A forgotten part of Manchester United's history

[rondwisan]

A forgotten part of Manchester United's history
United front that led to footballers' riches
The Guardian, Wednesday 21 October 2009


The Manchester United players sacked in 1909 for refusing to resign from the players' union. Photograph: Russell Hart/PFA

Two middle-aged men sitting on the train to Bolton are discussing Premier League wages. "£100,000 a week," one of them says slowly, shaking his head. His mate nods: "You'd want to see teams win 9-8 every week for that!" The youth in the Manchester United shirt in the seat opposite doesn't react. This is the world of football as he has always known it – rich beyond compare and a long way from its origins.

Perhaps those three should get off at Salford Crescent station and walk up to the Working Class Movement Library. A small display there, curated by library manager Lynette Cawthra, shines a light on a forgotten part of Man U's history.

The first meeting of the Association Football Players Union in 1907 was chaired by United player Billy Meredith – the "Welsh Wizard", who was one of the first footballing superstars. The union campaigned against FA rules such as the £4 ceiling on wages and the lack of compensation for injured players.

In 1909, the FA withdrew its recognition of the union because it didn't like its authority questioned; players were ordered to resign from the union or have their registration cancelled. Many players did resign, but not all. Heroically, the whole of the Manchester United team refused.

At times, this amazing tale reads like a film script. Charlie Roberts, a local hero and team captain, reputedly heard that they'd all been suspended via a report in the local paper; he and the rest of the team went to the club's offices to have it out with the management, but found only a hapless office boy in charge.

In Behind the Glory, his splendid book about the history of the Professional Footballers' Association, John Harding takes up the story quoting a contemporary account. "Well, something will have to be done," said Sandy Turnbull [ace goalscorer] as he took a picture off the wall and walked off with it under his arm. The rest of the boys followed suit, and looking glasses, hairbrushes and several other things were for sale a few minutes later at a little hostelry at the corner of the ground . . ."

The players, despite being suspended by the club, continued to train locally. One afternoon, a photographer turned up to take a picture. Roberts, never one to miss an opportunity, made a sign that said "The Outcasts FC".

The team now gaze steadily out at you from that photograph in the front room of the Salford library, as reminders of their struggle that leads in a direct line to the bulging wallets of today's players and the structure of football as we know it. As Roberts said: "Try to remember that union is strength, and without it you can do nothing."

But let Meredith have the last, prescient word: "The unfortunate thing is that so many players refuse to take things seriously but are content to live a kind of schoolboy life and to do just what they are told . . . instead of thinking and acting for himself and his class . . . "

[Ridwanox]

kok pakai bahasa inggris sih artikel, bikin gak bisa baca, gak paham makasudnya

[rondwisan]

The Story Of When Manchester United Called Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium Home
June 27, 2013 by Matt Jones, worldsoccertalk.com



What comes to mind when someone mentions Anfield? For the majority, it’s the sight of 45,000 Liverpool supporters with their scarves aloft, bellowing out ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.” The stadium is a symbolic venue, exclusively associated with one of English football’s most decorated and illustrious sides.

But looking back through the vast annals of football history, the stadium has not been exclusively home to Liverpool Football Club. The England national team have played there on multiple occasions. The most recent England match was played in 2006 when the Three Lions fought Uruguay in a friendly game. Competitive internationals have been also been staged, with David Beckham inspiring the side to victory in a EURO 2002 qualifier against Finland back in 2001 the most modern example.

These occasional visits by the England side are well documented, but aside from Liverpool, there are two club sides that have also used Anfield as their home ground in years passed. And you might be surprised by who. Yes, Everton and Man United.

Years on from the days when Everton used to call Anfield home, and long after Liverpool had their name above the front door, another of The Reds bitter rivals utilized Anfield as their home ground.

At the inception of the 1971 league season, a team donning red and white strode out onto the pitch, soaking up the coveted adulation of the famous old ground. Nothing new there, right? Well, quite remarkably, that team was Manchester United.

