Herbert Chapman
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Herbert Chapman (January 19, 1878 - January 6, 1934) was an English association football player and manager, born in Sheffield. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential managers in English football history.
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Playing Career
Chapman started in non-league football, before turning professional in 1901 with Northampton Town. He played for a series of clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, in an unremarkable career. He returned to Northampton as player-manager in 1907, and led the club to a Southern League title in 1909.
Managerial Career
Leeds City
In 1912 he joined Leeds City as secretary. He successfully lobbied for the side's re-admission to the Football League. However, during World War I Leeds were involved in a series of financial irregularities, involving payments to 'guest' players during wartime matches, that resulted in the dissolution of the club in 1919 and several of its officals being banned from football for life. Chapman escaped a ban after appealing, claiming he had not been in direct control of the club (having quit to take charge of a munitions factory as part of the war effort) at the time.
Huddersfield Town
Chapman spent a brief spell as manager of a coking plant in Selby before returning to football, joining Huddersfield Town in September 1920 as club secretary, becoming full manager the following March. Between 1920 and 1925, Chapman led the most successful period in Huddersfield's history, winning the 1921 FA Cup, and the Football League in 1924 and 1925. After his departure for Arsenal, the team he had formed went on to win the 1926 championship as well, an unprecedented 'three in a row'.
Arsenal
After joining Arsenal in 1925, Chapman implemented a strategy, developed by player Charlie Buchan, that ruthlessly exploited a June 1925 change to the offside law. The change had reduced the number of opposition players that an attacker needed between himself and the goal-line from three to two. Buchan's idea was to move the centre half from a roaming position in midfield to a 'stopper' position defence (with one forward brought back into midfield, this changed the usual formation from 2-3-5 to 3-3-4). This meant the offside trap was no longer the responsibility of the two full-backs, but the single central defender, while the full backs were pushed wider to cover the wings.
Success was not immediate, but Chapman persevered. He combined his revolutionary change in tactics with signing some of the biggest stars in British football, including Cliff Bastin, David Jack, Alex James and Eddie Hapgood. Chapman won the 1930 FA Cup (beating his old side, Huddersfield), and the League in 1931 and 1933, making Arsenal the first team from the south of England to win the League.
Chapman died suddenly in January 1934 of pneumonia, at the age of 55. By then, he had made Arsenal the dominant side in England, and the team went on to win a third successive title that year and the following one, to become the second side to win three League titles in a row. No team was to repeat the feat until Liverpool in 1982-4.
Legacy
He was one of the first football managers in the modern sense of the word, taking full charge of the team, rather than letting board members pick the side. As well as his tactical innovations, Chapman was also a pioneer of physical fitness in football - he instituted a strict training regime and the use of physiotherapists. His innovative ideas spread beyond the training pitch. He was an early advocate of floodlights, white footballs and numbered shirts among many others, as well as reputedly being the driving force behind the renaming of London Underground's Gillespie Road station to Arsenal. He is buried at Hendon Parish Church, north London.
| Preceded by: Leslie Knighton | Arsenal F.C. Manager 1925–1934 | Succeeded by: George Allison External links
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