HERBERT CHAPMAN

Despite a modest playing career as an inside-forward, Herbert Chapman's achivements during his managerial career in England rank him as one of the greatest coaches of all time. A tactical genuis whose innovations were well ahead of his time, he built two of the finest club sides that the English league has ever seen and introduced the game to such ideas as numbered shirts and floodlights.

After spending several years moving around clubs in amateur football and a short spell in the Football League with Grimsby Town, he played for Sheppey United and Worksop Town before moving to Northampton Town in the Southern League. Chapman went on to play in the Football League again with Sheffield United and Notts County as well as returning to the Southern League to play for Tottenham Hotspur, but never achieved any real success. In 1907, the directors of Northampton recognised that he would make a good coach and invited him back to become player-manager.

Successful as a manager in the Southern League with Northampton, Chapman's big break into Football League management came in 1912 when he joined Second Division side Leeds City. He came close to taking Leeds into the top division for the first time, but his time at the club turned sour in 1919 when he was alleged to have been involved in illegal payments that hade been made at the club and Leeds City were closed down by the F.A.

Chapman was suspended, but appealed on the grounds that the offences had taken place while he was away from the club during the First World War. His appeal proving successful, he took over at Huddersfield Town in 1920 and led the unfashionable club to F.A. Cup success two years later. In 1924 Chapman led Huddersfield to their first league title, and they held on to the crown the following season, but in the summer of 1925 he stunned the club by leaving to take over as manager of lowly Arsenal.

Arsenal had nearly been relegated in 1925, but under Chapman finished second in 1926, behind only Huddersfield. While at Arsenal, Chapman revolutionised tactics in the wake of changes to the offside law, inventing the 3-2-5 formation that would become almost universal in the game for several decades. During his time at Arsenal the club won the F.A. Cup in 1930 and their first league title a year later, before winning the league for a second time in 1933. In January 1934, with Arsenal heading towards another title, Chapman died suddenly from pneumonia aged only 55, but his team went on to match Huddersfield's achievement of three league titles in a row in 1935 and seal their former manager's place in history.