This curious situation came to be as the Manchester club had been banned from playing their opening two games of the season at Old Trafford. This was following an unsavory incident that saw some of the home supporters chucking knives into the away end.

Having already agreed to play the second of their two home games at Stoke City’s Victoria Park, the Merseyside outfit offered their patch for United’s season opener against Arsenal. Former United manager Frank O’Farrell told The Guardian that Liverpool seemed especially keen to help out their Lancashire rivals:

“I had people really wanting to help and Bill Shankly and Liverpool were really helpful. I’d like to stress that — they said, ‘’We’d like you to play the Arsenal game at Anfield’.”

And so it was. United welcomed Arsenal to Anfield for the first home game of the 1971-72 season in what has become known to many as the ‘forgotten game’. According to match reports the attendance was 27,649, a figure around half of what the usual capacity would be for a Liverpool game in those days. In a BBC feature about the match back in 2011, legendary Liverpool PA announcer Peter Sephton recalled some memories from the day:

“I can still see a half empty ground. It was spooky. I couldn’t swear on the bible but I’m almost certain I didn’t play ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. It was weird because Anfield felt like a neutral ground.”

Despite Liverpool’s intentions to host the game being admirable, as you might expect, the game was marred by violence from both sets of supporters, as traveling United supporters clashed with Liverpool hooligans. The Sportsmail reported that ‘thousands stormed the pitch and ran between the players warming up for the match.’

What was the score? As O’Farrell put it himself: ’We won, of course. George (Best) was playing out of his skin. We were top of the league at Christmas.’ Bobby Charlton and Brian Kidd also found the net for United that day in a 3-1 win.

Whilst many of the younger United supporters might initially deny the very notion that their team once relied on their fiercest rivals for a favor of such magnitude, it is easy to see why this is often refferred to as the “forgotten game”. The third United goalscorer that day, Alan Gowling, had this to say when asked about the game by The Guardian’s Greg Roughly:

“United played a home match at Anfield? Give over! Was I playing?”

[fajrinited]

Ini pertanyaan ternyata yg mendasari soal di trivia berantai ya Oppaa....

[rondwisan]

Eehhh ..., Cah .., coba ya itu merangkai kata2 untuk membuat kalimatnya diperhatikan #eehh

[utdMaleoLuwuk]

wah keren nih artikelnya....hmmmm cuman bahasa inggris aku 5 waktu sekolah kemaren mungkin om momod @rondwisan; bisa bantu translate ke bahasa indonesia yang garis2 besarnya aja nggak apa2...hehehhehe

[rondwisan]

Jiaahhh ..., bisa aja nih Mas Bro

Yah klo yg artikel pertama tuh, mengenai pemain2 United yg mempelopori asosiasi pemain gitu Oom ...

Artikel kedua, United yg memutuskan memenuhi undangan LFC untuk memakai Anfield sbg home, saat melakoni tanding hukuman

[rondwisan]

theguardian.com, Simon Burnton - 28 November 2012
The forgotten story of ... Albert Pape

You think the Andy Cole and Eric Cantona transfers were a shock? In 1925 Albert Pape caused outrage by joining Manchester United a few hours before he was due to play them


Call that dramatic? Andy Cole's surprising transfer to Manchester United was nothing compared to when Albert Pape joined the club in 1925. Photograph: David Kendall/PA Archive/Press Association Ima


Manchester United have often exhibited in their transfer dealings a talent not just for spotting a smart signing but for choosing dramatic timing. Few will forget the swoop for Newcastle's Andy Cole that brought bemused Geordies to the doors of St James' Park in search of an explanation, or the sudden arrival of Eric Cantona from Leeds United that preceded their ascent from impressively large club to masters of remorseless trophy-accumulation. What's more, from Dwight Yorke to Robin van Persie they have delighted in identifying the best players of their key rivals, and then hungrily snaffled them up.

