Frank E. Brettell (1862–1936) was an English
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
player
Player may refer to:
Role or adjective
* Player (game), a participant in a game or sport
** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games
** Athlete, a player in sports
** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...
,
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
and administrator.
He played as a
full-back for
Everton, a club that was originally called
St. Domingo's. He combined his role as player-secretary-manager with his full-time job as a reporter for the ''
Liverpool Mercury
The ''Liverpool Mercury'' was an English newspaper that originated in Liverpool, England. As well as focusing on local news, the paper also reported on both national and international news allowing it to circulate in Lancashire, Wales, Isle of Man ...
''. He became secretary of
Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...
in 1896 and remained there for two years before moving to London to join
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
as their first manager. He then accepted a more lucrative offer to join
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
and guided them to a second-place finish in their first season in the
Southern League. He accepted an offer to join
Plymouth Argyle
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...
in 1903 and helped establish the club in the professional game. The job was to be his last as a manager and he retired from football altogether a year later.
Football career
Brettell began his football career with a local club St. Domingo. He initially played as
centre- or
inside-forward
Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...
for the club, and later due to injuries as
half-back and even on goal.
He combined his playing duties with a role as secretary-manager of the team in 1875.
[Frank Brettell](_blank)
Greens on Screen. Retrieved 25 February 2010. The club was reformed as
Everton in 1879 with Brettell as a member of the committee during the club's first year. After his playing career ended, he continued as a full-time reporter for local newspaper the ''
Liverpool Mercury
The ''Liverpool Mercury'' was an English newspaper that originated in Liverpool, England. As well as focusing on local news, the paper also reported on both national and international news allowing it to circulate in Lancashire, Wales, Isle of Man ...
''.
He joined
Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...
in 1896, again as secretary-manager. Two years later in February 1898, he was appointed manager of
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
, and took up the post on 14 March 1898 soon after the club had been converted into a
Public limited company
A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company ...
.
He signed a number of players from Bolton Wanderers and other northern clubs, including
John Cameron from
Everton who took over as manager of Spurs after Bretell left. His stay as the club's manager was relatively brief; he resigned in February 1899 to join
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
after they offered him substantially more money to take the job.
His first season in charge was also Portsmouth's first in the
Southern League and adapted to their new surroundings well, finishing
fourth in the league table. He left the club in June 1901 by "mutual agreement"; according to ''Football Chat'' "a detailed explanation
ould serveno good purpose". "Let it suffice that the directors could not agree with him on certain rather important matters, and a mutual agreement was arrived at by which he consented to resign".
It would be another two years before he took up his final managerial role when Brettell was invited to build a professional team for
Plymouth Argyle
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...
in 1903, an offer which he accepted.
Having been able to call upon twenty-eight years of experience as a football administrator and manager, he succeeded in his task and led the club into the Southern League for the
1903–04 season. He used his extensive network of contacts to bring a number of experienced professionals to
Home Park
Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901. , including;
Andy Clark
Andy Clark, (born 1957) is a British philosopher who is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex. Prior to this, he was at professor of philosophy and Chair in Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotl ...
,
Jack Fitchett,
Bob Jack,
Billy Leech and
Jack Peddie
John Hope Peddie, commonly known as Jack or Jock Peddie, (3 March 1876 – 20 October 1928) was a Scottish footballer who played for various clubs in both England and Scotland, including Newcastle United, Manchester United, Plymouth Argyle a ...
. He led the club to creditable ninth- and fourth-place finishes in the Southern League, as well as winning the
Western League in 1905.
Argyle History
Greens on Screen. Retrieved 25 February 2010. Brettell left the club at the end of his second season in charge and wouldn't manage a professional team again, but his place in English football
Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...
history was assured.
Later life
It is believed that he retired altogether the following year, but only a little more is known about him.
He was the son of William Brettell, foreman at a nut and bolt works, and Charlotte Burgess. He moved to the Liverpool area with his parents in the 1860s, became a school teacher in the 1880s and 1890s, marrying Lavinia Isabel Spearman in 1882, with whom he had 10 children. After his professional career in football finished he continued to live in Plymouth, working as a clerk to a carrier firm in 1911. He died in Dartford, Kent, in 1936 aged 74.
References
;General
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;Specific
External links
Soccerbase Statistics
Plymouth Argyle Managers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brettell, Frank
Sportspeople from Smethwick
English footballers
Association football fullbacks
Everton F.C. players
English football managers
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. managers
Portsmouth F.C. managers
Plymouth Argyle F.C. managers
English Football League managers
1862 births
1936 deaths