Chapman: success at Huddersfield, and concern at Arsenal

This series commemorates 100 Years Since Chapman Arrived at Arsenal.  The series is written by Tony Attwood, of the AISA Arsenal History Society

Previously in this series:

• 1: Taking over from failure
• 2: Approaching a 100th anniversary at Arsenal of mega-importance.
• 3: The Arsenal that Knighton left behind
• 4: Knighton is removed
• 5  A  new manager
• 6: What happened to Chapman at Leeds?

We have reached the point in our story where Herbert Chapman, having made significant strides in terms of developing Leeds City FC and getting them ready for promotion, was caught up in a financial situation (none of which was his making) in which Leeds refused to hand over documents to the League on the grounds they were private and confidential.

The League were having none of that and the long and the short of it all was that Leeds City were found guilty of refusing to hand over documents to the League.  Bizarrely Chapman was also found guilty and barred from football for life, although he protested that he knew nothing of the documents in question, and seemingly no evidence was presented to show that he did.

I say “seemingly” here, because from the data I’ve been able to gather, there is no sight of the documents themselves, and it looks very much like the affair was a battle between two authoritarian gentlemen neither of whom had learned the art of compromise.  It all reads almost as if Leeds City were saying, “They wouldn’t dare” and the League were saying “We’re not standing for this”, and the League swung its big axe.  Chapman was simply standing in the wings watching, and got caught up in the chopping motion.

But Chapman was known not just as a football manager but beyond football as a man of some standing in making businesses work through being an excellent organiser and he was snapped up as the manager (Superintendent of Labour to be exact) of Olympia Oil and Cake Works in Selby.  The thinking seemed to be that if he could organise something as unmanageable as a football club (as he had done at Northampton Town and then at Leeds City) he could certainly organise a “normal” company

Chapman worked outside of football after the war for just a year until in 1920 his employer put his company up for sale and Chapman lost his job.   He was living close to Huddersfield where the local club were looking for a new manager… but of course Chapman was banned from football.  He put in an appeal stating the obvious – that he had had no idea of what was going on financially at Leeds City, and this seemingly was immediately accepted.  He was back in the game.

Huddersfield Town at the time had a new ground which could hold 30,000 but were often getting very modest crowds of around 5,000 and so the plan was hatched to amalgamate Huddersfield Town with Leeds United, who had taken over the place of Leeds City (effectively being much the same club as the disbanded City but without a few of the banned directors).

However the view of the League was that it was a good idea to have a thriving club in each of Leeds and Huddersfield, and they really didn’t want yet more controversy around the Leeds club.  So that idea got nowhere.

In the first season following the resumption of football in September 1919, was a triumph for Chapman as Huddersfield Town came second in Division II and got promoted, along with the league winners, Tottenham.  In Division I Arsenal under Knighton came tenth, which sounds ok, but in reality, they were only six points above relegation.  (The newly constituted Leeds United were also elected to the League and so would play in Division II in 1920/21.)

But Huddersfield did suffer from a lack of local interest, as the size of their crowds (even though they had just won promotion) was only 11,000.  And to add to their woes, having started the season well winning five of their first six games, suddenly everything went wrong and they won just one of their next 19 league games.

By 12 March 1921 they were 18th in a league of 22 clubs with the bottom two going down, which more than likely would also mean their financial demise and more bad news in terms of the image of stability that the Football League was trying to promote.

The FA were approached; they quickly set Chapman’s ban from football aside on the rather obvious grounds that Chapman had not actually been working for Leeds City when the supposed offences took place.   Then probably seeing the way the wind was blowing Huddersifled’s manager resigned and Chapman took over and made a couple of new signings. The final ten games of the season, under Champman, saw Huddersfield win seven, draw one and lose two matches.

They ended the season in 17th, 13 points clear of relegated Derby County.  Chapman had saved the club from relegation and could ask for what he wanted.   What he wanted was total control over the playing side of the club and so that is what he was granted.  He also convinced the board to sign a centre forward who could play the counter-attacking game despite so many clubs now effectively stopping counter-attacks by pushing their defensive line forward almost to the halfway line.

With crowds on the up in the following season, Chapman persuaded the board to buy his requested new forward at a near-record price and to upgrade the players’ (and journalists’) facilities.

Then, having spent money on players, Chapman also transformed Huddersfield Town, taking the club to play in Europe in the summer, forming a youth side to feed into the reserve team, changing the players’ eating habits and on occasion selling players to rival clubs for a huge profit.  For although league results declined with the club now in Division I, the club reached the FA Cup final for the first time, and thus interest boomed.  So in 1922, Huddersfield, a club founded only 14 years before, won the FA Cup while Arsenal formed in 1886, were holding their breath until a couple of games before the end of the season, trusting that they would not be relegated.

In 1923 Arsenal improved and came in 11th, but then Huddersfield also improved and came in third, on a fraction of the resources that Arsenal had.  But in 1924 things got worse from the Arsenal viewpoint as Huddersfield, playing in the early part of the season in front of very modest crowds indeed, won the league for the first time.  Arsenal came in 19th missing relegation by one point.   

In 1925, Huddersfield finished top for the second year running while Arsenal came in 20th and for the second season running just missed relegation (the 21st and 22nd club going down).

Worse than this, and the fact that Huddersfield was in essence, a small-town club surviving on small crowds, Huddersfield were picking up trophies after just 14 years in business.   Arsenal were not getting trophies, despite much bigger crowds, and were in fact going backwards.

It was however true that Chapman’s team was not especially attractive to watch.  They were never the top-scoring team in the league, as Chapman believed in building a solid defence to begin with, and while they were winning the league, they were often being watched by crowds of 10,000, Arsenal were attracting twice that number and struggling near the foot of the table.

Meanwhile Chapman was also developing a reputation for getting the man he wanted at a lower price than was expected, when it came to transfers, often seemingly going to meet his opposite numbers at other clubs and arguing about the possibility of buying one player, failing to agree a price, calling a halt to the discussion and then as if by an afterthought asking about the player he really wanted – and then getting the deal.

As for Arsenal, they were clearly failing to make progress up the league, and indeed looking as if they might be relegated back to the second division, as their attendance figures started to drop.  True, they were still above Huddersfield’s crowd figures – the average attendance in their first title-winning season was just 17,100 – below that of Arsenal lingering near the foot of the table.  Indeed the following season with Huddersfield being defending champions crowd figures got even worse – down to 10,000 for the home game against Leeds, with Huddersfield being in contention for winning the league for a second time.

Two obvious points emerged from this.  For Chapman, it was clear that he was not going to be able to go on buying in the players he wanted with this low level of support at Huddersfield Town.  While for Arsenal it was obvious that Knighton could spend money on players but the club was still on a downward trajectory.

There was discontent both at Arsenal and at Huddersfield.