Albert Pape sits uncomfortably in this company, but though his career was considerably less stellar than many who have followed him in the role of centre-forward at Old Trafford, his transfer – described by one newspaper at the time as "one of the greatest transfer hustles of all time" and still worthy of the phrase – was surely the most unusual of them all. It was unique because, on the day in February 1925 that Pape travelled to Manchester for what was to be his United debut, he was expecting to play against them, for Clapton – now Leyton – Orient. Paperwork on the deal was completed minutes before kick-off, and he simply walked into a dressing-room full of strangers, pulled on his new shirt, and proceeded to score against a goalkeeper whom he had considered a colleague that very morning.

Although mass communication was not what it is today, word of the bizarre coup spread around Manchester on the day of the match, sending thousands of people streaming towards Old Trafford. The fact that many would barely have heard of the man they were welcoming apparently did nothing to detract from their delight in the dramatic circumstances of his arrival. The game kicked off with no more than 18,000 people inside the ground, but by the time the teams changed ends the crowd had swelled to 25,000 and was still growing.

It was a level of attention that would have been totally foreign to a 27-year-old of humble origins and modest achievements. Born in Elsecar, the small town near Barnsley which had already produced the double FA Cup-winner George Utley, he played before the war for Wath Athletic and after it for Bolton-on-Dearne before signing for Rotherham County in 1919. This would come to be remembered as the finest part of his career, and he plundered 40 goals in 113 appearances over four seasons before moving to Notts County. He failed to make any kind of impact there, staying for a single year, playing only six times and scoring twice before he was on the move again, this time to Orient.

His rise from obscurity was as swift as his return would be a few months later. In his second game for his new side he scored four in a 5-1 home win over Oldham Athletic, perhaps the performance that first alerted more exalted clubs to his existence. He retained his place in Orient's side until the new year, though without such eye-catching results, before the club, desperate for funds, placed 14 of their most popular players on the transfer list.

As it happened, the Manchester United manager, John Chapman, was searching for a forward after the controversial sale of the prolific Willie Henderson to Preston, and himself becoming desperate. United were challenging for promotion from the Second Division, but were making such an unconvincing fist of it that many fans thought they were deliberately attempting to remain in the lower league, where compared with the top flight their costs were lower but attendances almost as high.

In the first full week of February Chapman travelled around the north of England seeking a signing, but repeatedly found himself frustrated. "In two cases the clubs approached absolutely refused to consider anything less than £5,000 (around £250,000 in today's money) for the player required," wrote the Manchester Football Chronicle. "For three days Mr Chapman had tapped source after source without result," wrote the Manchester Football News (the city enjoyed two remarkably similarly-named but entirely independent weekly sports newspapers at the time). "And 24 hours before the kick-off the directors sat down and selected a team which placed Joe Spence [a winger, and the star of the team] at centre forward and Harry Thomas [the Welsh outside left] at outside right. However, before the meeting closed the name of Pape was mentioned."

Pape was a big, burly centre-forward who was far from graceful but nevertheless effective on his day. "In the scientific sense he may not be a footballer," the Manchester Guardian once wrote, "but he gets goals." Contact was made by telephone with Orient's directors, who were amenable to a deal and swiftly agreed a fee of £1,070. The players were booked on to the morning train to Manchester, and Chapman was told to be at Piccadilly Station to meet them.

The train arrived a little after noon. Pape, who had family in Bolton, readily agreed to the move and he, Chapman and the paperwork decamped to Manchester's General Post Office, where details were wired through to the Football Association and the Football League at 1.30pm. The deal was confirmed with barely an hour to spare. "When the teams turned out, just before three o'clock, Pape found himself playing against the men he had travelled from London with," wrote the Chronicle, "a circumstance he would not have dreamed of, or his old colleagues, an hour or two earlier."

