Albert Leslie Knighton (15 March 1887 – 10 May 1959) was an English
football manager. He managed
Arsenal,
Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
,
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
and
Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...
.
Management career
Knighton was born in
Church Gresley
Church Gresley is a large village and former civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England. The village is situated between Castle Gresley and the town of Swadlincote, with which it is contiguous. By the time of the 2011 ...
,
Swadlincote,
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
. His own playing career was cut short by injury, after which he moved into coaching and management. He first had spells as an assistant manager at
Manchester City (1909–12) and
Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...
(1912–19) – and was briefly
caretaker manager of the latter in 1912. In 1919 Knighton was appointed secretary-manager of
Arsenal, shortly after the club had been promoted to the
First Division.
He oversaw the club for six years, but Arsenal never finished higher than mid-table, their best finish during his tenure being ninth in
1920-21.
Neither did Arsenal do well in the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
under Knighton - in only one season,
1921-22, did Arsenal get beyond the second round of the competition, eventually losing to
Preston North End in a quarter-final replay.
During his time at Arsenal, Knighton had numerous fallings-out with Arsenal chairman
Sir Henry Norris; Norris put a strict cap of £1,000 on
transfer fees and refused to sign any player under 5'8" tall or eleven
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
.
When Knighton signed the 5' tall Hugh "Midget" Moffatt from
Workington
Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207.
Locat ...
in 1923, Norris was furious when he found out; he overruled his manager and promptly sold the player to
Luton Town
Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...
before he'd played a League game. To get round Norris's rules, Knighton used his guile to sign some unusual transfers, such as the amateurs
Reg Boreham and
Jimmy Paterson - the latter was the Arsenal club doctor's brother-in-law, and went on to play nearly 80 games for Arsenal.
Despite Norris's interfering, Knighton, thanks to an informal scouting system of his friends and former colleagues in the North, signed several high-quality players for Arsenal; these included
Bob John
Robert Frederick John (3 February 1899 – 17 July 1982) was a Welsh football player and coach.
Born in Barry, John played for Barry Town and Caerphilly, before joining English club Arsenal, who signed him, against stiff competition, in Jan ...
,
Jimmy Brain and
Alf Baker, all of whom would be part of Arsenal's trophy-winning side of the early 1930s. However, he could never knit together a solid winning side and Arsenal's performances gradually declined towards the end of his tenure; they finished 19th in
1923-24 and 20th in
1924-25.
During his final season at Arsenal, Knighton was involved in one of the first recorded cases of
doping; before a January 1925 FA Cup first round tie against
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
, Knighton gave the players what he described as "little silver pills", given to him by a
Harley Street doctor
Doctor or The Doctor may refer to:
Personal titles
* Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree
* A medical practitioner, including:
** Physician
** Surgeon
** Dentist
** Veterinary physician
** Optometrist
*Other roles
** ...
who was a fan of the club; although the pills were successful in increasing the players' energy, the side-effects caused them to have raging thirst. Arsenal drew the match 0-0 and before the replay they rebelled and refused to take them; Arsenal eventually lost 1-0 in the second replay after the first finished 2-2.
Knighton's activities, entirely legal under the rules at the time, were not made public until he recounted the episode in his memoirs.
Norris dismissed Knighton in the summer of 1925 and replaced him with
Herbert Chapman
Herbert Chapman (19 January 1878 – 6 January 1934) was an English football player and manager. Though he had an undistinguished playing career, he went on to become one of the most influential and successful managers in the early 20th ...
. Knighton later alleged that Norris has only sacked him to avoid paying him a bonus (estimated at up to £4,000) from a benefit match that he was due. Norris denied this and instead cited Arsenal's poor record that season (having finished 20th and knocked out of the FA Cup first round), but later regretted his dismissal, stating it was the one mistake in his career
[Soar & Tyler (2005), p.46] and in his will left Knighton £100.
After leaving the Gunners, Knighton went on to manage
Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic (1925–28),
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
(1928–33), whom he led to the
1931 FA Cup Final
The 1931 FA Cup Final was a football match between West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham, played on 25 April 1931 at the original Wembley Stadium in London. The showpiece event was the final match of the 1930–31 staging of English football's pri ...
,
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
(1933–39) taking over from the long serving
David Calderhead
David Calderhead (19 June 1864 – 9 January 1938) was a Scottish football player and manager. Calderhead played for Queen of the South Wanderers, Notts County and Lincoln City. He won the FA Cup with Notts County in 1894 and was capped once ...
, and
Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...
(1945–48), before their election to
the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
. Knighton retired to
Bournemouth after suffering ill health and took on the less pressurised job of a golf club secretary, during which he found time to write an autobiography, ''Behind the Scenes in Big Football'' (1948). He died in 1959, aged 72.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knighton, Leslie
1880s births
1959 deaths
English football managers
People from Church Gresley
Sportspeople from Derbyshire
Huddersfield Town A.F.C. managers
Arsenal F.C. managers
AFC Bournemouth managers
Birmingham City F.C. managers
Chelsea F.C. managers
Shrewsbury Town F.C. managers
Manchester City F.C. non-playing staff