopardise his better paid and more secure long term job prospects.
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There we have it - a team of useless information. A one to eleven of pointless facts. What does it show? Nothing, but a small slice of the vast knowledge to be gleaned from football history. Most of it is perhaps as useless as I've labelled it but there's something poignant about the misty past, especially at this point as we stand on the possible brink of another interruption to the game and the potential financial collapse that it will bring.
There's a balance in football. Nothing is permanent but yet some things are. It's changing yet changeless. The past was not roses and yet it was glorious.
In the past we see today and vice versa - the game of the 1880s and 1890s is riven with accusations of 'unsporting behaviour' and 'rowdiness' in crowds. There's a very disturbing story of a 1930s footballer who suffered horrendous barracking from the crowd towards the end of a career tailing off into obscurity and was driven to putting his head in the oven and ending his life. The reaction to footballers playing on in WW1 bears some passing resemblance to the recent debate about whether or not football should continue in a pandemic, with the financial security of clubs no small consideration.
Even impermanence is permanent, the article above bears names like Third Lanark and Accrington Stanley - clubs who have been to the wall and in some cases, not come back. Many, many more could be cited. Bill Shankly managed Workington Town, long since voted out of the league.
Herbert Chapman managed Leeds City, expelled from the league for financial irregularities and ultimately replaced by Leeds United. Chapman was banned from football as a result (but rehabilitated a year later. when it was recognised the board were the main wrong doers) He'd go on to manage Arsenal who managed a MK Dons style leap into a higher league than they had any right to not long before he joined... Crooked chairmen, a badly run game, corruption and contract wrangling - would never happen today eh?
What is evident is, from the very early days, football has had an almost unique grip on the imagination of many. There's a seemingly endless number of reports, stories, legends, facts, statistics. British (most specifically, English and Scottish) football is unparalleled in this regard. We've had more teams, playing more football, for more years than anyone else. There's a richness and depth to the game we cannot afford to lose. It's a unique thing and on any given winter Saturday since 1888, you could find some hardy souls braving icy rain, squinting into encroaching evening gloom, and later luminescent floodlit brightness but probably thinking the same thought...
"Why do I care?"
The looms of the mills around places like Peel Park have long since fallen silent. The steam trains are museum pieces. The tuberculosis that claimed Chapman's life is no longer a threat. The world has changed but across the country, football is a constant background to our lives.
Not today though.
Finally, on the topic of the FA Cup final and finally, introducing the mighty tangerine Wizards, this year was the year I learned that as well as being the winners of the most famous game in football history, the suppliers of the first Ballon D'or winner from the UK, providing 2 players to the 1966 World Cup winning squad and having the best record in play-offs of any team plus many other wonderful things, the Mighty also have the distinction of fielding the last ever amateur to play in an FA Cup Final. Bill Slater played for for Pool in their 1951 Wembley defeat but also worked at a university and steadfastly refused to become pro so as to not be beholden to football in a way that could jeopardise his better paid and more secure long term job prospects.
___
There we have it - a team of useless information. A one to eleven of pointless facts. What does it show? Nothing, but a small slice of the vast knowledge to be gleaned from football history. Most of it is perhaps as useless as I've labelled it but there's something poignant about the misty past, especially at this point as we stand on the possible brink of another interruption to the game and the potential financial collapse that it will bring.
There's a balance in football. Nothing is permanent but yet some things are. It's changing yet changeless. The past was not roses and yet it was glorious.
In the past we see today and vice versa - the game of the 1880s and 1890s is riven with accusations of 'unsporting behaviour' and 'rowdiness' in crowds. There's a very disturbing story of a 1930s footballer who suffered horrendous barracking from the crowd towards the end of a career tailing off into obscurity and was driven to putting his head in the oven and ending his life. The reaction to footballers playing on in WW1 bears some passing resemblance to the recent debate about whether or not football should continue in a pandemic, with the financial security of clubs no small consideration.
Even impermanence is permanent, the article above bears names like Third Lanark and Accrington Stanley - clubs who have been to the wall and in some cases, not come back. Many, many more could be cited. Bill Shankly managed Workington Town, long since voted out of the league.
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| Terracing at old Bradford Park Avenue ground |
Herbert Chapman managed Leeds City, expelled from the league for financial irregularities and ultimately replaced by Leeds United. Chapman was banned from football as a result (but rehabilitated a year later. when it was recognised the board were the main wrong doers) He'd go on to manage Arsenal who managed a MK Dons style leap into a higher league than they had any right to not long before he joined... Crooked chairmen, a badly run game, corruption and contract wrangling - would never happen today eh?
What is evident is, from the very early days, football has had an almost unique grip on the imagination of many. There's a seemingly endless number of reports, stories, legends, facts, statistics. British (most specifically, English and Scottish) football is unparalleled in this regard. We've had more teams, playing more football, for more years than anyone else. There's a richness and depth to the game we cannot afford to lose. It's a unique thing and on any given winter Saturday since 1888, you could find some hardy souls braving icy rain, squinting into encroaching evening gloom, and later luminescent floodlit brightness but probably thinking the same thought...
"Why do I care?"
The looms of the mills around places like Peel Park have long since fallen silent. The steam trains are museum pieces. The tuberculosis that claimed Chapman's life is no longer a threat. The world has changed but across the country, football is a constant background to our lives.
Not today though.
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utmp
NB: If you enjoyed this piece - I urge you to get a copy of the wonderful book 'When Footballers were Skint' by Jon Henderson which was the source of fact 3 and many, many more other stories of life in the game before the maximum wage. It sounds a dry topic perhaps, but it really isn't - it's warm, funny, sad and fascinating in equal measure. Henderson strings together disparate stories brilliantly and gives voice to players beautifully, allowing their character to really shine.
utmp
NB: If you enjoyed this piece - I urge you to get a copy of the wonderful book 'When Footballers were Skint' by Jon Henderson which was the source of fact 3 and many, many more other stories of life in the game before the maximum wage. It sounds a dry topic perhaps, but it really isn't - it's warm, funny, sad and fascinating in equal measure. Henderson strings together disparate stories brilliantly and gives voice to players beautifully, allowing their character to really shine.
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