Although he could have been excused for feeling a little bemused by the day's events, in fact Pape produced one of his best performances for United. Three minutes before half-time he put his side 3-1 up, and late in the game he rattled a post with a header. United won the game 4-2. "The goal was exceedingly well-got, for when the ball came to him he had his back to [the Orient goalkeeper, Harry] Wood and was promptly challenged," wrote the Chronicle. "Pape, without performing any great things, had made quite a promising start for his new club. The whole United team had played with much impressive dash."

Despite the sudden departure of their centre-forward Orient attacked impressively, and became the only away side to score twice at Old Trafford all season (United conceded only six goals at home, in 21 matches). The key beneficiary of Pape's move was the Scottish forward Charlie Rennox, who was not expected to play but at the last minute was thrust into the team at outside right. He must have done something right, because a week later United bought him as well.

Though admirable for its sheer chutzpah, Pape's transfer was far from universally popular. The Manchester Football News admitted that "perhaps such quick transfers on the eve of a match are not in the best interests of the sport", but concluded that "in this instance it was a case of a serious disease needing a drastic remedy". Elsewhere, though, less charitable conclusions were drawn. The Derby Daily Telegraph complained that it proved the existing system "gives too much power to the clubs with the money bags". "The lightning transfer has raised a storm of protest from the football writers and countless thousands of enthusiasts," they wrote. "Never before has such an outcry been raised against the transfer system. Even huge fees pall before this exploitation of a system which was unpopular before, and is still more hated now."

Later that week Stacy Aumonier, a celebrated writer of short stories, contributed an astonishing article to the London Evening Standard. It was remarkable mainly because, with the exchange only of a couple of proper nouns, it could be reprinted in its entirety today and still seem relevant.

"Football has now developed into a degrading commercial spectacle," he huffed. "Players requiring no birth or residential qualification are bought over the counter like sacks of beans. If the richest club fails to come out top of the league it must be that the directors are bad business men. There is nothing else to it.

"It is a most astonishing mystery why 40,000 people should collect on a football ground in London and shout themselves hoarse with enthusiasm for a team which labels itself Chelsea, or Arsenal, or West Ham, or Fulham, when everyone knows that these teams are almost exclusively made up of Scotchmen or Lancastrians, who have never been to Fulham or West Ham, never heard of Woolwich, never eaten a Chelsea bun! They might just as well label themselves Hampstead, or Honolulu. Where is the esprit de corps, the tribal sense, the love of one's soil, which is the very essence of sport?

"The whole game is riddled with corruption and the worst kind of shoddy commercialism, because it has ceased to be a sport, and remains only a spectacle."

As for Pape, the honeymoon was short-lived – after his second game, a 2-1 defeat at Crystal Palace, the Football News reported that "certain critics" had "described him as a 'passenger'". "Looking back over the game, I would not vote him as the worst Manchester forward," they wrote, a delightful example of damnation with faint praise. He kept his place in the side for the remainder of the season, which ended with United winning promotion as runners-up to Leicester City. But according to Justin Blundell in his book Back from the Brink, Pape arrived for the following season looking "like he had spent the summer on the eat-all-you-can buffet circuit". He made only two top-flight appearances before being sold to Fulham in October.

There was a curious coda to come for Pape. For incredible as it seems that a footballer would ever set out for a match alongside those he trained with every day only to reach his destination, line up against them and score, it was something that this one did twice.

Having settled in the north, Pape agreed to sign for Fulham only on the condition that he could remain in his new family home. It was eventually agreed that he would train every day with his old colleagues from Old Trafford, and commute to London for matches. The following March, Fulham and United were drawn together in the sixth round of the FA Cup. Once again Pape boarded a train between London and Manchester with team-mates he was bound to oppose. This time he scored the equaliser as a defensive and deeply fortunate United side escaped with a 2-1 win.

For Pape there followed an itinerant life as "one of football's rolling stones", as one newspaper put it, trundling around the lower- and non-league clubs of the north of England. He would never again come close to the drama of this transfer. And as for Manchester United, well, they're still trying.