3 Great Football Leaders

In football, a great leader is what separates the winners from the losers and distinguishes the innovators from the imitators. Below are three leading figures from the football world that should take some of the credit for helping to make the game what it is today.

Herbert Chapman

Though he led a relatively short life, dying at the age of 55, and had a fairly unremarkable playing career as an inside forward there is no doubt that, as a football manager, Herbert Chapman was one of the greatest leaders the game has ever seen.

He took charge of Huddersfield Town in 1921 and managed them during their golden age as he led them to the first two of the three First Division titles they have ever won and presided over their only FA Cup win as they beat Preston North End in the 1922 final. In 1925 the promise of larger crowds and a doubling of his wages tempted him south to, the then trophyless and relegation threatened, Arsenal. At Highbury he became the pioneer of Arsenal’s famous offside trap and his first trophy with the Gunners came in the 1930 FA Cup final when they beat his old Huddersfield team 2-0. He then went on to win the First Division title with Arsenal in 1930-31 and 1932-33 and may have gone on to oversee more success but for dying from pneumonia in 1934.

And he goes down as one of the great leaders in the game as, his successes aside, he was the first ever modern football manager, taking sole responsibility for team affairs and he was responsible for introducing physiotherapists and masseurs into the training regime. He was a pioneer in the use of floodlights at football grounds and of European football, taking his teams on regular European tours and proposing a Europe-wide football competition 20 years before the first ever European Cup tournament.

Bill Shankly

Bill Shankly is another of those unexceptional players that went on to become an inspirational manager. After managerial stints at Carlisle, Grimsby, Workington, and Huddersfield, Shankly eventually took charge of an ailing Liverpool team in 1959 and laid the foundations for what was to become England’s most successful football team.

Upon taking control at Anfield he released 24 players and took on three coaching staff two of whom, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan, would eventually graduate to first team manager. He also introduced fitness and skills training, small-sided games and dietary assessment into his players’ routines and insisted that they warm down correctly to stay free from injury.

After taking a team from relative obscurity he guided Liverpool to three First Division titles, two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup and was arguably the first manager to use the media to his advantage, always ready for journalists with quotes and quips that are still remembered to this day.

Jimmy Hill

Jimmy Hill was neither particularly distinguished as a player or a manager but has been one of the game’s most influential figures in a career that has seen him take up almost every post in football from union leader to match official. His innovative leadership style began during his reign as manager of Coventry City where he introduced the first proper football programme and pre-match entertainment in an attempt to get spectators into the ground early.

After leaving Coventry City then moved into broadcasting and whilst at London Weekend Television he fronted their coverage of the 1970 World Cup and introduced the first panel of football pundits that is now standard part of televised coverage.

He then returned to Coventry City as a director and was one of the pioneers of shirt sponsorship, announcing the club’s first sponsorship deal as local car manufacturer Talbot had their name emblazoned upon the team’s sky blue shirts. As the team had to wear shirts without their sponsors logo visible for games televised on the BBC, Hill sought to overcome this by commissioning a shirt with a massive ‘T’ incorporated into the design and then also tried to change the team’s name to Coventry Talbot.

But both ideas were rejected by the FA and it wasn’t until 1983/84 season that clubs could display shirt sponsors in televised games.

But Hill’s most lasting legacies are arguably his successful campaign, when chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association, to have the Football League’s £20 maximum wage abolished, his recommendation to introduce three points for a win to promote more attacking football and his commissioning of the first all-seater stadium whilst at Coventry City.

A true innovator and leader within the game.

Article written by Les Roberts, Sunday league football captain and writer at Moneysupermarket.com.